Top Sixteen Adventures of 2016

(Next year's list is "Top Seventeen Adventures of 2017", obviously.  2038 will get rather tiresome, I suspect, provided I'm still writing this blog by then!)

God has blessed me so much this year, and I've been able to participate in and see so many amazing sights and wonders.  If you're new to this blog and want to catch up on the most relevant parts of this blog, read on.  If you are an old reader of this blog, read on to see what I've ranked as what.  If you went on one of these trips with me, thanks for putting up with all my nonsense and for going along with me, because that really made my days.  If you've never been on a trip with me, sign ups are in the comments section below:)

By the way, I do know that we have a month to go, but I doubt I'll see anything in December that will be put on this list. December is such a busy month that I'm not likely to be able to do anything during it.  If I do have a surprisingly amazing adventure, it will be on next year's list.

16.  Electroshocking- Honestly, getting to go out and do this was great.  I caught more fish in this one outing than I ever have in my entire life, and I got to do it as part of a wonderful class.

15.  Being detained as a terrorist -This is one of my favorite stories to tell people, as an introduction to my life.  It probably shouldn't be, but it was quite exciting, even if that title is basically the punchline of the story.  Additionally, I got to hang out with my brother, something which I'm growing to appreciate a little bit more each year.  He actually took the photo above.



14.  Exploring Carpenter Park with Dan and Jesse-  There were so many toads, a few lifer plants, and just great times with great friends.

13.  Twenty-Three Smallmouth Salamanders in Lick Creek Wildlife Area - What's better than a Smallmouth Salamander?  How about finding twenty-three of them in about an hour of searching?

12. The Great Northern Expedition- If you can't tell, I have some of my best trips with my dad.  He put up with a lot on this day, and we had a great time, especially late in the day at Nachusa.




11.  Exploring Lick Creek Wildlife Area with Dan and Jesse-  This was the first trip we did as a group, and the three hikes I went on with those two are among the best  I've been on.  All trips are better when taken with friends, especially friends who appreciate nature, but who can also drag you out of it for a random conversation about philosophical topics and general nonsense.  This is especially good when you're exploring someplace you've never been before.



10.  The Ides of March - First Common Loon and Western Chorus Frogs, two of the best new birds and frogs I've seen this year.  Overall, it was a wonderful day, and I enjoyed it quite a bit, so much so that I split it into two blogposts. Links are here and here.

9.  Michigan Canoe trip-  My shoes may never smell the same way ever again, I may have fallen out of the canoe twice, and my sunglasses have never reappeared since, but this was awesome.  Next time, though, I'm going to get a little more prepared!

8. Seeing 14-plus duck species in Center Park-  If Northern Harriers drew me into birding, this expedition capped it off!  I got to see just about half of all Illinois duck species at once!  Links for both sections are here and here.

7.   Going to Revis Hill Prairie and Scrub Oak- Sand Prairie with Dan-
It was a difficult hike, but a great trip to two of the wildest spots in Central Illinois, and even better because I brought a friend along for the struggle. Several new plants and many strange insects awaited us in these, the absolute wildest of Central Illinois natural areas.

6. Going to Southern Illinois with the Environmental Club-  This trip had orchids, salamanders, friends, and grand adventures.  Plus, I got to see a Logperch! (It's a fish). Unfortunately, we didn't find any of the scorpions, copperheads, or anything else scary or dangerous (other than the heights at Fults Hill Prairie).  Still, there's always next time!  Links for both sections are here and here.

5.  First winter trip to Nipper-  This single trip got me into birding big-time (to the point where I say birding instead of birdwatching).  A single Northern Harrier along the road ended up becoming a hobby which I have spent countless hours doing this year. I also met people I didn't know who read my blog, and that was back in January!  Honestly, sometimes I forget how many people read this blog, and who all that might be.  And, I got to do this all with my dad!

4.  Going up to Mason County for the first time-  That was a long, lonely trip, but there were so many new  birds and experiences I had that I will never forget.  I saw the rarest lifeform of the year there, the Tennessee Milkvetch, and I found a large number of nature preserves only an hour or so from my house, with tons of exciting plants and animals.  The wild sandlands of Illinois are the best.  Links for the three sections are here, there, and ere.

3.  Going up to Chautauqua and Emiquon with Jesse and Dan-  Trips are always best with friends, especially when we debate philosophical concepts while watching sandpipers on a levee in the middle of a mild thunderstorm.  Trust me, it's an invigorating experience, and one which brought me plenty of lifer shorebirds and great memories with friends, as well as an interesting experience in accidental trespassing which I hope no future employer sees as a reason to not hire me...
Links for both sections are here and there.

2.   Going to Indiana Dunes- Five Orchids in one day! I've seen seven this year, and as it's November I am unlikely to see any more.  Roughly a quarter to a third of the lifer plants this year were seen on this trip, including a plurality of the best ones.  And, as with several of my favorite trips, I got to go on this with Dad.  Links for all four sections are here, there, and also here, and everywhere.

1.  Surviving this year-  Thanks to God for my survival this year.  Considering this is a website open to the internet and the general public, I don't plan on sharing all that's happened to me over the course of this year.  I will say that a close family member suffered from a serious disease.  They are completely fine now, (again-  Thank you, God!)  but between that and the usual hassles that come with being a full-time student, it's been a rather... interesting... year.  At the same time, I've gained so many good friends... too many to list! (And besides that, half of them are all named Josh, Jesse, Dan, Logan, or Jake- It would get confusing:)  I've been so many wonderful places and seen so many wondrous creatures.  I really look forwards to next year!

P.S.  Some of the older posts have egregious errors.  Rather than redacting them, I've decided to leave them in, mostly because I'm lazy, but also because I think it's fascinating to see how much the tone has changed from month to month and year to year on this blog.  My apologies for any incorrect information.  Also, there may be photos taken by other people.  Other than ones taken from state websites, I will be removing those for copyright reasons, albeit slowly over the next month.

Michigan! (w/ Video)

This is a bit more personal than usual.  Also, some of the photography is worse than usual, since I spent most of the time hanging out with friends instead of taking pictures for my blog.

Recently, I took a trip with a few friends up to Rockford, Michigan, where my former Sunday school teacher, Chris Paoni, above, had recently accepted a job as pastor.  (He's very good at it, too.  More on that Sunday in a bit.)  While staying at a local house and visiting, I took a walk in the backyard.

Michigan has a large variety of plants that are not present in Illinois, and the weeds are equally as different.  In this part of Michigan, the soils were acidic and sandy, as opposed to the alkaline clay-loam most prevalent in Central Illinois.  As a result, the weeds were vastly different.  I found this Field Horsetail (Equisetum arvense) growing in a well-trampled area next to a playground.  By contrast, in Illinois I have only ever seen this plant in moderately well-preserved landscapes.

A nearby backyard pond also gave me the chance to find  Northern Green Frogs (Lithobates clamitans melanota), a species common in Illinois.  These are not Bullfrogs, which are far larger, but everyone I know calls them Bullfrogs.

The nearby woods were quite a bit different, with Partridge Berry (Mitchella repens) and Doll's Eyes (Actea pachypoda) growing under  the shade of maples and beeches.

This forest would have been a nature preserve back home, with its complete lack of bush honeysuckle making it even better.  I could stroll through it completely upright, without needing a machete.

Speaking of beeches, I found the parasitic plant Beechdrops (Epifagus virginiana) in seed.  This strange plant, rare in Illinois, has no leaves and sucks nutrients from the roots of Beech trees to survive.  As beeches are infrequent in Central Illinois, this plant is restricted to the forests of the Wabash and the Shawnee National Forest counties.  Most people probably think it's just a few sticks.

Thanks to the cooler weather this far north, some spring-flowering plants were still visible, like the leaves of this Trillium.  The tree behind it I believe is a Beech (Fagus grandifolia).  After I was done hiking, I rejoined my less-than-nature-enthused friends and went on to further adventures. On one of these then visited the city of Rockford itself, easily one of the most attractive small towns I have ever visited. Rockford is a tourist town centered around the Rogue River, which is dammed in the center of town, as you can see below:

Rockford loves its dam, and has made what could be a hideous flood-control structure into a highlight of the town's area.  We had ice cream from one of the many ice-cream sellers and walked along.  One of the restaurants along the riverfront bore this amusing name:

As always, I kept an eye out for wildlife, and walked around with my camera, ready for action.  One man on the dam asked me what I was doing with it, and I told him birdwatching.  This necessitated a bird, and North America's deadliest bird was close at hand:

Why do I call this Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) North America's deadliest bird when it isn't even native?  Two reasons.  First, thanks to prolific breeding, this invasive species is now firmly established in North America.  Secondly, over in Eastern Europe, these birds reportedly killed a toddler too close to their nest.  More recently, in the Chicago area, a Mute Swan knocked a man out of his canoe, which led to the man's death by drowning. The link to that story is here.  Don't get close to this swan.

I then turned my attention to the turtles, which turned out to be Common Map Turtles (Graptemys geographica), a species I don't believe I've seen in the wild before.  It's odd to me to see turtles that aren't Painted Turtles or Red-eared Sliders, although I have seen the Ouachita Map Turtle before.  Chris's son L. and I watched the turtles for quite awhile, and so the turtles watched us too.

The Rogue River was quite lovely, here shown not far behind the dam.  A trail runs alongside it for several miles, and canoeists are extremely common.

Also extremely common was one of my favorite birds, the Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum).  These berry-loving birds are uncommon in Central Illinois, but further north they seem prevalent.

One decided to pose for me in the setting sun, in one of my favorite pictures I've taken this year.

It wouldn't be a trip without a mystery plant, and this one was it.  At first, I thought it was Poison Ivy, but it has five leaves, not three.  This is in fact the sapling of the Boxelder Tree (Acer negundo).

Downtown Rockford has an antique train parked near one of the canoe rental places.  It's a bit odd, but it adds to the charm of the city.  We rented canoes at this place, and set out on an adventure. Foolishly, I took my camera and wallet along.  Don't do that.

We disembarked on the Rogue River near this meadow.  Virgin's Bower (Clematis virginiana) blooms in the foreground, the first time I have ever seen this plant in the wild..

In the boulder-strewn river, we found crayfish, trout, and even a few leeches, as both I and the man below can attest.  I detest leeches, and therefore removed it without even a photo.

This is Big Hoss (M. pemberton), King of the Gators.  In a bit of goofyness, some of our group called every animal they saw a "gator".  We saw plenty, too, quite even possibly a bobcat.

I sat in a canoe between Chris Paoni and a man known as Tackett, neither of whom were experienced at steering a canoe.  As a result, we ended up in several snags.  Tackett got a trifle annoyed when I called out every snag, but we hit most of them.

A greater danger to my camera was the occasional splashing wars we ended up participating in.

Here, Big Hoss lies in wait to ambush and splash for two more of our party.

Despite the occasional rowdiness, we enjoyed the tranquil, clear river and cool, fast-flowing water.

I enjoyed it so much that I fell in it, twice, although with enough grace to keep my camera above water.  Tackett and Chris were less enthused, considering I'd tipped the canoe twice with them in it.

Here's my canoeing view of the world, from behind Tackett's shoulder.  In a fit of silliness, we got in front and decided to ambush the rest of our party from the shore and scare them.  After sinking into the two-foot deep mud, Tackett lost his shoe, which he only found again because of the bright green soles.  After this, I tipped the canoe (although I hold Chris 41% responsible), and Tackett got back in, only for us to tip the canoe yet again.   After this, I baled out the canoe with an old Doritos bag.

Still seeking to ambush our fellows, we paddled back to the front and stopped on firmer ground.  While there, I found this colorful Damselfly, likely some sort of Jewelwing.

While also there, I discovered Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis),  Sensitive Fern (Onoclea sensibilis) and Stinging Nettles (unpictured, and boy, did they hurt.)  Tackett did manage to almost get a reaction out of Big Tex ( D. Moorman), but overall the ambush attempt was a failure.

Back on the river, the water grew somewhat deeper as we neared the dam.

Everyone except me was quite tired, and I was quite wet.  Thankfully, my camera case had kept my camera from getting wet.  After all, having just replaced it, I would hate to break the camera again.

We beached our canoe and kayaks  just in front of the dam, where a plethora of bird life had congregated.  Several Canada Geese (Branta canadensis), two feuding Ring-billed Gulls  (Larus delawarensis), and a Great Egret (Ardea alba) as a white blur in the back can all be seen above.

Easily the rarest bird was this juvenile Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus), a small diving duck I haven't seen in several months.

Along the banks of the Rogue River grew the Water Forget-me-Not (Myosotis palustris), in great quantities, such that I will not likely forget it.  This was the last flower I saw that day.  After that, I went to the excellent resteraunt Vitale's.  The pizza and cinnamon breadsticks are easily the best I have ever had.  We enjoyed these at four in the afternoon, having kayaked through lunch.  Overall, Rockford, Michigan is easily one of the finest towns I have ever visited, and I'm glad I was with the friends that I was. This, of course, is thinking after the fact. At the time I was wet, cold, and tired.  Still, it was a great day.  I have a video, below, of our group kayaking.

The Fifth Orchid of the trip was a new bird species for me.  On the very last day of the trip, before we left for home, this hawk landed on the Wood Duck box over the pond.

After considerable review, I deduced this was a juvenile Red-Shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus), a small hawk much rarer in Illinois than it is in Michigan.  You can see the shoulder below:

A last note:  Driving back was nuts.  From the Kalamazoo River in Michigan all the way to Joliet, Illinois, the traffic was so heavy that it turned an ordinarily 5.5 hour drive into an 8.5 hour nightmare.  One brave Tackett drove the whole thing for us, and he deserves the heartiest congratulations.

Overall, I haven't even covered half of what went on, but as we all know, what happens at "FUGE Gone Wild" stays at "FUGE Gone Wild", except for the bits I've made available above.  Sometime next year, I hope to visit Chris again, albeit with more time and no wallet in my pocket on the canoe.