A Most Patriotic Bluff (Starved Rock): Starved Rock Expedition Of March 2016, Part Two of Three

Before I begin talking about Starved Rock, I have one addendum.  One of the best plant identification sites in Illinois, illinoiswildflowers.info, had no recorded populations of Eastern Hemlocks (Tsuga canadensis) occurring in the state.  Thanks to evidence which I gave him, he was able to change this.  I have checked as well, and while Eastern Hemlocks are definitely candidates for the State-Endangered list in Illinois, they aren't even listed.  This is  a plant with 11 known wild specimens (although a LOT more research needs to be done) found as a boreal disjunct species in a limited habitat!  In English, this is a really rare tree, not likely to be found in most of Illinois.  So, my next major push is to get these trees listed as State-Endangered.  Anyway, on to Starved Rock.

We walked along the Illinois River's bank up to the bluff, looking out at the islands.  It's on islands like these that bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) congregate in winter below Starved Rock Dam, making this one of the best areas in Illinois to spot eagles.  The dam keeps the water ice-free, making the eagles able to get fish, their favorite food, from the river.

Here's Starved Rock itself, with the dam in the background. Three kinds of conifer grow on this bluff- Red Cedars (Juniperus virginiana), White Cedars (Thuja occidentalis), and White Pines (Pinus strobus)

Here's a very large red cedar growing near the base of Starved Rock.  What a contrast to the straight branches of the Eastern Hemlock in the last blogpost!

On top of the rock, the red cedars are even more gnarled.  The dominant species on Starved Rock,  red cedars made up most of the woody plant cover on the top of the the bluff.

By contrast, the neighboring Lover's Leap bluff is mostly covered in white pines.

Here, the state-threatened tree White Cedar or Arborvitae is growing alongside the Red Cedar, above the blue waters of the Illinois River.  Red, White, and Blue.  Hmm.  Seems very patriotic.

And, of course, what's more patriotic than a Bald Eagle flying overhead?  I love the zoom on my new camera.

Here, the Red Cedar (left) and the White Cedar (right) can be compared easily.  White Cedars are extremely common in plant nurseries under the name Arborvitae.  It comes as a bit of a shock to me, an ornamental gardener, to see this plant listed as State-Threatened.  Still, as a more northern species (boreal disjunct), it's quite understandable.

A group of pelicans flew up and down the river, looking for an easy meal.  These are American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos), a common species along the big rivers in Illinois.

Here you can see these pelicans in all of their various motions.  Unlike most pelicans, this species lives along large bodies of water in the interior (not coastal) part of the U.S.A.  They can also be found on the coast too, all the way to South America in the winter.  The large "wart" on the bill is a sign that these pelicans are ready to breed.  Guess what else was ready to breed, too?

I really, really, really, love the zoom on my new camera.  I can't say that enough.  This bald eagle sitting on the nest was not visible unaided, except as a spot of white above a large round object in a tree.  This large cottonwood tree the nest sits in is one of the biggest I have ever seen, and this from a considerable distance.  It was the perfect way to end the day, except we didn't, because we went to another set of canyons after this.  I've got one last Starved Rock post, with a special discovery, to share, and that will be out later this week.  Here in town, the first snakes have appeared, a momentous and happy occasion- for me alone.  That will be a future post.  Also, I've decided to begin ending posts with a random historical fact.  Here's the first one.

Helen Keller, when she was an adult, became a member of the Communist Party, although she was more of a Socialist.  She also helped to found the ACLU.

Murder and Mystery (St. Louis Canyon): The Starved Rock Expedition of March 2016 : Part One of Three (Hemlocks Solved!)

Well,  I finally did it.  I returned to Starved Rock after finding Eastern Hemlocks (Tsuga canadensis) in Starved Rock State Park last November.   I had a brief series of emails with an Illinois plant expert who runs illinoiswildflowers.info.  Apparently, I needed to find saplings/ trees of differing ages to prove that it is a population or at least not planted.  So, as I entered St. Louis Canyon trail, excitement was high.   It had snowed a few days before, and the thin layer of partially melted snow  contrasted well against the bright mosses and ferns covering the rocks.

I don't recognize any of these ferns or mosses, sadly, except for in the third picture.  That fern is a Polypodium fern, a common species in this park.  All of these grew directly along the edge of the trail.

Of course, we spotted the hemlock soon enough, about ten of them in the ravine in total.  If you look carefully in the above photo, there are three trees, all of differing heights.  Also, looking at the slope, these are definitely natural specimens.  It's about a 35 degree slope, and trust me, it isn't exactly easy to walk up, let alone plant a tree, at that height, especially with all the rocks about.

One of the largest white pines (Pinus strobus)  I have ever seen also grows in this canyon.  Mind you, I'm not a person who has seen many large pine trees in generally.

If you need any particular evidence that this is in fact a hemlock tree, I found a few needles broken off under a 40' specimen.  Here's the bark and foliage together.

I took this opportunity to get a picture under the tree.  The straight branches made for a unique symmetry.

Here you can see the canyon from under the shadow of a hemlock tree.  In 1960, this spot was the sight of a brutal triple murder.  Likely, the hemlocks were there then, too, shading the criminal from view.  Of course, a suspect was caught, and is currently serving life in a nearby prison.

One of the small holes or caves nearby was used to hide the bodies from view, quite possibly the one in the background above.

The high walls of the canyon and the grey sky lend the spot a bit of sinister beauty.  The dark bark and needles of the hemlock tree always makes me think it's a bit Gothic, something out of an Edgar Allen Poe story.

The waterfall at the back of the canyon was partially frozen over, with large icicles dangling along the back of the waterfall.

Here you can see all three notable winter features of St. Louis Canyon- the frozen waterfall, the cave where the bodies were most likely found, and the hemlock trees.  Speaking of those hemlock trees, I found a small branch that had snapped off, likely in the snowstorm and used the snow as a perfect backdrop.

I'm uncertain what the small growths are on the needles.  I'm just hoping they are not overwintering pests, especially not Hemlock Wooly Adelgids.  The size of this population is small enough that protecting it from harm is a critical responsibility.  This is likely one of the rarest trees in the state. I Below, you can see that the needles at their longest are about half an inch.

One of the shortest of the hemlock trees was about nineteen feet tall, based on the fact that the man in the picture below is 6'4''.  He and I later asked the resident IDNR naturalist about the trees, and she specifically stated that this is a natural population.  She also provided us with a flyer for the tree species of the park, which included hemlocks as a wild and not introduced species.

So, in summary, the ten hemlocks in St. Louis Canyon are known about by the state of Illinois, they are not protected, they are a natural population with no visible seedlings but definitely differently-aged trees, and they appear to have some sort of growth or parasite on the branches.  This is a great combination for this species to be extirpated from Illinois in the next fifty years or so.  If this is the sole Illinois natural population, and it could very well be considering the scarcity of records, then it needs significant conservation measures to be taken.  ( For all recorded Illinois specimens, there is a record from the Illinois State Museum's herbarium here.  The La Salle county record is proven,  and it's likely the Ogle county record was true at the time and may be still true now.  The Mason and Fayette county records need to be examined.  I have strong doubts, based on what I know of this species' preferred habitat, that those two records are of natural specimens.)

To transition onward towards happier matters, underneath a nearby tree was an almost florescent population of moss.  Starved Rock is one of the best areas I have ever seen for a bryologist (moss scientist).

It's easy to tell where certain seeps are in Starved Rock based on how much ice has formed at those spots in the winter. (Seeps, for the unaware, are areas where water comes out of the ground, but does not have a current like a spring does.)

One of our party was rather interested in fungi, and the shelf fungi were rather spectacular.

As we trudged back up the hill to our car on our way to Starved Rock, the feature for which the park is named, we saw a large insect nest in a nearby tree.  I don't know whether this is a bee nest or a wasp nest.  (Addendum:  see Steve Willson's comment below.)

Anyway, after this, we got into our car and drove to Starved Rock itself.  That is the subject of the next post, however.  I'm glad to get one step of the hemlocks solved.  The next is to get them listed on the state-endangered list as soon as Illinois gets a budget and IDNR gets a wee bit of funds. Furthermore, I made a discovery later, in Kaskaskia Canyon, that not even the local naturalist knew about.  Stay tuned for more  Starved Rock posts coming up the rest of this week!

Dance of the Timberdoodle

Today was a day and a half in one day.  I went birding at Center/Lake Park again.  Nothing much of note, save for the following two pictures.

Several American Coots (Fulica americana)  decided to stand on a log and pretend to walk on water.  There were a lot more of these birds today, thanks to the warmer weather.  Nearby, I spotted a new  bird.

This is a Ring-Necked Duck (Aythya collaris), a species of Duck which I never had a clear picture of before.  It should honestly be called Ring-Billed Duck, because as far as I can see, there is no ring on the neck.  After this, I went home.  In the process of closing the shades at home near dusk in my suburban house, I spotted a bird and shouted for my family to come over.  "Holy crap, it's an American Woodcock!" was the exact phrase used.  Thanks to my brother for grabbing my camera. Can you see the bird below?

This bird, also known as Bogsucker, Hokumpoke, Brush Snipe, scientifically as Scolopax minor, and, my personal favorite, Timberdoodle, is not a common bird in this part of the world.  It's a bird that's hard to find even when it is common.  The Timberdoodle is found in spring and summer  in  Illinois, in brushy wet areas and second-growth moist forests.  This is a suburban sideyard under an Asian Magnolia between two houses.  This bird is clearly lost.  It spotted me as soon as I opened the shade, and completely froze, relying on its camouflage to disguise it.  It might have worked, too, but it was nearly under the window as is, so it was easy to see.  This bird is probably not particularly rare in Central Illinois, especially this time of year, but if they are frozen like this, they are likely to be impossible to see.

Here we are.  You can see the bird's long bill.  This is essentially the American version of the New Zealand bird the kiwi.  Like the kiwi, the Timberdoodle eats earthworms and forages under leaves with a flexible bill.   Among the achievements of the Timberdoodle are such feats as the slowest recorded flying bird (five miles per hour), possibly the greatest visual range of any bird's eyesight (nearly 360 degrees) and the snipe hunt (like in the movie "Up", for example).  This bird is a member of the snipe family of birds, and in Eastern North America, this is the snipe to hunt for.  Some hundreds of thousands of Timberdoodles were killed last year by "snipers".  That's where that word comes from.  As a small-bodied game bird with excellent camoflage, the 'brush snipe' was a hard target to hit and a hard target to find.  Thus, the snipe hunt begins, where a person is taken to a lonely wood and told to go look for this bird. The person who told them to look for the snipe leaves the "snipe hunter" in the woods as a practical joke, until the would-be hunter realizes what happened.  As a matter of fact, this joke was taken even further on occasion.  The  gullible person left in the woods would be given a bag and told to "hold the bag" while the other person ostensibly drove the bird into the bag.  Of course, the gullible individual would be left "holding the bag", thus resulting in that phrase as well.

Practical joke or no, the Timberdoodle is a beautiful bird, with the subtle banding on its head and back making it a handsome bird.  Perhaps the most fascinating fact about the Timberdoodle is that, in order to drive worms out of the ground, it does a peculiar bobbing dance that vibrates the ground to scare up its food.  This was recorded and set to music by somebody on the web, and the video is below.  I watched this happen, and attempted to record it, but something fouled up and I didn't get the video.  So, as a substitution, see the video below.  Trust me, it's quite humorous.

Rock on.  Tomorrow I'm off to Starved Rock to solve the great hemlock mystery and see if there are any saplings to prove that this is a reproducing population.  There will be a post about that within two to three days, so stay tuned.