December 9, 2009 at 7:07 am (botany, history (human), mammals)
Tags: common cattail, marsh, Mayslake, muskrat, orchard, raccoon, Salix babylonica, Typha latifolia, weeping willow
by Carl Strang
There are several small marsh areas at Mayslake Forest Preserve. One of them was dug to provide fill for constructing the parking lot. Last year the vegetation was relatively sparse, but this year the parking lot marsh has a dense growth of tall common cattails.
That marsh contains two large mounds, the dens of muskrats. Muskrats last winter lived in tunnel dens they dug in the bank. The difference has me thinking that perhaps the mound nests, constructed from cattails, are a preference. The muskrats did not need to go to the trouble to build the mounds, but did so anyway. An alternate possibility is that the density of muskrats has increased there, so more dens are needed.
Another marsh, near the stream, also was dug originally to provide fill, this time to elevate a foundation for the chapel when the site still was a Franciscan retreat center.
There is one likely muskrat mound in this marsh as well, but I will need to see it closely after the water freezes to be certain. The area recently was highlighted by the beautiful yellow color of the weeping willows.
The orchard is on the mansion grounds not far from that marsh. In a recent post I mentioned how deer have been dining on apples there. I failed to comment on a raccoon trail that also leads to these fruit trees.
While other animals also use trails of this size, the masked mammals’ big flat feet and routine travel pattern produce this distinctive sign of their presence.
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December 2, 2009 at 6:58 am (botany, mammals, restoration)
Tags: aster, bottlebrush grass, bur oak, Conrad Fialkowski, fox squirrel, Hystrix patula, Jacqui Gleason, Mayslake, Quercus macrocarpa, savanna, sumac
by Carl Strang
I have enjoyed watching Autumn’s transition in the savannas at Mayslake Forest Preserve. Early in the season I found an aster growing, and blooming, in an unlikely spot: a crevice a few feet off the ground between forks of a bur oak.
Here it is close up.
Squirrels continued to take advantage of the oaks’ mast year. Here is the synchronized eating team.
Colors peaked, then faded. The sumacs provided a final burst.
Meanwhile, assisted by other volunteers, stewards Conrad Fialkowski and Jacqui Gleason continued removing buckthorn bushes from the edges of the savanna. They augmented the brush piles by piling on leaves.
They had raked the leaves to clear space for spreading bottlebrush grass seeds.
That grass is their workhorse for initially reclaiming restored ground in open woodlands.
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November 13, 2009 at 7:05 am (birds, invertebrates (other), mammals)
Tags: crayfish, hermit thrush, Mayslake, white-tailed deer
by Carl Strang
November is moving along, and I have some observations to report from Mayslake Forest Preserve that characterize the season. First is a casualty of the migration.
I found this hermit thrush on the paved path that runs along 31st Street at Mayslake’s north boundary. Probably hit by a car, the bird looks peaceful but sadly still.
Though I haven’t seen the animals themselves, deer have been active on the preserve lately. Here a buck prepared for the rut by attacking some defenseless sumacs in the north savanna.
Deer also have been frequenting the orchard on the mansion grounds, snacking on fallen apples.
Finally, with the water table dropping during the recent dry spell, crayfish have had to tunnel down to keep pace with it, hence the new chimneys on their holes.
These notes begin my second year at Mayslake.
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November 6, 2009 at 7:12 am (birds, botany, dragonflies and damselflies, insects (other), mammals, reptiles and amphibians, singing insects)
Tags: Asclepias, aster, Baltimore oriole, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, blue-gray gnatcatcher, brown-headed cowbird, chimney swift, chipping sparrow, common grackle, downy woodpecker, eastern bluebird, eastern kingbird, eastern phoebe, Erigeron, Eupatorium, European starling, house wren, mallard, Mayslake, northern flicker, Polygonum, Ranunculus, red-bellied woodpecker, red-winged blackbird, robin, Solidago, song sparrow, tree swallow, white-breasted nuthatch
by Carl Strang
Earlier this week I completed my first year of observations at Mayslake Forest Preserve. Many of the posts in this blog, which also is approaching its first birthday, have shared pieces of Mayslake’s ongoing natural history. It’s appropriate to look back at what I have learned there so far. Today I’ll simply share some numbers, the counts of species I have observed on the preserve to date.
Resident vertebrates include 14 species of mammals, 4 reptiles and 3 amphibians (though additional frogs have been observed at Mayslake by others in recent years). The bird species count is 130, many of which were migrants passing through. I saw evidence for successful nests, fledging at least 1 young, in the following 21 species: eastern bluebird, chimney swift, song sparrow, house wren, eastern kingbird, robin, northern flicker, blue jay, eastern phoebe (cowbird produced), chipping sparrow (cowbird produced), downy woodpecker, red-winged blackbird, red-bellied woodpecker, common grackle, black-capped chickadee, tree swallow, European starling, blue-gray gnatcatcher, Baltimore oriole, white-breasted nuthatch, mallard.
The insect species count is only 97 so far, but most of these belong to 4 groups to which I have directed most of my attention: 26 species of singing insects, 29 dragonflies and damselflies, 24 butterflies and moths, and 6 bumblebees.
Likewise my attention to Mayslake’s vegetation has been limited to certain groups of vascular plants. These include 49 trees (including those planted by landowners prior to forest preserve acquisition), 23 vines and shrubs, and 184 forbs. I’ll elaborate the last a little by mentioning genera represented by 4 or more species: so far I know of 4 Asclepias (milkweeds), 6 Aster, 4 Erigeron (fleabanes), 5 Eupatorium (a diverse genus including Joe Pye weeds, bonesets, and white snakeroot), 4 Polygonum (knotweeds), 5 Ranunculus (buttercups), and 7 Solidago (goldenrods).
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October 5, 2009 at 5:53 am (botany, ecology, mammals)
Tags: acorn, black walnut, bur oak, Carya, coevolution, fox squirrel, gray squirrel, hickory, Juglans nigra, mast, mast year, Mayslake, periodical cicada, Quercus alba, Quercus macrocarpa, white oak
by Carl Strang
Mast is a collective term referring to nuts and acorns. Trees do not produce these in the same amounts each year. In some years very few nuts or acorns develop in a given species, and in other years prodigious numbers appear. High production seasons are called mast years. 2009 is proving to be a mast year for bur oaks and white oaks at Mayslake Forest Preserve, where the trails in places are littered with the fallen acorns. Here is an example for bur oak.
Here, white oak acorns abound.
Though elsewhere I am seeing lots of walnuts, this does not seem true for that species at Mayslake, which also is having an unremarkable year for hickory nuts. Nearby, at Fullersburg Woods Forest Preserve, I noted in 2007 that walnuts, hickories and red oaks had a mast year. It is common for members of the white oak group and red oak group of species to be decoupled from one another in their mast years.
As you might imagine, animals such as tree squirrels are impacted by mast years. Mayslake’s gray and fox squirrels will have an easy winter with so much food available. They help their cause by biting acorns before burying them in an effort to kill them. The acorns, in a countermeasure, are quick to sprout when they fall to the ground. A study published in 2006 in Science (314:1928) found that red squirrels (which live north and south of us, but not in DuPage County) themselves reproduce more heavily in mast years (perhaps responding to an increase in flowering or other advance cue). Such adaptive interactions between species are referred to as coevolution. The phenomenon of the mast year itself likely is, at least in part, an evolutionary tactic by the trees. By coordinating their mast production they can limit their seed-predators’ survival in some years, overwhelm them in others. Such an episodic mass reproduction is reminiscent of the periodical cicadas.
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September 1, 2009 at 6:06 am (mammals)
Tags: coyote, Mayslake
by Carl Strang
I was walking around the service track that runs just outside the off-leash dog area fence at Mayslake Forest Preserve. A movement in the dense grasses caught my eye. Quick, what is it?
I was a little embarrassed to find myself so close to a coyote without having spotted it earlier. It had been crouched in the grasses, and its fruitless pounce at a meadow vole caught my eye. But at least I saw the coyote before it saw me. At the click of the shutter for the above photo, the critter jumped up.
I was holding still, and as often is the case the coyote paused to look back after putting some distance between us.
Its lack of awareness, small size, and somewhat large ears give me the impression that Mayslake’s coyotes had a successful breeding season this year. As I mentioned last winter, I know the den location but there is no line of sight that would allow me to view it from a distance. I did not want to risk disturbing the coyotes and causing them to abandon their den, so I have stayed away.
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July 20, 2009 at 5:50 am (mammals)
Tags: cottontail, coyote, fox squirrel, Mayslake, mulberry, raccoon, tracking, white-tailed deer
by Carl Strang
In summer there is less to report about mammal activities at Mayslake Forest Preserve. Mammals are better able to hide in the dense green growth, most avoid coming out in the heat of the day, and the hard soil registers footprints less clearly. There are exceptions to this rule, though. Cottontails have been visible in numbers that have increased substantially since nesting began.
It is well that they are so prolific, given the heavy predation pressure they face through the entire year (I shared several examples last winter, for instance here ).
Squirrels are diurnal, so they remain visible on summer days though mainly early and late. Mulberries have ripened, and become a major food for the squirrels at this point in the season.
Scats indicate that coyotes and raccoons also are heavy mulberry feeders, the former taking advantage of the large numbers of the berries that fall to the ground.
Speaking of raccoons, here is one that stayed out a little late in the savanna one morning.
Probably this small adult was a mother, prolonging her hunt for food with a growing set of cubs to nurse.
Footprints attest that deer are on the preserve, but they have been able to stay out of my sight. Here, hoofprints show clearly in an area of mowed tall grass.
Mammals again will play a bigger role in this blog as summer transitions to fall and winter.
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July 2, 2009 at 8:58 pm (mammals, methods)
Tags: fawn, fawn spotting, Fullersburg, white-tailed deer
by Carl Strang
One of the first postings in this blog was about identifying the gender of older fawns . Now that we have a new crop of them, I want to bring up the possibility of recognizing individuals by their distinctive spotting patterns. Here is a tiny fawn that enchanted us at Fullersburg Woods a couple years ago when it curled up beside the office building one day.
Compare its spotting pattern to that of the fawn below, encountered 42 days later not far from the office building.
It’s the same animal. I draw your attention to the smiley face pattern on the upper right shoulder, the trio of spots to the right of it, and the large area empty of spotting above it. Here’s another example.
The above photo I took July 17. Compare it to the next, taken August 27.
Again I feel confident in declaring these photos to be of the same individual. Spotting patterns on fawns appear to be distinctive, and as long as they last you can use them to keep track of animals in areas you visit regularly.
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June 10, 2009 at 10:48 am (birds, mammals, methods)
Tags: Baltimore oriole, cottonwood, fox squirrel, Mayslake, nest, nest finding, Populus deltoides
by Carl Strang
Animals are teachers. This is true in a variety of ways, but today I want to share a recent lesson given me by a fox squirrel and a pair of Baltimore orioles. Earlier I described how I found Mayslake’s north savanna oriole nest by watching the female as she carried nest material. Another pair has been active in the south savanna, but I did not know the location of their nest. On a recent day as I walked into that area I heard the voices of orioles giving sharp, repetitive notes. There were two birds, and they were in a cottonwood tree. Soon I saw a fox squirrel in the same tree.
The squirrel was just sitting there, but the orioles’ agitation could only mean that their nest was nearby. I searched all the branch tips of that cottonwood, and before long found the nest.
You may have to take my word for it. The nest is in this photo, but it’s not easy to pick out. The male and female oriole continued to mob the squirrel (here’s the female in mid-note).
Eventually the rodent got up and jumped to another tree. Almost immediately the orioles quieted. I watched the female as she vanished back into the nest, and I celebrated the addition of another nest-finding technique to my bag of tricks.
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