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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September 25, 2009 at 6:22 am (birds, botany, geology, insects (other), plant-eating insects, reptiles and amphibians)
Tags: aspen, beauty, Bombus impatiens, Bombus ternarius, bumblebee, false hemlock looper moth, Michigan, Muskallonge Lake State Park, Nepytia canosaria, pileated woodpecker, smooth green snake, Tahquamenon Falls, Upper Peninsula, Whitefish Point
by Carl Strang
In this final chapter of my Michigan vacation account, I will bring together assorted observations of other animals and sights. None of this truly counts as inquiry, except that travel and the exposure it gives us to new places leads us to make comparisons with our familiar environment. Such comparisons often lead to questions and inquiries on down the line.
At Muskallonge Lake, after completing my investigation at the beach, I went for a walk along the state park’s trails.
There were spectacular views of Lake Superior from elevated points, and flocks of migrating songbirds to investigate.
Tahquamenon Falls State Park is named for various waterfalls along the Tahquamenon River. Especially spectacular are the upper falls.
After a summer in which I made good progress in my knowledge of Illinois bumblebees, I was interested to find that in that part of the U.P., as back home, only one common species of short-tongued, generalist bumblebee is active at this point in the season. Here it’s Bombus impatiens; at the tip of the U.P. it was the beautifully marked Bombus ternarius.
B. ternarius is a northern species that does not extend its range down to Illinois.
One of the more charismatic birds that one hears and, sometimes, sees in the north woods is the pileated woodpecker. Here is a tree that has been well worked by that species.
Beauty on a smaller scale, which provided a reminder of the season in transition, took the form of this aspen leaf lying on a trail.
I spent most of my time at Whitefish Point. Here is a small scene I found especially compelling.
As I walked out from the point to the parking lot for the final time, I found an enchanting little animal crossing the trail.
Smooth green snakes occur in many places, but are so well camouflaged that we seldom have the good fortune to see them.
On my final morning at the Tahquamenon Falls campground, I found that a large number of moths had been drawn to the restroom building’s lights.
These were nearly all males of the same species, emerging all at once.
Nepytia canosaria, the false hemlock looper moth, is a common northern species whose larvae feed on a wide range of coniferous species including firs, hemlock, pines and spruces.
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June 12, 2009 at 11:08 am (reptiles and amphibians, species dossiers)
Tags: American toad, chorus frog, Culver, Fermilab, Fullersburg, Mayslake, McKee Marsh, Pratts Wayne, tadpole, Tri-County, Willowbrook
by Carl Strang
It has been a while since I have shared one of my dossiers. The idea, which I began in the 1980’s, is to make a written record of everything I have learned about a species from personal experience. Some dossiers have grown to be relatively large over the years. Others, like this one, have remained small.
American Toad
Terrestrial most of year, in wooded areas, hunting for insects at night, catching them with long-thrown, sticky tongue. Sing in numbers in ponds in spring, song a trill. Sings later than chorus frogs, spring peepers and wood frogs. Smaller males ride on females’ backs, clasping with forearms. Eggs laid in long strings, hatch into tiny black tadpoles which develop in a few weeks into tiny toads that disperse, sometimes in great numbers, into the surrounding landscape. Common near home in Culver when I was a child. Once the dog grabbed one but spit it out and showed distress, salivating excessively afterwards.
10MY87. Singing at McKee Marsh.
30AP88. Singing at McKee Marsh.
12-13MY99. Singing at Willowbrook.
30AP00. I can hear them singing from the house on Briarwood, Warrenville.
21AP01. First of year singing, heard from the house. On 22nd, also, many singing at Pratts Wayne Woods.
13JE06. Tri-County State Park. Chorus frogs and American toads have resumed singing after heavy recent rains have raised water levels, here and at Fermilab for chorus frogs, and here and at Fullersburg for toads.
21MY09. Mayslake. A toad moving through the savanna, mid-day. Earlier in the season several sang in the marsh just west of the stream, but only there on the preserve.
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March 23, 2009 at 9:48 pm (birds, reptiles and amphibians)
Tags: chorus frog, great horned owl, Mayslake, woodcock
by Carl Strang
March is the month when woodcock courtship hits its stride. The woodcock is an upland dwelling member of the shorebird group. It has adapted to nesting in brushy or woodland areas adjacent to openings, and feeds on earthworms which it extracts from the ground with its long bill.
I was interested in whether woodcocks were present at Mayslake. The habitat looks right, though the brushy areas are mainly open at ground level, being composed largely of buckthorn and honeysuckle. Some of my anticipation was removed when I flushed a woodcock at the edge of the mansion grounds a couple weeks ago, but that could have been a migrant. I needed to find out if they are displaying on that preserve.
Saturday night I drove to Mayslake. Lights along the parking lot and drive were full on, and it appeared that First Folio was in the mansion preparing for their next play. I noted the hooting of the male great horned owl as I got out of the car, the owl still defending his territory a couple weeks after losing his nest . Chorus frogs sang from the stream corridor marsh. I walked toward the bridge across the little stream, which was in the center of the likely woodcock display area. Almost immediately I heard the buzzing “peent” of a male on the ground. He flew up into the aerial segment of the display as a second male began to call. The flying bird climbed higher, the wing-twitter of his display flight breaking into clusters and sounding more frantic as he reached the top and began his remarkable whistling song. When he broke off and plummeted back down he did not return to his initial dancing spot, but landed instead in the off-leash dog area. I had never been near him, so I wasn’t concerned that I had been a disturbance. He displayed from there a few more times as I searched for more woodcocks, but I found none, and the second male did not display again. With the noisy traffic of 31st Street and Route 83, plus the artificial lights all around and the suboptimal brush, I suspect that this preserve is marginal for woodcocks. As restoration work proceeds the habitat will improve, but that may not change the perception of the birds if the lights and traffic noise indeed pose a problem for them.
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January 30, 2009 at 12:20 pm (ecology, mammals, methods, reptiles and amphibians)
Tags: bound gait, diagonal walk gait, leopard frog, mink, predation, tracking, Waterfall Glen
by Carl Strang
This snowy winter brings to mind an experience from several years ago. I was at Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve, wading through snow to follow the informal trail along lower Sawmill Creek between the railroad tracks and the Des Plaines River.
I came across some fresh mink tracks, and they were unusual. Can you see why?
This mink is in the diagonal walk gait. The normal gait pattern for mink is the bound, as introduced in an earlier post. When an animal is out of its usual gait, something interesting may be happening. Not only has this mink shifted down to the slower gait, there are drag marks. I followed the tracks, and they led me to a hole in the snow.
Noting the blood drops, I excavated the hole a little, and there was a leopard frog.
The frog was still wet and soft. It was so freshly killed that I thought it likely the mink had heard me coming and quickly stashed its prey. I backtracked, found where the mink had dug the hibernating frog out of the mud at the edge of the creek, and went on my way so the predator could retrieve its meal.
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