September Medley

I haven't had time to put together a wordy blog post, so here, I'll mainly post some September highlights.

One of many bald-faced hornets (Dolichovespula maculata) Jeffrey Peffers and I saw on a wetland boardwalk in DuPage County.

 Chicago garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis semifasciatus) at the newt swamp woods.

 Neonate redbelly snake (Storeria occipitomaculata).

 Redbelly snakes are common at this site and we see many of them.  I am always fascinated by how variable they are in color.  This is nothing more than a voucher shot but I liked the combination of light reddish-brown on top of slate grey.

 Tiger salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum).

American toad (Anaxyrus americanus).

The Illinois & Michigan Canal near Lemont.

Juvenile black-crowned night heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) on the canal.  This is a state-endangered species.

Roadkill Eastern garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis), still fresh upon my finding it.  Sad.

Green frog (Lithobates clamitans).  Getting this photo required that I lay on my belly in soft mud and slowly creep up on this girl.  Was it worth it?  Of course!

So I came upon a tall stone railroad trestle, and as I scanned the ground along the walls of the trestle, I saw this dead mouse.

I didn't think much of it until I came across this second one, not far from the first.

Perplexed, I began scanning the area and found 5 dead mice, suspiciously dead in the small area I was in.  I looked up against the walls of the trestle, and immediately I found the culprit - or at least evidence of the culprit.  Large shed skins from what I imagined were Western fox snakes (Pantherophis vulpinus).

 I imagined that the rodents use these cracks and crevices as their homes, as do the fox snakes.  A fox snake poking and prodding around would incite panic among the mice, and cause the mice to basically run out of the hole and fall to their death onto the rocky ground 10-20 feet below.

It didn't take long before I found the first Western fox snake - ultimately I found three, all of which were probably this year's hatchlings.  The weather was unseasonably cool, yet it was sunny, and so all were found out basking.

 This is how I found one of them - in situ, warming itself within an old railroad tie.

An interestingly-patterned Northern leopard frog (Lithobates pipiens) found not far from the fox snakes.

 A green frog that was much easier to photograph than the first.

And finally, a first-time visit to a wonderful forest preserve in Will County in search of amphibians.

Western chorus frog (Pseudacris triseriata).

A dead tree encrusted in fungus.

 A gorgeous spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum).  The spotted salamander is rapidly disappearing from the Chicago region.  Sadly, it is not as hardy as the tiger or blue-spotted salamanders, and tends to be more of a specialist than the aforementioned species, preferring closed woodlands with very little to no sunlight.  Of course, they require vernal ponds in order to reproduce.

 A spotted salamander next to a blue-spotted salamander (Ambystoma laterale).  The blue-spotted salamanders are decidedly more common through the Chicago region.  In this case, they share habitat.  Fortunately, there was no shortage of either species this day.

This scene will soon change as the fall is quickly making its presence known.

 As I walked down this beautiful coniferous corridor, a great horned owl flew overhead and came to rest on one of the boughs of a pine.  

 Leaves of this giant oak (Quercus sp.) starting to reflect the seasonal transition.

Pillsbury Dough Boy

I often find myself in the most interesting situations, mostly as a result of my interests and many of the people that I know.  About a month and a half ago, I had the unique and rather random opportunity to partake in an archaeological assessment of the property owned by the Pillsbury Dough Boy.

Ok, well, not the soft little baker guy that giggles when poked in the belly, but the man who voices the character.  His name is JoBe Cerny, and he's most famous for being the voice of Poppin' Fresh but has been active an both an actor and voice actor for many years.  JoBe had been doing some yard work recently when he discovered what he believed may have been chert - the byproduct of stone tool making by Native Americans.  Was it possible his yard was the site of a chipping station (Dan would refer to it as a "debitage site")?  What further evidence does he have that supports the idea that this material was worked by the hand of man, and not just forces of nature?

These were questions we wanted answers to.  Dan, Buzz Spreeman, and I were warmly welcomed to the home of Mr. Cerny on an overcast mid-August Sunday.  Following a brief tour of JoBe's home, and a helping of chocolate doughnuts (which I don't believe were Pillsbury...), we were shown where an ash tree had recently been removed and where the underlying soil had produced the stones in question.  It turns out there were pieces of flint and other similar rocks scattered about at or near the surface of his property.  Not long after we began to broaden our search, a reporter from the Chicago Tribune arrived to interview us about the process.  Dan was hesitant to conclude that there was anything other than a slight probability any of this was Native American in nature, to the disillusionment of the reporter.  What JoBe had on his property was very likely glacial rock, simply put.

However - JoBe had very good reason to believe this very well could have been Native American.  Just across the street, along someone's driveway, stands a very real, very alive Native American trail tree.  It isn't every day you see one of these, as obviously it has been a long time since Europeans chased all the natives out.  Seeing this tree was a sobering reminder that, in the big picture, it really hasn't been that long since Europeans have come and transformed the entire landscape.

Some of the rocks that were found by JoBe in and around a hole where an ash tree had been removed.

 From L to R: Tribune reporter, Dan, president of local historical society, and Mr. Cerny.

 Me next to a real Native American trail tree.

 With the Dough Boy himself!