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!

Let's pause for a moment...

These last few weeks have been fairly busy.  Two weeks ago today I was in Louisville, Kentucky for Aimee's birthday trip.  Mostly all of the past week I was in New Jersey on business, and in between I've been working and of course involved with the nature museum and the historical society.  It hasn't been easy finding time to "decompress" - however, today I took an unplanned trip to one of my favorite Cook County forest preserves - the one with the newt swamp, among other things.  This preserve has quickly become a top favorite of mine, due to its relatively good condition, high biodiversity, and location.  Seems every time I go I learn something new about the place and/or its inhabitants.

I don't know where my head was this morning but I left my macro lens at home.  I also forgot to change my shoes so I was wearing this pair of Sketcher's Go-Walks instead of my hiking shoes.  I might as well have worn sandals, they were terrible.  But I got in about an hour and a half of nature therapy and saw some cool things, so it's all good.

First off, here is a photo that I think would fit here nicely.  We were on an all-night self-guided walk/explorative excursion of Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville, and like most of the other long-abandoned buildings I've been in, bats were commonly encountered.  I don't mind bats at all, and as a matter of fact I have always been fascinated by their very nature.  Some of the bats at Waverly got really close to us since the hallways were rather narrow.  In one instance, several bats were "pacing" back and forth in a hallway I was standing in.  I could only tell because they would fly into the shine of my flashlight (it was pitch black in there otherwise).  I pulled out my camera and aimed it into the direction of where I thought the bats were and pulled the trigger.  I got the shot of a lifetime - a brown bat in flight, maybe three feet from me, completely illuminated by the flash of my camera.

A rabid wolf spider (Rabidosa rabida) found in the abandoned tuberculosis hospital.

 Cave crickets were numerous along the sides and the ceiling of the "death chute".  So were bats; I imagine there is a correlation.

The Noble-Seymour-Crippen House, the oldest house (and building, for that matter) in the city of Chicago.  Built in 1833 with additions in 1868, this house is the headquarters of the Norwood Park Historical Society, of which I serve on the board of directors.  Not only is this house the oldest house in the city, but I think it is one of the best-looking.  Inside is a small museum documenting the history of the community as well as space for weddings, meetings, etc.  I took this last weekend as the alderman held her annual movie showing on the expansive front lawn of the house.

Early this morning, the first reptile I saw at the forest preserve was this long-deceased roadkilled Northern redbelly snake (Storeria occipitomaculata).  It breaks my heart each and every time I see something like this.

A Chicago garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis semifasciatus) that wasn't fast enough to elude capture.  Because I neglected to put on an appropriate pair of shoes today, I nearly slipped down a rocky embankment in pursuit of this animal.  I learned my lesson!

Orange jewelweed, aka spotted touch-me-not (Impatiens capensis).  These are commonly found in roadside ditches or other wet areas.  I saw a lot of these today.

A flighty katydid.

I believe this is a female common whitetail (Plathemic lydia).

The all-too-common Queen Anne's lace (Daucus carota).  

 Aphids.  They are sucking juices from the plant.

Even non-artistic, voucher-style photos of Northern leopard frogs (Lithobates pipiens) such as this are worthy of my gaze; hope is reinforced when I come across hundreds of these frogs in one locale so close to the city.  Leopard frogs are ultimate ecological indicators.  Their persistence within this resilient ecosystem speaks volumes about the importance of buffer zones surrounding wetlands.  I hope to see these frogs at this location for years to come.

Nothing catches your eye in the woods quite like the Jack-o-lantern mushrooms (Omphalotus illudens).  By day, these eye-poppingly-bright fungi stand out like a sore thumb.  By night, this amazing species has the remarkable capability to glow a spooky green color from its undersides.  Few species of bioluminescent fungi exist, and mycologists (fungus experts, of which I am not) are not exactly sure why they glow.  One theory states that the soft green glow attracts insects, which may act as vectors for spore dispersal.  Whatever the case, these organisms are surely one of the more unusual denizens of the forest floor in these parts.

 These mushrooms are poisonous, by the way.  So...don't pick or eat them!

There is a reptile in the photo below...

 A big Chicago garter in a periscoping position.  It appears to be looking before crossing, but fortunately I disturbed it enough so that it turned away and headed back into the woods.  And just in time, too, since a long line of cars made their way through here right after.

This muddy pond is the home of hundreds of Northern leopard frogs.  It is a beautiful thing to see.  

The Psychology of Hope

Throughout my life, I've witnessed firsthand many instances of destruction of nature by the hand of man.  From frogs being beaten to death by baseball bats, to the destruction of huge swaths of prairie, savanna, wetlands, and woodlands.  As a young child, a watched a man chop a very large fox snake up to pieces with a shovel not far from where I stood.  That incident really hit me hard and was the basis for the introduction to an Environmental Autobiography I wrote in college.  I never understood why someone would do something so heartless.  I saw the dark side of the exotic pet trade for many years.  Styrofoam-lined cooler boxes filled with dehydrated, stressed, wild-collected reptiles and amphibians.  I watched as drivers would intentionally swerve to hit box turtles crossing the road.  On a bigger scale, I cannot drive through Kendall County, Illinois these days without passing by brand-new housing developments where not ago, precious natural land had existed for thousands of years before.  Miles of big homes, mostly identical in appearance, spaced far apart from each other in confusing curvilinear street patterns.  And of course, the ever-annoying instance of a soda can in the trash, when there is a clearly-marked recycling container right next to it.

As an individual who has dedicated his life to learning about, teaching about, and protecting nature and our environment, it is very important for me to maintain an optimistic view of human nature and the future.  Sometimes, though, it is very hard.  It seems that for every person I meet that has a love and respect for nature, ten are ignorant to the issues we are facing and are more interested in worldly things like clothes and iPhones (nothing against those things, personally I just don't hold them in as high regard).  Thanks to television networks such as Animal Planet, Discovery, and NatGeo, the only nature a lot of people seem to care about is "extreme" nature - the bite force of an alligator, the toxicity of the inland taipan, the viciousness of the red-belly piranha, and so on.  The internet, and specifically YouTube and Facebook, has made it easy for many people to provide and access a lot of information about virtually anything.  But again, the "most extreme" theme continues - I entered the word "snakes" and searched YouTube for videos.  The top results include:  "If you're scared of snakes, don't watch this" by National Geographic, "5 meanest snakes in the world!", and "Black Mambas, Africa's most dangerous snake".  A child researching snakes for a school paper or project is going to get an earful about how dangerous snakes are and how deadly they are to people.  Not a good first impression.

Two recent videos posted to YouTube illustrate human ignorance to a great degree.  One video featured two high school aged girls lighting a young gopher tortoise on fire, throwing it in the air, and finally stomping on it to death, all the while laughing and joking about how it just "wouldn't die".  And then there is a video I was made aware of called "Raping a Snake", in which several young people gut a live garter snake with a knife and drain its blood all over the patio and stairs.  Even more videos of animal cruelty exist - snake head decapitation, shooting snakes with shotguns, microwaving animals, and more.  Maybe it's just me, but I see something very wrong with this.  Too many people are raised to fear what they don't understand (or misunderstand) and this results in poor values and behavior.  I've taken it upon myself to do the best I can to show them that all life is precious and should be respected.  I certainly do not ever expect everyone to like snakes, but by understanding them, they can learn to appreciate their true roles on this planet - roles that do not include eating people.  I like to hope people can open up to these ideas.

Last week, I saw a posting on Craigslist for a "free garden snake".  I was curious as to the circumstances surrounding the offer, and reached out to the poster, Joe.  It turns out that Joe's family was witnessing a garter snake hanging around their house over the last few weeks and he was interested in seeing if someone wanted to remove the snake.  I made arrangements to visit with Joe when the snake showed up again.  Sure enough, I got a call on Saturday morning that the snake was out again near the front steps.  When I arrived, I met a young couple, maybe around my age, who had a young boy.  The couple was very interested in NOT having the snake around their house - fair enough.  Within a minute or two, the snake was fished out of some Hydrangeas, where it has been basking.  It was a big, beautiful, likely gravid (or pregnant) plains garter snake (Thamnophis radix). Shy and harmless, yet it still struck fear with the family.  I had to remind myself that most sane, rational people share a fear of snakes, but there was something different about this family.  Though wielding a long-handled shovel, Joe was very interested in seeing this snake leave his property alive and in good health.  Instead of using that shovel to chop it up to itty bitty pieces, he took a photo of the snake (from a distance) and posted in on Craigslist - it took time, it took heart.  It made me think, as I drove to the nearest forest preserve with said snake in tow, about hope, and about how important it is to remain hopeful that enough people are out there that give a damn enough to go out of their way, to stop whatever it is they are doing, and make a difference.  To me, that is huge.  I would love to see more people like Joe and his family.  I don't expect to convert others to become snake lovers, just to think beyond what is expected of them by our culture of fear, with the risk of being called out or labeled as a tree-hugger. 

Hope benefited me in more than one way that day.  Hope is the main reason why I returned to the area I have been searching for queen snakes all spring and summer.  And it paid off - FINALLY!  

First, a set of photos from my visit to the queen snake stream I took a couple weeks ago with Jeffrey Peffers.

Not a queen snake, instead, a beautiful Northern water snake (Nerodia sipedon).  I don't care how common these are, they are such cool snakes and almost always provide for an, um, interesting experience.

Not happy.

Jeffrey Peffers is all about gastropods and bivalves - basically, anything that has no propensity to bite, sting, scratch, or poop on you.

 A very cool find in the stream bed - an old tooth, likely that of a cow but possibly from a bison.  It is very old and is hard as a rock.

An Eastern eyed click beetle (Alaus oculatus).  For the record, Jeffrey was scared of this, too.  He doesn't like the clicking sound and motion these beetles make when they are trying to right themselves into an upright position.

This next set is from this past weekend. 

The plains garter snake as seen by Joe, the homeowner, last week.

The same animal, upon being released at a nearby preserve several days later.

This one is due for a shed as evidenced by the cloudy blue eyes.

 A young Northern water snake in situ I eyeballed, a moment or two before it dove for cover.

 The American toadlets (Anaxyrus americanus) are plentiful and, at this stage of their lives, active by day as well as night, eating as much as they can in order to plump up by season's end.  It is interesting watching them get bigger and bigger as the summer progresses.

They sure do camouflage!

A big (wolf?) spider covered in spiderlings.

 The omnipresent brown snake (Storeria dekayi).  This one is possibly gravid, and was surprisingly feisty.

 On my fifth trip to this location, I finally found a queen snake (Regina septemvittata)!  I waded through miles of ankle-to-knee-deep water and flipped hundreds of rocks before I spotted this juvenile.  BIG rush!

These are difficult to photograph.  When they are small, they are more delicate and very squirmy.  Since they love doing the "death-roll", I need to ensure they won't hurt themselves.  First two photographs are from the iPhone.

These came from my DSLR - very awkward situation in trying to photograph this snake standing on slippery, algae-covered boulders in a fast-flowing creek.

 Head/neck details.  Very beautiful, dark shiny head.

 This snake shows battle scars, likely from the protesting of its prey, the crayfish.

Some habitat shots.