Fullersburg Woods Forest Preserve - 4.15.12 - Post 3

Okay, the next set of spottings...

Prairie Trillium (028 - 2012)

 So I first noticed Trillium in Tennessee.  I didn't think we had it up here, or at least I'd never noticed it before.  But hey, look!  The one in Tennessee was called a "Sweet Betsy".  This one is called a Prairie Trillium.  At first I couldn't see much of a difference between the two, but one of the websites I looked at made me look at the leaves closer.  These leaves are two distinct shades of green.  The Sweet Betsy has solid leaves.  It also has taller, thinner flowers than this.

Eastern Gray Squirrel (029 - 2012)

They're pretty ubiquitous around here, but I found this Eastern Gray Squirrel to be pretty adorable.

He's the original tree-hugger. :)

He didn't see me for a while , but you can see in this shot that he'd finally figured out what was going 'click-click-click'.




Which prompted him to do this.  Turn ninety degrees and hang out sideways for a good long time.  Strange little dude.  Cute... but strange.

Tiger Beetle (030 - 2012)

The arthropods and other cold-bloodeds started sticking their heads out in March when we had that freakish warm spell.  But for the most part, they've gone to ground as the temperatures have normalized.  This lone tiger beetle was the only 'crawly' I saw this trip.  There will be butterflies later, but this is the lone 'bug'.

Blue-Winged Teal (031 - 2012)

 Okay, this shot is *abysmal*, which is really disappointing.  It's a totally new species and from pictures I've googled they're cool looking water foul.  But at least now I know they're around and what I'm looking at when I see them.

It's a Blue-Winged Teal.  Teal, in this case is the type of bird it is.  Like we'd say 'duck' or 'goose' or 'grebe'.  So it's not in one of those groups.  It's in the group called 'teal.'

So, I know this shot is awful, but since I'm pretty sure I've never seen one before, I don't want to take the chance that I won't see another one.  So for now, I'll post the horrid shot, and hopefully I'll be able get better ones before migration is over.  (This was one I was glad I had the magnet board in the visitors' center to check the species on, because the picture is so incredibly bad.)

Creeping Buttercup (032 - 2012)

Okay, wild buttercups have a tendency to look a lot alike.  Now, there's a sign in the cultivated area that says these flowers are swamp buttercups, but when I Google that, I get a very different picture.  So I poked around for a while longer and what I think I actually found out in the 'wilds' was a Creeping Buttercup. If anyone is better with Illinois wildflowers and has a better idea, I'd love to hear it.  Thanks!

American Robin (033 - 2012)

So it occurred to me the other day that I'm ignoring some species because they're as common as dust around here.  Then I realized that my blog has been seen in 35% of all the countries in the world. Which means that for at least a few people, what's common to me probably isn't so common to them.

One of the things I haven't been blogging and counting are what I think of as 'the six second grade birds.'  See, when I was in 2nd grade (about 7 years old) we had to learn to identify the 6 birds we were most likely to see wild in Northern Illinois: sparrows (and they were all just lumped together, but I think mostly we saw pictures of house sparrows), robins, crows, cardinals, mallard ducks and Canada geese.  So to me, these things are just everywhere and not that 'special'.  But I should probably get them in here if I want to have as complete a record of what's around here as I can get.

Also fair to note, apparently the American maturity rate has sunk to about eleven years old and gotten stuck there long enough that they renamed this bird since I was in 2nd grade.  We learned it as the "Robin Red-Breast".  You know like the White-Breasted Nuthatch from the last post?  Well, apparently the word 'breast' is now too controversial so it's now called the "American Robin."  Dear school children and those who act like them over the name of a bird... Grow up. 

Red-Breasted Woodpecker (034 - 2012)

So from the very common to the quite uncommon.  I know I saw one last year, but that was it.  I saw one.  All year.

And apparently I never got it blogged, which makes it new for the count. :)

This is a male Red-Breasted Woodpecker.

Possibly one of the strangest names ever for a bird.

Now, given, Red-Headed Woodpecker was already taken.  But still, look at that first picture.  Do you see any red on his breast?  And it's not just a weird specimen; when you check on line, the notably red part of this bird is his head.  His chest is mostly white with maybe a bit of a rose blush.  I totally don't understand how this bird got the name he did.  (On the flipside, at least he's rare enough that he didn't have to undergo a name change to avoid making school kids giggle like crazy every time he came up in conversation.)

In this shot you can see that he has a bit of blush around his eyes and red around his beak... but still no red breast.











Okay, that's it for this post.  More sightings tomorrow.



Total Identified Species Sited for the Year: 34
Total Unidentified Species Sited for the Year: 1
Total New Species: 18

Prairie Trillium*
Eastern Gray Squirrel
Tiger Beetle
Blue-Winged Teal*
Creeping Buttercup*
American Robin
Red-Breasted Woodpecker*

Something's Bugging Me about This Post - Willowbrook WC - 6.16.11, post 1

So I mentioned in my last post that I was heading off to Willowbrook Wildlife Center again, this time as part of a volunteer work crew.  It was a great experience, and the brief walk I took through the center afterwards yielded a lot of great shots, but first I received some bad news.

My grebe died.  They said that at first he seemed to be doing well and eating on his own, but about a month after he was brought in something compromised his lungs and they were unable to save him.  I know they did everything they could; they're a remarkable facility, but I'm still kind of bummed.

Anyway, there were five people on our work crew and our job was to clear out a couple of invasive species in a section of the prairie.  We were pulling out Honeysuckle and Buckthorn and there was a *ton* of it.  In three hours we cleared about one-hundred square feet.  That doesn't sound like a lot for fifteen man-hours, but it was hot and the work was pretty intense.  We made a roughly ten feet deep, by six feet wide by six feet tall pile of brush to be burned.

There were some phenomenal insects and spiders unearthed in doing this, and the best way to get them at the time was to shoot them on my phone, so I did.  Of course the very next day, before I'd had a chance to move any of the shots, my card corrupted and I lost the pictures.  Oh well.

It was about 85* F out there and we'd been working pretty hard (and dragging up All The Pollen Ever!) and I was in jeans and work boots, so I didn't stay too long to get pictures afterwards.  I walked around the pond as far as I could go (they have a section blocked off) and did a bit on the trails.  But even in the hour and a half or so I was out there, there was a lot of cold-blooded critter activity.

In fact, I'm going from pretty much an all-bird blog, to an all-bug blog!  Mostly, but not entirely.  Well, entirely for this post.

This shot was an accident.  I was actually trying to get the wildflower and the bee flew in.  It's a bumblebee, of that I'm sure.  ProjectNoah tells me it's a Megachilid bee, probably Osmia.

This is a Six-Spotted Tiger Beetle.  He's an amazing iridescent green with a white face.  He's pretty small, maybe two centimeters long?

 Tiny dragonfly is tiny!  This is a Calico Pennant.  Lovely little bug with little hearts on their tails.  But small, for dragonflies. I'd say their bodies are between 1/3 and 1/2 the size of the 'normal' dragonflies I usually see like the Pondhawks or Saddlebags.

And for this particular day, they were also the most calm and easiest to shoot.

I have to say, these are the most ironic dragonflies for me.  They're called "Common Whitetails", but I rarely see them.  I saw one a the North Pond last year and there was only a few of them here.  Not so common!

Okay, photographically lously, but at least you can see the White when it's all spread out.  The big splotches on the wings and the light body make them pretty easy to recognize, even in flight.

This is a very small grasshopper, only 3 or 4 cm long.  I'm still trying to find out what kind he is.  Anyone have an idea?

A new dragonfly!  This is a Jade Clubtail.  They're significantly different than the other green dragonflies I've seen before.  I knew right away that this was something new.

They like to perch on the lily pads which is unusual.  If you look through most of my dragonfly shots, you'll notice that they usually like to land on sticks, reeds and grasses that are sticking up out of the water.

I believe this is an Eastern Comma.  It's a Comma of some sort, but because I couldn't get a good shot of her with her wings open, I'm not one-hundred percent sure which one it is.






 

This was the best shot I could get of the tops of the wings.  Not much help.












Okay, that's eleven shots.  Enough for one post.  More bugs and a few other critters and plants, later.

So let's see... the comma, the jade, the calico, and the tiger beetle.  Four new named species.  39 total of my 50.

Last New Species post for North Pond - 5.10.10

So I thought I was done with new species for this trip, but then I started going through the shots I'd oh-so-cleverly labeled things like "CheckThisBird" and "UnknownSparrow".

 The first thing I found was this dragonfly wheel.  Unlike the pondhawks I had a ton of last year, this is apparently a Common Green Darner.  He's different because instead of having a solid, dusty, light blue tail, he has a darker green tail with brown marks on it.  He's also *huge*.

 After a few hundred painted turtles, I finally found something a little different.  This is apparently a False Map Turtle.  According to Wikipedia, When with other turtles, they also are very communal, sharing space and using each other for predator watching, increasing the odds of surviving an attack by any unwanted animal. Which explains why every time I saw one of these, they were hanging out with the bigger, more obvious, painted turtles. :)

Like this:

 A False Map hanging out with a group of Sliders.

 Not a new species, but in case you haven't noticed, I find sexual dimorphism fascinating.  This is the female Common Yellow-throat Warbler.

 The folks at the fabulous Project Noah site had to help me with this one.  Turns out he's a Lincoln's Sparrow.  They migrate through Chicago, but apparently don't stay.  So I was lucky to catch him as he passed through town.

 Here you can see his identifying head stripes a little bit better.

 This one is still throwing us for a loop at Project Noah.  He's a wren.  We know that much.  The white eyestripe makes me think he's a Carolina Wren.  But the Carolina Wrens have a very white chin, and this guy doesn't seem to have that.  The Marsh Wren is similar in coloring, but doesn't have the white eyestripe.  Any suggestions gratefully accepted! :)

 Another view, in case it helps. :)

 Something else that needs an I.D.  It's a beetle.  It was digging around in the bark chips on the path of the North Pond.  Any ideas?







Okay, so, I'm not entirely sure what they all *are*, but there's five new species in this post.  So now I'm at 28 of my 50, and the butterflies and dragonflies and most of the cold-bloodeds haven't really started making an appearance yet.  I may have to up my goal. :)

South Pond - 8.30.10 - Post 4

Okay, so I finally walked away from the Claude the Caterpillar and continued my way around the boardwalk.

Purple and Orange

An Eastern Tailed Blue Butterfly on Butterfly Milkweed.  I love contrasting colors, so his purple on the orange is very striking.  And it was nice that he was showing off the insides of his wings.  So many of the butterflies that sit still long enough to be captured are folded up and the undersides of their wings aren't as interesting in most cases.

Eastern Tailed Blue Flies Off

He flew off for a second, giving me a great view of the dark lines on his wing edges.

Eastern Tailed Blue Wings: Inside and Out

But then he came back and landed facing me, which was nice.  You can actually see his wing-tails in this shot.  And he got a little buggy friend on the far left flower bud.

Twelve-Spotted Skimmer with Faded Edges

Several things decided to sit still for me on this walk.  Considering it was (apparently) one of the last really hot days in Chicago for the year, I was expecting the cold-bloodeds to be more active, but hey, not arguing. :)

Purple, Green and Yellow

This one is neat for the way the color slashes across the really drab background.  The purple flowers and then the yellow of both the bee and the flower buds, not to mention the bright green stem.

Familiar Bluet, Brilliant Blue

A case-in-point for why cameras have a manual focus.  There's no way in the world my auto focus would have been able to grab something as slender as this Familiar Bluet damselfly.

Mrs. Pondhawk

So a female Eastern Pondhawk finally sat still for a second.  I've got tons of shots of the very blue males, but the females tend to be more active and/or blend in to their surroundings to the point that they're much more difficult to shoot.

It's So Easy Being Green

She flipped over to another leaf and I loved the way she added color to a very green shot, even though she's green too.  She also moved out of the shadows making the temperature of the picture change drastically.

Pensive Gull

So in Chicago we tend to just refer to these as 'seagulls', but more properly they're Ring-Billed Gulls, for reasons that are pretty obvious in this shot. As I'm getting more specie of gulls, I need to try to be more specific. :)  I typically get annoyed when all I can get a good shot of is an animal's back.  It's easier to get their backs sometimes because they aren't looking at you and don't see you coming, but the picture isn't as good.  I came up from behind this guy and he turned his head just enough to be seen.  It makes him look pensive.  As if he's debating what's out in that pond for him.

Profile Gull

When he turned to look at me more fully he looses that 'thinky' look and becomes a little more evil looking. Which, to be fair, isn't all anthropomorphication - these birds have very little fear of humans and can be very nasty.

Japenese Beetle on Stem

Okay, I was finally able to Google a species on this guy, who I first noticed at Midewin.  He's a Japanese Beetle.  Very shiny.

Antennae Like Leaves

He's hanging on for dear life here, but it gives a great view of the white spots around his shell and the little fringes on the tips of his antennae.

Seems Well Behaved Enough

This is apparently called an Obedient Plant.  Where did I find it listed?  On a list of "Most Unwanted" plants for Kentucky.  So much for obedient if it can't stay out of areas it isn't wanted. ;)

I'm actually kind of keen on it's odd shape and the fact that it blossoms from the bottom up.  It reminds me of Thai-style decorations.







Okay, I have one more card of shots to go through from this walk and then I can finally move on to a new location. :)

South Pond - 8.30.10 - Post 1

I feel the need to preface this post with the surrounding details.  I went to run a few errands in Lincoln Park, and it ended up being a bust - the things I needed to pick up weren't done.  So I walked the South Pond since I was there anyway.  When I got home I found that my little ferret, Magick, was in the process of passing away.  She was almost 8 years old - which is quite old for a ferret - and she'd had cancer for a year, so this wasn't unexpected.  However, even when expected, losing a beloved pet sucks rocks.  And while I am absolutely certain that me not taking this walk wouldn't have changed things for her, there's still a little bit of me that says, "Damn, I should have gone straight home."  You know?

So, I'll miss the little muppet.

Magick - January 1, 2003 - August 30, 2010

Anyway... this is what I saw while I was out.

Great Black Wasp on Bubbles

This is a Great Black Wasp.  Buried in the algae he's walking on just above his head is a skipper butterfly who apparently got sucked in.  What I was really interested in here was the bubbled surface of the pond algae that the bug is walking on.

Fiery Skipper on Marsh Thistle

 Fiery Skippers are having a great year at the South Pond.  There are hundreds of them.  Here's one on a Marsh Thistle.  At least I'm pretty sure it's Marsh Thistle.  It's next to the pond, but the maps I find usually say that the southern edge of the plant's range is southern Wisconsin.  Though, you know, Chicago isn't a ridiculous distance from southern Wisconsin, so it's not unreasonable that the park folks would choose to install it here.  ANYWAY... if you click on the picture to make it bigger, you can see the butterfly's proboscis as he feeds from the flower.

Argiope on Railing

I wish this guy had sat still just a little bit longer.  He's roughly half a cm from front foot to back end.  Really, really tiny.  And pretty hyper.  If you can't tell what he's on, it's the railing to the pond boardwalk.  I almost discovered him the hard way as I trailed my hand along the metal.  I think it's an Argiope - also called a Yellow Garden Spider.  I'll need to keep an eye out to see if I can get a better shot of one next time I'm out there.

I'm Ready for My Close Up

There was a gigantic flock of sparrows hanging out between the zoo gate and the part of the pond closest to the zoo.  If you got too close they came up off the ground and into a tree, but if you waited a minute, they'd all head back for the ground under the boardwalk.  I think it's a song sparrow (seriously, until I started looking, I had no idea how many kinds of sparrows there are out there.).  Anyway, I loved the way he turned his head up to look at me as if trying to decide if I was enough of a threat to bother him into moving.

Pondhawk on Broadleaf

An Eastern Pondhawk Dragonfly on a leaf over that same patch of bubbly algae.  I was playing with the bokeh a little.  I wanted an angle where I wouldn't get that dead leaf under the dragonfly's leaf, but my mobility was kind of limited on the boardwalk.  Still, I think the dragonfly pops out.

Upside-Down Tachnid

 I was ridiculously pleased with these shots of a Tachnid Fly on a Rattlesnake Master.  I mean, sure, it's a fly, but as pictures of flies go, I like these. :)

Rightside-Up Tachinid

Look how prominent his antennae look against the plant.  You can also see how he's holding on with all of his feet.

Fl-eye

His eyes are so pronounced in this shot.  He's not looking at me head-on, but your eyes still go straight to his red ones.

Cuckoo in the Rattlesnake Master

Same kind of plant, different kind of bug.  Google tells me this is a Cuckoo Bumblebee.  And if you read up on these things, they're nasty!  They infiltrate hives of other bees and take over.

Fire Colored Beetle on Rattlesnake Master

Obviously the Rattlesnake Master was the plant of the day.  Here's a Fire Colored Beetle (something new :).  I was captivated by his antennae which never stopped moving.

Eye Catching Monarch

Monarchs, Monarchs everywhere.  I'm starting to see more Monarchs in Chicago.  I don't think I've taken a walk all summer where I haven't found at least one.  This shot is fun because it has this great 3D effect where the butterfly and the branch it's perched on seem to stick out from the leaves in the background.

Milkweed Unmunched

 
This is Butterfly Milkweed.  Not only are they a beautiful, bright flower, they attract the Brushfoot Butterflies and their larva.  This will be key in the next post. ;)






Up next... the amazing shots of the first caterpillar I found all year.  Go figure it was almost September before I could find one!