Spring Cleaning…
Spring has finally arrived, and there’s a flurry of activity and updates to share. So get out and enjoy everything that this season has to offer.
Fire… An ecologist once said that fire season is just like any other season, but on a different scale and schedule. Illinois is known as the “Prairie State,” and annual prairie fires played a huge role in shaping the habitats of our prairies and oak woodlands. Today, ecologists use the process of prescribed fires to reintroduce this important influence back into our natural areas. Sections of Forest Park Nature Center have already had their spring burns, and several other natural areas (Singing Woods, Springdale Cemetery Savanna) are scheduled in the weeks ahead. Visit one soon and see just how fire plays a role in the rejuvenation of these habitats. The prairie on the Valley Trail at Forest Park Nature Center is a great example.
Spring ephemerals… April is a time to get out to our woods for a seasonal show of spring wildflowers. Each spring, the forest floor comes alive with a flourish of color as flowers vie for the spring sunshine. They don’t have much time. Soon the leaves of trees will be out, intercepting the sun’s rays leaving spring ephemerals in shadow. Before this happens the Virginia Bluebells, Dutchman’s Breeches, Spring Beauties, and many more wildflowers will soak up spring’s sunshine. Their lifecycle will end as quickly as it began. By summer, all of these spring plants will have dropped their seed and retired for a long slumber until next spring.
Bird Dance… Spring is a season for courtship. The American Woodcock is a funny little fellow. Short legs, chubby little body, and a long beak. He is perfectly built to probe the soil for worms. You wouldn’t think he was also an experienced dancer who uses our hilltop prairies and night sky as his stage. At night, in an opening of the woods along the bluffs of the Illinois River, he will set up a dance floor just at sunset. He sits in the center of the stage, giving a low, nasal “peent” call. Without warning, some unknown cue causes him to jump into the air and launch into a spiral, twittering flight high into the air. At the height of his dance, he reverses course and spirals down singing a warbling song. Just before he hits the earth, he levels out and lands in almost the exact same place he started. He then will give an encore performance time and time again in hopes of impressing a female. His nighttime performance is the original “Dancing with the Stars.”
Warbler Migration… The woods in late April and early May come alive with songs from the tropics. Each year as the trees begin to come back to life, birds begin their annual migration from wintering grounds in Central and South America to their nesting grounds in the boreal forests of the Great Lakes region and Canada. These stunning “jewels of the forest” greet the spring dressed anew in colorful courtship plumage. On a good day, you can see over 20 species of warblers on a hike through the wooded trails in our local parks. Most will be here for only a short time. They have more important obligations elsewhere. As they grace our woods with song and splendid color, they feed on a multitude of insects that also revel in the new spring. Tiny caterpillars of spring cankerworm explode onto the scene to devour the new tender leaves of waking trees. You have seen them, I’m sure… tiny, green “inchworms” that dangle from the forest on a silken thread. You might ask “Why the ‘Tarzan’ impersonation?” If you are a caterpillar being chased by a bird, a good strategy for survival is to jump ship, but keep hold of a lifeline. The spring forest is a complex relationship. The birds need the insects, the insects need the trees, and ultimately, the trees need the birds. Without the birds, the trees would quickly become leafless skeletons on the landscape.
Spring is a remarkable time of the year. Its unfolding will take many twists and turns over the next few weeks. If you don’t make a concerted effort to jump aboard its quick pace, it can roll right on by, leaving you standing in the midst of full-fledged summer, looking back wondering “Where did spring go?” Do yourself a favor; get out at least twice a week. Stop the car and hike down a trail if only for a few minutes. You deserve it, and the experiences you take into your being will be worth the effort.