Summer 1999

[TEXT ARCHIVE WEB-PUBLISHED MARCH 2002.
ORIGINAL PRINT PUBLICATION DATE: SUMMER 1999.]

Here's what's debuting this season
on nature's stage in Chicago Wilderness

by Jack MacRae

July/August

Poke Salad Annie
In 1969, a singer named Tony Jo White had a hit song named Polk Salad Annie, about a "mean, spiteful woman" who was so ornery she "made the alligators look tame." She probably got this name for picking the emerging shoots of Phytolacca americana, or pokeweed. Pokeweed is a tall, large-leaved plant with a thick, dark purple stem that grows in damp areas of disturbed woodlands. The new, young stems have been used in a salad, but the mature stems, berries, and roots are poisonous. No thanks! Great song, though!

Gar
In July 1962, when I was five years old, I witnessed a fatal beating on the shore of Bangs Lake in Lake County. A group of fishermen had hauled a long-nosed gar onto the dock and were smacking the living daylights out of it with an oar. The fish was longer than me and was snapping and thrashing about the pier. I was terrified of the creature and wouldn't even wade in that lake until I reached high school, when we would sneak into the private resorts by crawling through a culvert under the road. There are still populations of these large fish living in Bangs Lake, as well as a few other bodies of water in Lake and McHenry Counties, typically in small glacial lakes with little or no current. Gar can tolerate relatively warm water virtually devoid of oxygen. They are able to gulp air from the surface, using a primitive organ as a supplement to their usual gill respiration. Look for these large fish as they bask near the surface in the late afternoon sun.

American Gold
Young goldfinches are being fed a delightful repast of regurgitated, partly digested thistle seed, horked up by their parents. The offspring of these birds are late arrivals to the natural world. The parents may not even build their nests until July when the thistle is blooming. The homes of these attractive songbirds can be found in the forked branches of shrubs. The nests are tight little bowls lined with thistledown, so well constructed that they hold water. Sadly, more than one fledgling goldfinch has drowned in its own nest.

August/September

Copulating Lepidoptera
Hopefully there are plenty of copulating butterflies in the Chicago Wilderness. This is the time of year when male and female butterflies are meeting and mating; doing their best to replenish their species. Of course, the mating behavior differs from species to species. Some butterflies perform a complex "dance" high above the treetops, others simply pair up for a short duration while resting on a plant. After they have completed "the act," the female seeks just the right species of plant for her species of butterfly on which to lay eggs while the male seeks another mate. This summer, during her brief, two-week life as an adult, the female Karner blue butterfly will mate and lay eggs among the wild lupine growing in the oak- covered dunes of northwest Indiana. This rare, diminutive creature was given its current scientific name, Lycaides melissa samuelis, by noted lepidopterist and first-rate writer Vladimir Nabokov in 1941.

Orbs
Our large, black and yellow argiope spiders are currently building their round, symmetrical webs along the paths that wind through our grasslands. Web construction usually occurs at night, with the finished structure ready to entrap flying insects shortly after sun up. Argiopes are able to traverse their webs by walking on the straight, non-sticky strands of webbing that radiate out from the center. The spiraling strands of the web are the sticky ones, and thus avoided by the web's owner. A characteristic of these predators is the thick zigzag webbing called the stabilimentum found in the middle of the web.

Look closely and you'll see these webs are usually constructed not to hang vertically, but on a slight angle. This allows the spider to move about the underside of the web, using gravity to keep its body away from the sticky threads.

Bird Joke
Ranger Tom told me the following joke:

Q. What did the turkey vulture take on the airplane?

A. Carrion luggage.

The turkey vultures that spent the last several months in the north country are heading south, migrating through our area with a variety of other birds of prey. Look for these large scavengers as they soar through our skies, holding their wings in a shallow V formation. They're not looking for their food as they fly, they're sniffing for it —  hoping to catch a whiff of a bloated, rotting animal carcass.

Yellow Legs
If you're lucky, you may be able to spot some yellowlegs walking along the shores of Lake Calumet. Belonging to the Sandpiper family, both greater and lesser yellowlegs travel through the Chicago Wilderness during their seasonal migrations, stopping for an occasional meal of crustaceans and insects. They are an alert breed, loudly calling an alarm when they feel threatened. These aptly named birds can be easily distinguished from other sandpipers by their long, yellow legs. Also, the greater yellowlegs is larger than the lesser yellowlegs. Nice naming job, huh? In late summer, the yellowlegs are already on their journey south. Some don't stop migrating until they reach Tierra del Fuego!

Bullwinkle's Buddy?
In our mature woodlands, there lives a well known but seldom seen mammal. Active almost exclusively at night, the southern flying squirrels of the Chicago Wilderness are currently producing a second brood of young ones; the first batch was born in the spring and is already living on their own. Living in a dead limb of a red oak, the newborn flying squirrels are 2 inches long, pink, naked, and weigh less than an ounce. Due to the squirrels' nocturnal habits, casual visitors to the woods are rarely aware of their presence. A powerful flashlight is recommended for spotting southern flying squirrels. Their brown eyes appear bright, ruby red when illuminated. During the day, one should look for opened acorns and hickory nuts under old woodpecker holes. Nuts opened by flying squirrels have a distinctive circular hole gnawed through the shell. Rocket J. Squirrel, of Rocky and Bullwinkle fame, was probably a northern flying squirrel, as his home was in Frostbite Falls, Minnesota.