Forest Glen Preserve with Kermit

A few weeks ago I went for a day hike at the Forest Glen Preserve, in east-central Illinois. It is one of the nicest natural areas in that region, with beech-maple and oak-hickory forests. Beech occurs here, on the western edge of its range. It was great getting to see beech trees again, it reminds me of the northeast. Beech-bark-disease (BBD) does not occur out there yet, so there are some very beautiful, large and healthy trees. 

One of my favorite sights in northeastern forests-- sunlight streaming through beech leaves

Kermit liked laying in the creek. 

Kermit was afraid of walking all the way to the top of the Fire Tower, so some Boy Scouts at the bottom watched him for me while I quickly checked out the view. 

This photo is very grainy, because I took it with my cell phone. This was taken from the top of the fire tower in Forest Glen. 

Wetland field work in Southern Illinois

Here are some photos from field work this summer in Illinois, with the Matthews Lab, at the University of Illinois. 

Mitigation bank in Franklin County, Illinois. 

Dusk at a mitigation bank in Franklin County Illinois

One of the several box turtles I found this spring and summer

Juvenile spring peeper at a wetland mitigation site in Saline County

Really impressive-looking spider protecting its egg sac, climbing on a silver maple. At a wetland mitigation site in Saline County (Illinois).

Heading out at dusk, just before a storm rolled in. 

Planting trees in Southern Illinois

In May, me and Ada planted ~418 trees at a wetland mitigation bank in Franklin County Illinois. Ada (grad student in the Matthews Lab) is studying the survival and growth of planted trees in the mitigation bank.

Ada surveying the study site

Me planting tree seedlings along the transect

Ada using the dibble to set the hole for the seedling

A few macro shots at the UIUC Arboretum

Last weekend I explored the campus arboretum with Kermit and my 60mm macro lens.

Viola odorata 

You can see my reflection in Kermit's beautiful eye

One of my favorite tree species, tamarack

Hyla versicolor: the eastern gray treefrog

During the spring and summer this year I was conducting frog call surveys as a part of my graduate research. I found this little juvenile gray tree frog at a mitigation wetland in Whiteside County around 11:00 pm at the end of July. Gray treefrogs have a very distinct call, check it out here. There are actually two species of gray treefrogs in Illinois- the eastern gray treefrog (Hyla versicolor) and Cope's gray treefrog. However, they are morphologically identical, and can be very difficult to distinguish in the field. Read more about the two species here.  

The beautiful cicada!

A few days ago I was laying on the hammock reading, and I found this cicada in the process of molting and   emerging from its nymph stage. About a meter from the hammock I have a stake in the ground with some cord attached to it, which we use to swing on the hammock. My dog, Kermit, usually stares up into the trees watching the squirrels (perhaps waiting for one to fall?) but he was instead staring at the stake in the ground, indeed, he noticed the odd protrusion near the top of the stake before I did. 

The cicada didn't appear to be moving at all, leading me to believe that it was actually dead. I was a little saddened but this, but also glad that I was at least fortunate enough to see part of this amazing process. However, the next morning when I went to mow the backyard, I immediately noticed the cicada was no longer on the stake. This didn't surprise me, I thought it was likely that something would find it and eat it during the night. But to my shock, I found it alive and well on the ground, a few feet away from the stake. Its wings were fully out and it was moving. I snapped a few photos and carefully placed it on one of the large silver maples in our yard, before cutting the grass. 

Day two:

I am not completely sure what species it is, so if you have some ideas please comment below. I think it might be a Tibicen tibicen,but I am not positive.  

We live in an older neighborhood in Champaign, so there are more cicadas around than in the newer subdivisions, where the top soil has been disturbed and removed. When we first arrived at the end of July in 2011, one of the 13 year broods had just emerged, and the cacophony of cicada singing was deafening, but beautiful. From what I have read online, different broods from various 3-5 year cicada species emerge each summer in Illinois. I enjoy and welcome the sound of the cicada song at night, it makes me feel less like I live in the middle of an urban area, and strangely enough, but perhaps for that reason, it reminds me of New Hampshire. As far as I know, there are no cicada species in NH. In rural New Hampshire, the primary sound from my bedroom window was the wind passing through the forest, rustling the leaves and causing trees to creak. 

Listening to the cicadas as I type this post, while I reminisce about NH, I am reminded of one my favorite poems: 

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

— Wendell Berry

I am still around!

I have neglected this blog for some time now, since I moved to Illinois in August of 2011 (with Jacqui! Who moved out here with me, and I am very grateful to her for doing so!) for graduate school at the University of Illinois. I have a great deal of back-photos and things to share and explore about life in the Midwest and central Illinois (the pancake-flat corn desert!), so check back again very soon! Thanks!

On a transect at a wetland mitigation site in Ogle County Illinois along the Rock River.
Check out the huge amaranth! 

cloud front

click on the image to expand

On our way back from Springfield a few days ago, driving on highway 72 (visited Lincoln's home) there was a cloud front moving east, I pulled over and jumped out of the car to snap a few shots. It actually felt like winter that day, about 15 degrees F, with strong wind gusts. The wide open sky of Illinois can sometimes be quite impressive, the only time out east I would see such an open sky, is in the alpine areas on the top of a mountain.

Vintage Stamps

Me and Jacqui visited The Idea Store in Champaign yesterday. It is a store full of a wide assortment of random and interesting items, things that for the most part would likely otherwise be in a landfill. Here people can find a second use for them, for arts and crafts etc. Jacqui found a bunch of ziploc bags full of old/used stamps, from all over world within the last hundred years. Each one is an interesting piece of art in its own right, it is fascinating to consider where they were sent from, to whom, and why, and how they ended up being sold in ziploc bags in east-central Illinois at a thrift store. She started using them for some creative crafts today (so far she has made some really awesome coasters).

  Here is a very small sample from the hundreds of stamps. 

Apparently Belgium had control over Congo for a while, and it was known as the Belgian Congo (wikipedia).

From Japan

I think this is one of the "federal duck stamps," the program, which was started in the 1930s (I think) raised money that was used to protect wetlands around the country

"Family Planning", the "perfect nuclear family." This website discusses the family planning stamps, "...virtually every other Family Planning stamp is from the third world, none are from Europe, and the U.S. would later (under President Reagan) pull out of all international family planing programs."

Luxemburg

I think this is from Hungary

the city-state of Monaco

Peru

Spain 1979. I think translated this reads, "running, a sport for everyone"

Macroshots

Here are a few random macroshots form a walk I took a few months back.

McDaniels Marsh, Springfield, NH, [from July]

Since I moved to Illinois for grad school, I've been too busy to keep up with the blog. Below is a blog post from my last trip home to Springfield, NH. My twin brother, me, his girlfriend and one of my best friends from home went paddling at McDaniels Marsh, in Springfield New Hampshire. The McDaniels Marsh Wildlife Management Area covers roughly 600 acres, located off of route 4A, quite close to Gile State Forest (~6600acres). A beautiful wetland system stretches far back around the bend in the pond, around which there are hundreds (thousands?) of acres of forest.

lily pads

old beaver lodge

pickerel weed

looking northeast

one of my favorite poems

-The Peace of Wild Things-

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

— Wendell Berry