Nature and its secrets – via Rick Bunting

rickbunting@roadsidenaturalist.com

“There are times when you take a picture it becomes something other than what you intended. I was photographing Meadow Fritillaries a few days ago and one landed on some Queen Anne’s Lace. When I looked at the photo on the computer with the intent of cropping it to show the butterfly,it became a very nice photo of the plant with a couple of insects on it!“



“I had a chance to watch and photograph a Hummingbird Clearwing Moth at my sister-in-law’s yesterday. It was working on the Beebalm and the required a full extension of it’s proboscis!“



“And while we are on the subject of proboscises here is a close up of a Monarch I was watching a few days ago nectaring on Indian Hemp. Monarchs, like all insects, do have six legs but the first set is very small and difficult to see. This is the best photo I have taken that shows that first set of very short legs.“



“One of our most beautiful butterflies is the American Lady. Perhaps it is a good thing that, as far as we know, self image is not an issue with butterflies because it might be difficult to live life (short as it is) as a male American Lady!"



“The Fritillary Family is one of the most spectacular groups of butterflies that grace our area in the summertime. The locals include three larger members, Great Spangled, Aphrodite and Atlantis. This year, my first sighting was this Atlantis two days ago. The big three have similar coloring but the Atlantis is the one with the blue-gray eye. (Atlantic Ocean - blue-gray water, blue-gray eye - Atlantis Fritillary)“



“I also saw this pair of Bronze Coppers having a speed date at the Daisy Inn. I say it was a speed date because it didn’t take long for her to send him flying while she continued to enjoy her drink!“



“She made sure she fed both of the kids before pausing for a look at her progeny and then she made a quiet exit stage left. The kids were left to wonder where she went and I too was left with wonder and much gratitude for being in the audience for this performance!“

 

“I take many thousands of pictures that I discard but I just feel that it is important, if even for just a moment, to memorialize what I am observing.  When I first read Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard many years ago, one phrase stood out and it has stuck with me all my life. "Full many a flower is born to blush unseen and waste it’s sweetness on the desert air." In that moment of focus I am not allowing the subject to "blush unseen".  Such is the case with Frogs. I can’t keep my lens off them!  When I first saw this Bullfrog I noticed the debris in his mouth that looked like a cigarette and up came the camera.  When I looked at the photo on the computer I saw that his right "hand" was holding down the blade of the plant and I was sure that was because he wanted a better view of me. You never know!“

As you can see, Rick’s journals are filled with swamp denizens and all kinds of birds we see at Teatown, like the Pileated and the big guy above. Again, contact him if you want to subscribe:
rickbunting@roadsidenaturalist.com.

Bloomlist notes for July 26, 2018

    This week's bloomlist for Wildflower Island is at the end of the post, and Bonnie's
    pictures can be found HERE. Peterson names are used for consistency wherever possible,
    and comments and clarifications are welcome in the comments section.

Today the variety of mushrooms was wonderful, in direct competition with the number of delicate Indian-pipe colonies that were all over the island (except at the first leg of the path).
So much fun.

Today Mary looked high up and saw berries on the Alternate-leaved Dogwood, which means we didn’t look high enough this year when we were really looking for the blooms a couple of months ago. It would be great if I could tell you that we missed them THIS year, but looking back in my files, we didn’t list them in 2015, 16, and 17 as well. We’ll be more careful next year.

No swans today, but we saw a bunch of large white feathers on the edge of the lake where the Starry Campion is.  Not a good sign.

Sallow Sedge. First, I’m not 100% sure that’s what we have. Secondly, the male (staminate) spike is light green when we included it in the bloomlist, and when it fades to tan, we’ve been assuming it’s no longer “in bloom.” They've been tan for a couple of weeks now, but today there was a plant whose staminate spike seemed definitely virile enough to include it in today's list.

                  Green spike:                                       Faded tan spike:

           

Bonnie took the pictures yesterday, and Mary and I did the list today.
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Bloomlist notes for July 19, 2018

    This week's bloomlist for Wildflower Island is at the end of the post, and Bonnie's
    pictures can be found HERE. Peterson names are used for consistency wherever possible,
    and comments and clarifications are welcome in the comments section.

We got a strong scent of what I think is Sweet Pepperbush at about #14 on the map, but all we could find were buds. Probably, though, it’ll be open all over the lake edges by the weekend.

The swans didn’t hiss at us today because they were way out in the lake, but maybe you’ll get a sample of their churlishness if they’re hanging around opposite #23 on the map.

Before I forget, we forgot to look for False Nettle today in that little spit after you pass through the rock wall (just after where the Wild Geraniums were). It was there last week, and was probably there today.

There's one spot where you can see Common Nightshade Solanum nigrum: facing the gatehouse but nowhere near it, on the left edge of the path where the row of Foamflowers live. Few blooms, but the little yellow beak is so cute. The picture on the left is very misleading.  The blooms are small.



There’s some long grass just as you pass into The Woods from the parking lot on the left of the path. It’s always been eaten, so I never really tried to identify it. But today I saw some florescences that really do look like Wheat, so I’ve written to Leigh to see if they planted some of that there, and also a little further along the path where there's a bunch of them roped off.


My grasses book says that the sometimes the little florets have bristles, and sometimes not. Ours do not, but GoBotany has pictures of both kinds. The description provided by Illinois Wildflowers exactly matches what we have here.


(Someone really cut back the Red-osier Dogwood on the boardwalk to the bird blind. Just saying....)










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Bloomlist notes for July 12th, 2018

    This week's bloomlist for Wildflower Island is at the end of the post, and Bonnie's
    pictures can be found HERE. Peterson names are used for consistency wherever possible,
    and comments and clarifications are welcome in the comments section.

Today was a kind of rest period for the Island, before the vibrant summer colors come in. It was also a particularly "white" day, though the Sweet Pepperbush buds weren't yet open or releasing their scent.

A couple of points ...
Here's Curled Dock in bloom, and according to the Illinois site, the blooming period lasts about a month. They turn dark brown as they turn more and more to seed.


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I think the plant that looks so much like Lady's-thumb, but whose small blooms are more white than pink is Pennsylvania Smartweed. Here's Bonnie's picture of it.

The generally missing dark thumbprint (chevrons) on the leaves is a significant characteristic of this Persicaria.

I would be more secure calling this the Pennsylvania Smartweed if I had remembered to check the leaf sheathes, which do not have hairs.

Below are pictures of the Lady's-thumb and Pennyslvania sheathes, along with the Peterson illustrations.

We welcome any clarifications or updates on these species.

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Bloomlist notes for July 4th, 2018

    This week's bloomlist for Wildflower Island is at the end of the post, and Bonnie's
    pictures can be found HERE. Peterson names are used for consistency wherever possible,
    and comments and clarifications are welcome in the comments section.

Surprising finds today, because the place looks green-green-green, but there actually were quite a few blooms, though some very small.

Maleberry near the Fringed Polygala. I don’t know if we missed it last week, or if more of it started to bloom today. Today we did locate a beautiful Sweetflag: don’t know if it was there last week and hidden, or if it just came up now. I think we probably missed it last week, as it looked mighty healthy.

Hellborine was a surprise today. Haven't seen that for years.

What we definitely did not mention last week in The Woods was the large stand of Greater Masterwort and Wild Bleeding-hearts halfway up to the rock ridge — and they’re still there. You can see a Lizard’s-tail through one of the holes in the bird blind, and it’s great to see so many Buttonbushes getting ready to bloom in spite of the beavers' war on shrubs the past three years.


Here’s something interesting ...  


The whitish flower (left) is the Pale Touch-me-not (Impatiens pallida) and on the right, the more common Spotted Touch-me-not (Impatiens capensis). One of the differences between them, apart from the obvious color, is the nectar spur. In the Pale, it's almost curlicue, in the Spotted, less curved and pointing forward.

The larger conical part of this flower is actually not a petal but one of the three sepals. It's characterized as “petaloid” because it looks like a petal.

There are four petals, the two at the top being smaller than the two lower ones. In the Pale species (below left), these lower ones are not fused, but they are in the Spotted (right), forming a nice landing spot for insects.

Those other two sepals sit behind the upper two petals, which can be seen most clearly in the Spotted blooms on the right.





On the Island, somewhat off the path was a garlic in pretty bloom. Bonnie got a picture of that one (below right), but we didn't think to take a picture of the other one because, honestly, we thought its bloom had passed. It was quite a straggly looking thing.



It turns out it may have also have been a garlic, because online descriptions show the first stage of flowering has the white flowers and “aerial bulbils” (like the picture on the right and below left as well), and in the 2nd stage (below right), the bulbils produce those long, strange-looking “tails" pointing upwards.

GoBotany calls this Crow Garlic, Allium vineale.  Wiki mentions that name, but files the entry under Wild Garlic.


Peterson and the Illinois Wildflower site call it Field Garlic, which is what we'll use in the bloomlist, following the rule to use Peterson names whenever possible. But, it's confusing, because many websites use that same name, Field Garlic, for Allium oleraceum.


Bottom line, I’m not sure which garlic we saw because we couldn’t get close enough.











In the Woods highlights on the bloomlist, I don’t usually repeat plants in the lake if I cite them in the WFI list (ex: Tuberous Water-lily, Swamp Smartweed, Buttonbush). But in some cases (e.g., Northeastern Rose), I've put these lake and lakeside plants in both lists, cause they’re so special wherever they are. 


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