JUNE/JULY

Bobolink
The papa bobolinks of Chicago Wilderness will be busy this July. Highly polygamous, the male — identified by his prominent butter-colored nape — will assist in feeding all the offspring in his territory. They might be his.

Bobolinks don't fly directly to their nests. To maintain secrecy, bobolink parents fly to a spot near their nests on the ground, and then proceed to walk to their waiting chicks. Until the young ones learn to fly, the adults will collect nutritious beetles, spiders and grasshoppers for their meals. As the youngsters mature, the more typical bobolink meal of grass seeds will be introduced into their diet.

Turtle Intelligence
In one of the dramatic moments of twentieth-century science, animal behaviorist Robert M. Yerkes sent spotted turtles through a maze to test a turtle's ability to learn. His research seemed to indicate that spotted turtles learned the route as quickly as rats. (He didn't try hares.) Perhaps when you think of their local preferred habitat — complex sedge meadows and vegetated shallow wetlands — it makes sense that they need to find their way through the underwater labyrinth of sedge hummocks and cattail stalks.

We have only a few small populations of spotted turtles in our region, which is the western edge of their sporadic range. During the summer, these small, dark turtles can be "spotted" (pun intended) on cattail mats, soaking up the warm, early morning sun.

JULY/AUGUST

Bobsy Cats
During midsummer, while my two boys are taking their first solo trips around our neighborhood, the twin bobcat kittens are doing the same — that is, making unescorted trips from their den and exploring the sun-dappled ravine they call home.

Lately the energetic kits have been learning the hard way that most bugs taste gross. They are diligent students and will be living on their own by the start of winter (the bobcats, certainly not my boys). Though still uncommon, the adaptable bobcat has been gradually able to expand its range. According to state experts, since 1985, our native wildcat has been verified in 99 of 102 Illinois counties including all those in Chicago Wilderness. Few of us see them, but they're here. That is so cool.

Glass Lizard
As further evidence of the wide range of fauna that call Chi Wild home, this summer we'll have a few baby western slender glass lizards hatching into our little part of the world. Superficially resembling snakes (but with ear openings and blinking eyes), our local limbless lizards are found in the northern edges of the Kankakee sand area of Will County and in suitable habitat near Gary, Indiana. Typically a southern species, some specimens were even collected from the ancient beach ridges of the Evanston/Rogers Park area by the great Field Museum herpetologists Walter Necker and Karl P. Schmidt in the 1930s. This kind of lizard doesn't live there any more.

Young glass lizards grow amazingly fast during their first summer. Less than five inches long when hatched, they double their length in a matter of weeks as they hungrily devour earthworms and soft, larval invertebrates.

Pitcher Plant
Our meat-eating plants are nowhere near as large or intimidating as those once fed by Morticia Addams. But to a swarm of summer gnats, the cup of the pitcher plant is a death chamber. Attracted by the sweet smelling water that collects in the "pitcher," tiny invertebrates slip into the deadly pool where the plant's digestive enzymes break down the victim's body.

Pitcher plants are endangered in Illinois, but they can be found in the bogs of Lake and McHenry Counties and the dunes along the north Indiana lakeshore. If you find some, don't spread the word. Some ethically challenged people steal them — a major threat to the species in this region.

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER

Deep Purple
Elderberry is a well-known shrub that grows in our woodlands. During early summer, the plant produces delicate white flowers on top of a flat-topped cluster. Later in the season, small green berries will ripen into a dark red fruit.

There are many practical uses for the plant, although I have to believe one purported benefit seems to be a nasty prank. In some circles, the juice from crushed elderberries has been promoted as an alternative to "chemical" mosquito repellents such as those containing DEET. This would be welcome news to many people, except for one thing: the dark purple juice leaves a dark purple stain. So while you might be free of annoying biting insects, your skin would be the color of a plum.

Blue Cheer
Urban development has not been good to one of our prettiest late-summer wildflowers, the fringed gentian. Only fifty years ago, tens of thousands of these striking flowers thrived in a small marsh in Gary, Indiana. That marsh is gone, a victim of progress. Huge numbers were also grabbed by florists, who weren't too careful whose property they were on. But that was then. They've been recovering and can be found by the thousands in Illinois Beach State Park and other wet prairie areas. Their delicate petals, which have been described as being like "blue eyelashes," will appear around Labor Day, blooming throughout the month.