NATURAL EVENTS

by Jack MacRae

Here’s what’s debuting on nature’s stage in Chicago Wilderness

Early Summer

Fish Delivery

Perhaps it’s the ping of the aluminum bat or the roar of the fanatic parents, but apparently some west suburban ospreys are fans of little league baseball. For the past several years, a pair of osprey have been adding sticks to a nest atop a light structure that illuminates left field of Field #5 in a sports complex adjacent to James “Pate” Philip State Park. The pair is most likely young, as offspring have yet to be observed in the nest. If they are successful in producing a brood this summer, dad will need to haul a lot of bass. Male ospreys deliver 60 to 100 grams of fish (enough for a tuna sandwich) to the nest every hour of every day during the summer.

Rambling Rose

Most of our area’s beautiful roses come from other parts of the world, but not the Illinois, or prairie, rose. The Illinois rose has light pink flowers that bloom in early summer. Its stem contains short, stout, curved thorns. A rambler and a climber, the Illinois rose is found growing over old fences and shrubs in bright, open woodlands and sunny edges. Without support, it reaches three feet before falling to the ground and re-rooting, eventually growing into a tangled thicket. According to some naturalists, the flowers of Illinois roses that grow in the lower Des Plaines River Valley are exceptionally showy.

Middle Summer

Tree Top House

Great crested flycatchers are fairly common summer residents in our wooded lands and parks, but it’s a real challenge to spot one. Look high. Their days are spent in the buggy, sunny canopy of mature trees. Well adapted to an aerial existence, they have little reason to land on the ground. They can perch and fly, but they don’t walk or hop or run. They build their nests in the cavities of decaying trees, and occasionally logs and fence posts. Great crested flycatchers often include snakeskin in their decorating.

Crane Fly

My garage door doubles as a landing strip for a nice group of insects during hot summer nights. One of the more attention-grabbing specimens is the crane fly, which in the adult stage looks like a super-sized mosquito. The wingspan of some species can exceed 75 millimeters, with an overall body length of 150 millimeters, including their jointed legs. Careful observers can determine the sex of a crane fly by watching it in the air. A female’s flight path is straight and direct, while males fly in an erratic manner described as clumsy. The peg-shaped crane fly larvae, being particularly large, soft, and juicy, are substantial links in the aquatic food chain.

LateSummer

Viceroys of Indiana

A pervasive myth in the butterfly world is that insectivorous birds avoid eating viceroy butterflies because they mimic the distinct appearance of foul-tasting monarchs. Current research shows that birds find the taste of the two butterflies equally repugnant. Viceroys do exhibit a lesser-known form of mimicry in their larval stage, though. The caterpillars are white and dark olive-green, resembling nothing so much as a fresh, moist bird dropping. Viceroys are members of the brush-footed butterfly family and produce two to three generations per summer. They are homebodies that rarely venture away from their damp habitat of willows and cottonwoods.

American Beech

The American beech is one of the grand trees of the eastern deciduous forest, but they’re scarce or absent in many areas of the Chicago Wilderness. Beeches are now considered extinct in Cook County, although 125 years ago there were five mature beeches one mile north of the Edgebrook neighborhood in Chicago. Being 30 miles from any other beech and all the same age, presumably this stand could have been planted by American Indians. Beeches are not listed in the flora of DuPage, Kane, or McHenry Counties. Lake County, Illinois, has a few beech trees, found on the cool, north-facing slopes of the ravines of Fort Sheridan and Highland Park. Beeches grow a bit more commonly across the northern counties of Indiana, and, of course, southwestern Michigan contains the celebrated beech forest of Warren Woods. Beeches’ distinctive triangular nuts begin to ripen in late summer. Beech trees are monocious — each tree possesses separate male and female reproductive parts — which confirms there cannot be a son of a beech.