midwest-fall – Wildlife In Nature

The Changing Light

Posted on October 7, 2023 by Gary R. Soper

A beautiful white Great egret glides in over some prime feeding areas in the backwaters of the Kankakee River.

October 7, 2023 – That old familiar change is in the air as fall arrives. The cooler nights provide a restful sleep and easy dreams as open windows bring a gentle breeze replacing noisy air conditioners. The changing light and long shadows give a new look and feel to a tired countryside. Even though the gardens and prairies still have plenty of nectarous blooms for the pollinators while adding color to the glorious landscape, many plants have gone to seed and are showing signs of wear and tear as they begin to reveal the yellows and oranges of autumn. It is that time of year before the ice and snow that summer residents migrate south. Many species of birds are on the move coming south from the higher latitudes, while others are preparing to move south by gorging on nature’s bounty of seeds, nectar, and insects, building up their fat reserves for their challenging journeys. Monarch butterflies, Common green darner dragonflies, and even Eastern red bats are taking to the skies and are heading to a warmer climate for the winter. Long-distance migrants like Broad-winged hawks have recently been photographed in the area working their way south towards Central and South America, where they will wait for spring near the equatorial latitudes, wisely retreating far away from those cold north winds. Large, bright white, wading birds, the Great egrets, stand out against the changing colors as they feed in the backwaters of the Kankakee. Hunted nearly to extinction in the late 1800s for their beautiful plumes, new conservation laws in the early 1900s implemented to protect birds are why we see the Great egrets today. While there are always a few egrets that stay in Northern Illinois through a mild winter, most of the summer population of Great egrets in the lakes and marches of the Great Lakes region will have gone as far south as Central America for the cold months. In the coming weeks, large flocks of Sandhill cranes will be in the air over Northern Illinois and Indiana as they have done for thousands of years. The Sandhill crane population has rebounded over the years from the low numbers of only a few dozen in the 1930s thanks to protective laws; today, we enjoy the sites and sounds of the cranes in migration, those bugling rattles that demand one’s attention, are a sampling of the bygone days before the Europeans expanded into North America, where they nearly wiped out the Sandhill and Whooping cranes forever. Shorebirds, wading birds, raptors, songbirds, and waterfowl travel through Illinois during the fall migration, some spending the winter in the state. Backyard feeders are a great place to monitor during the fall migration; watching and listening for those unusual migrating songbirds is an exciting and rewarding moment when one witnesses an uncommon fall traveler that probably goes unnoticed by most.

Walking through the muck, a Great egret searches for a meal in the shallows watching for the slightest movement.

Autumn Whitetails

Posted on November 7, 2022 by Gary R. Soper

A large White-tailed buck walks out of the woods and looks around at the does foraging in the field.

November 7, 2022 – Freeze warnings and frosty nights lit by the autumn moon cause ghostly shadows to appear from things both known and unknown in the fields and woodlands of Northeastern Illinois. The night creatures, large and small, are aware of the changes that come in the fall and are on-task with finding and caching food, while others are fattening up on the summer’s bounty of acorns, grasses, and small prey for the coming long and challenging cold Midwestern winter. For Illinois’ largest mammal, the White-tailed deer, autumn is the breeding season for these majestic creatures, and an uneasy tension seems to hang like a ground fog across the autumn landscape.

The female whitetails are on heightened alert as a small herd of does and yearlings all look towards a wooded area trying to avoid roaming bucks with big ideas. The days are becoming shorter, there’s a chill in the air, and by mid-October, the rut, the period of breeding, will intensify and continue through December with a bit of overlap into the new year. The new generation of fawns will be born in the spring in May or June of the coming new year. In the meantime, awe-inspiring shades of red and golden leaves rattle in the autumn breeze surrounding the farm fields, hills, and hollows throughout our river valleys; these are the homes of the celebrated Illinois White-tailed deer. The bucks have been leaving calling cards by scraping saplings and low-hanging branches, licking, chewing, and leaving scent markings from the glands on their forehead.

The changes in the behavior of the male whitetail deer during the time of rut become deliberate as he is focused only on finding a doe. Those dominant White-tailed bucks, some of which have become nocturnal, venture out into the open during daylight hours, throwing caution to the wind in their pursuit of that doe in heat. Those dramas in nature play out consistently year after year with new players over time. A perfectly worded description, a photograph, or even a trophy mount cannot come close to the actual observation of one of these monarch bucks foraging at the edge of a field near some does on a beautiful autumn afternoon. In the coming weeks, the rut will begin to cool off a bit, the landscape will take on more of a winter look as 2022 autumn fades into the history books. There will still be bucks chasing females that come into heat late; even into January, the passing on of genes continues.

Along the field’s edge a buck using some low-hanging branches as a rub is leaving his scent as a message to other deer.

Southbound Warblers

Posted on October 10, 2022 by Gary R. Soper

A beautiful male American redstart pauses on a branch only for a moment before continuing its search for insects

October 10, 2022 – There are telling changes in the air that don’t require a calendar to say fall has arrived. As the days grow shorter and the cool nights summon an extra blanket or two, the long-anticipated little fall warblers from points north have been moving through Northeastern Illinois for some weeks now on their travels south to warmer climates for the long winter months. Many warbler species have been showing up in backyards, parks, and thickets throughout our river valley for a needed rest and nourishment required for such a challenging journey as this grand autumnal event. From the tree tops to the shadowy undergrowth, the little birds search for insects and wild seeds to replenish the fat reserves lost during their long flights. North America certainly has a variety of these stunning fairy-like little birds. There are more than 50 species of warblers across the contiguous United States, 35 of which are known to the midwest. A number of the little birds will spend only a brief time in our area during the great migrations as they are just passing through. Some species of warblers nest here in Northeastern Illinois, often noted by bird watchers throughout the summer months. Other species that briefly appear during the spring and fall migrations require some understanding of avian behavior and timing with a bit of luck to observe those little beauties. Weather fronts, prevailing winds, and years of collected data from bird observations are closely monitored by bird enthusiasts during the spring and fall as they watch for the big push north or south of migrants. Today, bird watchers can also take advantage of the radar technology that monitors bird movement. A collaborative called BirdCast provides this service; BirdCast is accessed on the internet and gives daily updates on bird movements in an easy-to-understand animated graphical interface helpful in locating the little travelers moving through your area. Bird migrations have been going on for thousands of years, adapting and evolving with a planet in flux. Today a rapidly warming environment is having a noticeable impact on bird behavior that is playing out before our eyes. The collection of data by citizen scientists reveals changes in migratory birds’ behavior. The data shows birds are migrating earlier in spring and later in the fall, with nesting ranges expanding, bringing into focus our canary in the coal mine, which should be a warning for us all.

A southbound Black-throated green warbler on its long journey to Mexico for the winter

The Autumn Nudge

Posted on October 11, 2021 by Gary R. Soper

A Neotropical bird, the Black-throated Green warbler pauses for a moment on a dried stem in Iroquois County with a freshly caught caterpillar.

October 11, 2021 – Another year has tilted quietly into the splendid season of autumn, a time of bounty, preparedness, and introspection that nudges all living things in the Northern Hemisphere. While humans adjust to their seasonal changes and challenges, animals have been fattening up, growing new coats, and gathering food. Birds and insects have been on the move for weeks. Many plants continue to provide, but many have gone to seed and withered, a change is in the air. Feeding, resting, and building strength, many species have been working their way south towards their winter ranges. Recent weather radar over the Great Plains displayed not a weather disturbance moving south but a remarkable radar return of many thousands of Monarch butterflies on their fall migration. Changing weather systems across the American flyways, like cold fronts, air pressure, and strong autumn tailwinds can be a great predictor and the ideal opportunity for a mass movement of birds and insects out of the north. Bird enthusiasts, throughout the range of bird migration, hope and watch for unusual avian visitors to their woodlands, wetlands, and backyard feeders in their areas, including the highly anticipated and always delightful many species of warblers. Those early migrating warblers can still show their beautiful summer plumage, but as the weeks pass, the birds become a bit harder to identify as they transition into their winter plumage. Young birds born during the summer may look different than adults. The fading of the adult warbler’s strong summer markings may also require close study with thorough identification guides and even the valued opinions of expert birders to help identify those notoriously difficult fall migrants. By mid-October, many warblers and other songbirds have moved farther south out of Illinois. The tiny Ruby-crowned and Yellow-crowned Kinglets, Yellow-rumped, and Palm warblers continue to pluck insects from the bushes and trees in our area. Sparrows that spent their nesting season north of Illinois, some as far as the Arctic, have arrived and are taking advantage of the available seeds and insects. Sandhill cranes, Whooping cranes, Arctic hawks, Golden eagles, Short-eared owls, and Snowy owls are moving south and will satisfactorily fill the void of our summer visitors until the spring rings true once again.

A boreal songbird, the Blackpoll warbler, is bound for northern South America for the winter. The small wooded area in Iroquois County and others like it along the migration route are lifesavers and provides the much-needed food for that bird and many others on their long journeys south.

The Rut

Posted on December 18, 2020 by Gary R. Soper

A big White-tailed buck stands at the edge of a road in Iroquois County in pursuit of a doe.

December 3, 2020 – The Midwestern autumn brings shorter days, colder temperatures, and behavior changes to those majestic whitetail bucks. The new growth of antlers that began in the spring has hardened and reached its’ maximum growth for the year. The bachelor groups of spring and summer have disbanded and the males are now on their own. Standing and showing little concern while in plain sight at the edge of a woods, or in the corn stubble of a harvested field, with his mouth open and head tilted up into the wind, the buck is clearly focused on something else. White-tailed deer have very keen senses and along with the bucks very sensitive nose, he also has a special sensory organ in the roof of his mouth that can detect females that are approaching estrous. The strong desire to breed is why, at this time of the year, we see those seemingly out of place whitetail bucks that are in pursuit of a mate. Standing with their nose in the air and with their mouth open and lip curled up blocking their nostrils they are tasting the air for that special signal, and during this time that buck has only one thing on his mind. The male deer can actually locate a doe nearing estrus by tasting the airborne chemical signals from quite a distance. Seeing the normally shy, overly cautious, and sometimes totally nocturnal whitetail buck out during the middle of the day can mean only one thing, it is the breeding season, also known as the rut. The breeding season for White-tailed deer is where caution is truly thrown to the wind and love is literally in the air. The peak of rut takes place from late October through November, but breeding will continue through January as the rut heats and cools and finally ends for another mating season for the whitetails of Illinois.

With lip curled up and mouth open a small buck chases a doe through the prairie grasses.

The Common Redpoll

Posted on December 18, 2020 by Gary R. Soper

The male Common redpoll shows its’ bold streaked side while perched on the end of fallen limb.

November 19, 2020 – As we ease through the chilly days of November, the leafless trees and frosty mornings remind us of the coming winter as do the new arrivals of Arctic birds that we now see in flocks great and small in our rural areas of Northeastern Illinois. Snow buntings and Lapland longspurs are now feeding along the gravel roads and in the harvested fields of Kankakee and Iroquois counties. This year also seems to be a year where some other species of birds that normally winter a bit further north, have come south into Illinois in larger numbers. The Pine Siskins are here in large numbers, Red Crossbills, and White-winged Crossbills are being seen in the Chicago area, and even a few places south. Another little bird that has a more northern winter range, that I had the pleasure of seeing in Iroquois County this past week, is the Common redpoll. A number of reported sightings of redpolls continue to come in for Northern Illinois, one reported sighting of a flock of 15. This little finch, the Common redpoll, breeds in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions and winters across the Provinces of Canada and south into the area of the Great Lakes. They are about the same size as the Pine siskin with similar markings but lighter overall. The male redpoll has a beautiful red crown with some rosy-pink color on the chest, and dark streaks on its underparts. The female is a bit duller overall, and lacks the pink-washed color on the chest, but does have the red feathers on the head, the red poll. The bright yellow bill of the redpoll is made for eating seeds, it is small and pointed for getting to those tiny seeds of the birch, alder, and willow trees. The sighting last week in Iroquois County was of a single male Common redpoll in the company of a small flock of House finches that were feeding on some ripe wild berries on the sunny side of a thicket. It was an exciting treat to observe this little Arctic breeder in a rural area of Illinois.

Puffed up after preening, the lovely colors of red, yellow, gray, and brown show the amazing beauty of the Common redpoll.

Sandhill Cranes

Posted on December 18, 2020 by Gary R. Soper

November 12, 2020 – It’s that time of year when those amazing bugling and rattling sounds from thousands of Sandhill cranes echo across the countryside of Northern Indiana at the Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area just north of Medaryville, a little over an hour east of Kankakee. Jasper-Pulaski FWA is a great place to witness the fall migration of the Sandhill cranes where they can easily and safely be viewed from the parking lot at the Goose Pasture viewing area or from the nearby viewing platform. As more cranes arrive and numbers continue to grow, so do visitors who want to experience that autumnal spectacle of nature that can quite easily overwhelm the senses with the sights and sounds that have occurred each fall across the great Midwestern prairies for thousands of years. Mid-November is considered the peak time for highest numbers of cranes, with a record number topping 30,000. By mid-December, many will have moved further south, but it’s no secret that there is a healthy winter population of cranes that remain in the general area. Even during the harshest of winters, cranes can be found in the bean and corn stubble foraging. Currently during the fall after leaving the roosting areas for the day, the cranes can be found feeding, socializing, and resting in the harvested agricultural fields and on the grassy areas along the big drainage ditches. Sunrise and sunset are great times to experience large flocks leaving the roosting marshes in the morning and gathering at the Goose Pasture, or again after a day of feeding in the agricultural fields, returning about an hour before sunset in large numbers. There is nothing more surreal than viewing Sandhill cranes in large numbers as far as the eye can see, stretching out across a rolling landscape and looking more like herds of ice-age animals than flocks of birds. It is truly an amazing sight.

Lying down in the soft grass on a sunny morning some Sandhill cranes look to be enjoying the mild November weather.

White-throated Sparrow

Posted on December 18, 2020 by Gary R. Soper

November 5, 2020 – Back in Illinois for the winter months are the White-throated sparrows, a large and attractive bird with a long tail and a bright-white throat and bold face patterns of black, white, gray, and yellow. The White-throated sparrows are considered a short to medium-distance migrant. It breeds in the United States in the Upper Great Lake region and in the coniferous and mixed forests across most of Canada. There are small pockets of year around birds in the northeast U.S. The sparrows leave the impending harsh winter of the north in autumn before the first snow and head south into the United States to a more hospitable climate that is not totally locked in ice during those cold months. They appear in northeastern Illinois about the same time in the fall each year as many other sparrows, like the White-crowned, Lincoln’s, and Swamp sparrows. Similar to the Fox sparrow, the White-throated sparrows forage on the ground under the thick gnarly cover of the shadowed understory kicking leaf litter with its feet searching for insects, seeds and fruit in a very focused but alert manner. The sparrow can be found near heavily vegetated areas around parks and near rivers and creeks where there is plenty of cover. Also, during prolonged snow cover, many birds, including the White-throated sparrow, can be found in the windswept areas along roads and in fields searching for seeds. The White-throated sparrows will show up at backyard feeders during the winter here in Illinois with other birds providing there is some good cover nearby. Backyard feeders are favorite haunts for predators like Cooper’s hawk, domestic and feral cats, so quick escapes into thickets, bushes, and trees are a necessary part of a safe habitat for feeding birds.

Landing on a branch for only a moment the White-throated sparrow drops down into the dark understory to search for food.

The Tufted Titmouse

Posted on December 18, 2020 by Gary R. Soper

Paused for only a moment, a Tufted titmouse quickly leaves its’ perch and disappears as it continues its’ search for a nice large seed.

October 29, 2020 – It is late October and the unmistakable and lovely echoing song of the Tufted titmouse, a small gray songbird with large black eyes, is in the air. Four of the fine-looking little birds descend to the ground to search through the leaf litter for fallen seeds. After finding a large seed, the titmouse quickly flies up to a branch and holds the seed between its’ feet and hammers away on the food with its’ bill to break the seed into smaller, edible pieces The Tufted titmouse is a common year-round resident to the eastern forests of the United States, most often seen during the fall and winter months at backyard feeders, parks, and open brushy areas at the edges of wooded landscapes where fruits, seeds, and insects are available. Northern Illinois, and states east to the Atlantic, are at the northern edge of the little birds’ range, although surveys have shown that they have been expanding their range northward as far as southern Canada for sometime, possibly due to a warming climate and the fact that more people are feeding birds during the winter. With a gray crest, dark forehead, a stubby black bill, and rusty colored flanks with white underparts the little Tufted titmouse stands out against the dull shades of brown on the autumn landscape, much like its’ smaller cousin, the Chickadee, with its’ bright crisp colors. It’s a speedy little bird that can suddenly appear, sometimes in a banditry of three or four bold little titmice, where there is a good food source. Cautiously but quickly the titmouse hops from branch to branch and then to the ground, many times chasing other birds away, finding a large seed to either eat now or take away and cache for later. The Tufted titmouse is a joy to see and a treat to hear, somehow their beauty is enhanced when snow comes to the woods. Maybe it’s the soft illumination from the blanket of white under the stark winter sky or just bottled up nostalgia that seems ready to burst with each new encounter.

With a seed clutched between its’ feet, a Tufted titmouse is ready to hammer away breaking the seed into small bits.

Winter Is Coming

Posted on December 18, 2020 by Gary R. Soper

Young White-tailed bucks spar on a grassy hill as the deer breeding season nears.

October 22, 2020 – The cool temperatures of the Midwestern autumn bring a patchwork of awe-inspiring colors to both rural and urban landscapes. Reflections of the changing season fill the rivers, lakes, and slow flowing creeks that meander across the weary prairies and through the used-up pastures with a wonderful palette enhanced by the defused light of the gray autumn sky. The greens of the summer foliage are slowly disappearing into a changing landscape of late October. Large flocks of Turkey vultures, sometimes 40 or more, can be seen gliding in the breezy sky slowly working their way south for the winter. Some of the vultures are high in the sky with wings swept as they cut through the strong winds, others are gliding low across the tree tops and fields making progress working to windward across a gentle rolling sea of color. Winter flocks of black birds flying in unison take to the air from a fencerow as a Cooper’s hawk moves towards the mesmerizing display for a short pursuit that ends quickly as the hawk gives up on the evasive murmuration. Numbers of Pine siskins are seen in large and small flocks in the same areas where Gold finches in their drab winter plumage are feeding. The Pine siskin is a bird of the north that feeds on the seeds of coniferous and deciduous trees, though some years they move south in greater numbers if the seed crop of the north is poor. While fattening up on the available food the thick furred Fox squirrels are busy building their caches for the coming months. Young White-tailed bucks still in their bachelor group spar with each other on the sunny side of a sandy rise. As the rut grows near, these bucks will grow less tolerant of each other and the sparring will become much more serious, the group will break up and the bucks will go off on their own. Soon breeding will be the only thing on their mind as they search far and wide for does. A cold clear starry night accompanied by a freeze warning to gardeners and farmers tell the tale of no return, winter is coming, and that swift moving stream of the cold north winds will bring ice and blowing snow in the coming weeks. The frigged deep freeze of winter that is brought to use by the dynamics of a tilting planet will soon be at the door.