Celandine poppies and Virginia bluebells along the Johnson Trail. Paul Feldker, Clifftop.

By mid-March our blufflands will cast off the doldrums of winter drabness and begin to color its landscape with every imaginable shade, as wave after wave, from spring to first frost, of native wildflowers come into bloom.

The first flowers to blossom are called spring ephemerals, and their life strategy is a race against time. With the earliest spring woodland warm up, spring ephemerals will sprout, grow stems, produce flowers, and go to seed all before the forest trees leaf out and shade the forest floor. By June, the ephemerals will have died back to underground roots, leaving no trace that theirs was the earliest splash of colors to grace our woodlands.

Seven species of spring ephemeral wildflowers are very common in the bluffs and can be readily seen at Salt Lick Point Reserve, White Rock Nature Preserve, Stemler Woods Nature Preserve, and Fults Hill Prairie Nature Preserve, all open to public hiking.

Bloodroot (Sanquinaria canadensis) is a low-growing plant with eight-petaled, large, three-inch across, white flowers, with bright yellow stamens. The flowers only last one or two days. Bloodroot, which can be found along the moist creek hollows of the bluffs, was given its name for the red juice of its stems and roots. Native Americans used it for a fabric dye and paint, and taught this to the early French settlers who exported the roots back to France via the Mississippi. On the East Coast, Bloodroot is also known as “Indian Paint.”  Early settlers also boiled the roots to make a cough medicine. Today, bloodroot is grown commercially for use as an anti-plaque additive in toothpaste and mouthwash.

Spring beauties. Paul Feldker, Clifftop.

Spring Beauties (Claytonia virginica) will begin to bloom on the moister north slopes and in the ravines of the bluff woods in March. The four to six inch plant, with two grass-like leaves, has beautiful five-petaled, one-half inch wide, pinkish-white flowers, with dark pink veins. Amerindians and our first European settlers ate the corms. These “fairy spuds” reportedly taste like radishes when eaten raw; if boiled, like chestnuts. In some parts of the country, Spring Beauties are called “Quaker Ladies.” Wild turkeys love them and will scratch the soil to dig up the treats.

Virginia bluebells. Paul Feldker, Clifftop.

Between Columbia and Valmeyer, swathes of Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) bloom along the talus slope at the foot of the bluff cliff face. During the 19th century, Virginia Bluebells were thought to cure respiratory ailments and were known as “Lungwort.” Pockets of dense, expansive colonies of the two-foot tall-stemmed plants also occur along streams and creeks and in low, shaded areas. The more westerly aspect of the bluff line in our area creates a less sun-filled, and so more moisture-retentive and slightly cooler, microclimate in which the bluebells flourish. The tubular-shaped intensely blue flowers age slowly into lavender-pink shades and are among the most dramatic blossoms in the springtime bluffs. Often likened to bits of sky fallen to earth, bluebells delight the eye with their early spring exuberance.

Dutchman’s Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria), also called “White Hearts” in the West, or “Soldiers’ Caps” in some parts of the East, carpet many areas of our bluffs.

The eight-inch perennial, with finely cut, gray-green, fern-like leaves sports beautiful white, yellow-tipped and double-spurred flowers that look like upside down leggings. All parts of the plant are toxic and can kill cattle and horses.

Celandine Poppies. Paul Feldker, Clifftop.

Celandine or Wood Poppies (Stylophorum diphyllum) are among the most beautiful spring ephemeral flowers in our blufflands. The foot tall plant has highly segmented and toothed leaves. The bright yellow flowers are two inches wide with four petals. Both native Americans and early settlers extracted a yellow die from the plant’s roots. The plant was widely believed to be a cure for liver problems and associated jaundice during the 1800s. Folklore has it that Celandine Poppy seeds were a common medicinal carried by physicians in early America. A Eurasian cousin to our Celandine Poppy is still used as a herbal remedy for liver trouble in Russia and East Asia. Celandine Poppies like wet feet and can be found in large colonies at the base of the bluffs or along creeks and deep ravines. They are often found growing and blooming with Virginia Bluebells, and, taken together, the brilliant yellows and heavenly blues is a wondrous sight to see.

Dwarf Larkspur (Delphinium tricorne) are scattered about throughout the bluffs.

The foot tall plant, with hand-shaped leaves, sports blue-to-violet loosely clustered flowers, with five showy sepals, four pointed upward and the fifth a downward spur.

Larkspur is extremely poisonous to cattle and horses, and in some parts of the country the plant is called stagger weed. Despite larkspur’s known toxicity, the plant was used during the Civil War to make a lotion to kill human parasites such as lice and mites.

Woodland or Blue Phlox (Phlox divaricata) is perhaps the most commonly seen early bloomer in our area, widely growing along rural wooded roadways in the county. The foot tall plant lofts clouds of sky-blue, five-lobed flower clusters. Pioneer medicine called for a tea of the plants leaves to help purify your blood. The plant is also known as Wild Sweet William, attributed to an 18th century ballad where Sweet William boards a ship and says goodbye to his beloved black-eyed Susan.

If you are interested in a guided tour to see these early spring flowers and learn more about wildlife in our bluffs, the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission, the Salt Lick Point Stewardship Committee, Kaskaskia Valley Audubon Society, HeartLands Conservancy, and Clifftop co-hosted an interpretive hike on Saturday, April 7th.

Clifftop, a local nonprofit organization, is focused on preserving and protecting area bluff lands. 

A version of this article appeared in the March 16 2012 edition of the Monroe County Independent.

© 2011 all content rights reserved, Clifftop NFP.

Tom Rollins, Thomas Rollins Photography

April is a wonderful month to view the dynamic and beautiful natural processes at work in our bluff lands. Our still leafless woods allow us to see the physical structure and layout – the skeleton – of one of Illinois’s most important natural treasures. A simple driving tour along Bluff Road, from Columbia to Modoc, is an easy way to begin to understand the complex inter-workings of the bluff landscape. While hill prairies still wear their winter brown colors up on the tops of the bluffs, the area below has begun to blossom with color that resembles the sky.

The limestone bedrock cliff face of the bluffs is constantly subjected to the forces of nature. Seasonal temperature changes, and the actions of rain, rainwater runoff, wind and sun – cumulative actions called weathering – combine to loosen rock material from the cliff face. The rocky materials, ranging in size from tiny grains to huge boulders, fall, slide, or roll off the cliff to the foot of the bluff.

An apron of rock waste sloping downward from the foot of the cliff face accumulates. This area, from the base of the cliff to the edge of Bluff Road is called a talus (pronounced “tay-less”) slope.

Once a rock has fallen and come to a stop the processes of weathering continue. Boulders and larger rocks are slowly reduced to smaller and smaller stones and grains. And, over time, these smaller aggregates creep further down the slope.

In fact, the talus slope is an ever-changing geological and ecological system. Drier, rockier shallow soils lay at its head, near the cliff, with thicker, more moisture retentive soils at the toe, right along Bluff Road. Plant life in the talus manifests this dynamic moisture and soil-depth gradient from head-to-toe on the slope.

Near the cliff face at the top of the slope, Chinquapin and Post

Paul Feldker, Clifftop

Oak trees predominate. They readily tolerate the rocky and dry soils along the head of the talus. Along the mid-slope, White and Black Oaks, Ash and Hackberry trees thrive in the slightly deeper, but still thin, soils. Evidence of their unstable footing in constantly downward moving soils shows in the backward-leaning, curved main stems of these trees. Sugar (Hard) Maple, native to the one-time adjacent flood plain forest, and Ohio Buckeye trees dominate the area along the toe of the talus slope.

The shady, seemingly inhospitably rocky soils of the talus slope also host a number of wildflowers. In spring, before leafout of the forest canopy, two wildflowers of extreme beauty – both as individual flowers and as broad carpets of color – decorate the talus slope. A third wildflower grows along the head of the talus and even clings to the sheer rock walls above. Shimmering blue in the spring sun, colonies of each type seem like bits of sky brought to earth and each predominates in a distinct area of our bluffs.

Tom Rollins, Thomas Rollins Photography

Between Columbia and Old Valmeyer, swathes of Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) bloom along the talus slope. Pockets of dense, expansive colonies of the two-foot tall-stemmed plants occur along streams and in low, shaded areas, and line portions of the talus north of Valmeyer. The more westerly aspect of the bluff line in this area creates a less sun-filled, and so more moisture-retentive and slightly cooler, microclimate in which the bluebells flourish.

The tubular-shaped intensely blue flowers age slowly into

Paul Feldker, Clifftop

lavender-pink shades and are among the most dramatic blossoms in the springtime bluffs. Often likened to bits of sky fallen to earth, bluebells delight the eye with their early spring exuberance. The drama, however, is short-lived. By June the plants completely disappear and remain dormant until the following spring.

Tom Rollins, Thomas Rollins Photography

South of Old Valmeyer, where the bluff line takes on a hotter, more consistently sunny southern aspect, swathes of another blue flower brighten the spring on our talus slopes. Miami Mist (Phacelia purshii) comes into bloom in late April to May. These foot-tall plants also form dense carpets of color. Each pale blue to lavender flower is small, only one-half inch across, with a white center and each of the five petals boasts a

Tom Rollins, Thomas Rollins Photography

distinct delicately fringed margin. Euro-American settlers in the Miami Valley region of Ohio who saw the hillsides foaming with the rich tapestry of pale blue flowers gave this plant its common name. Like the bluebells, Miami Mist disappears shortly after blooming, leaving little trace of its pleasing presence among the sun-baked summer grasses near Bluff Road.

While scattered patches of Cleft Phlox (Phlox bifida) bloom all along the talus of Monroe and Randolph Counties, this plant truly comes into its own and predominates the blooming story of spring from Prairie du Rocher to Modoc. The aspect of the bluffs and talus slope do not explain the predominance of Cleft Phlox and the near-absence of the other two “sky-flowers” in this area. From just north of Prairie du Rocher, the bluffs and the talus slope exhibit a different form and structure. The bluff face is less high, but is generally very steep and sheer and has a minimal apron of talus slope. The soils are very thin and rocky and quickly allow moisture to drain away. The rock structure in this area is primarily cherty sandstone.

The very drought-tolerant Cleft Phlox forms mats, stretching

Pen DauBach, Clifftop

wiry stems along the ground and into rock crevices. Only six inches tall, the plants are covered in early spring with luminous pale blue to lavender flower heads, with each of the five petals deeply notched at the tip. The fragile appearance of the delicate flowers is, however, belied by the plants’ favored growing conditions: high on the dry soils of the talus head and up onto the rocks of the cliff face. Cleft Phlox also goes dormant soon after blooming, leaving only thin stems and parched leaves until next year’s early spring sun again brings them to shine like patches of sky tossed down upon the rocks.

While granting many opportunities to admire the stretches of wildflowers that decorate our bluff lands with a sky-hued tapestry from north to south, a drive along Bluff Road also shows large areas where wildflowers no longer grow. Dense stands of Tree-of-Heaven (Ailanthus altissima) now dominate entire stretches of the talus slope and have turned the diverse plant communities into broad deserts of a single, alien species.

This native of China was introduced as an ornamental tree in the nineteenth century. It grows rapidly and spreads through both tremendous seed production and by root sprouts. Dense thickets formed by Tree-of-Heaven quickly out-shade and out-compete other plants. The tree roots produce toxins that poison and prevent the establishment of other plant species. The droughty, rocky soils of our talus slopes unfortunately provide the very growing conditions under which this tree can thrive and spread.

During late winter and spring several of these areas with extensive Tree-of-Heaven infestation have undergone control methods. Girdling and herbiciding of the trees will reduce the population and continued seed production. Full control methods, however, will take years of efforts because the seeds remain viable and small root sprouts may continue to occur.

The control efforts have been funded through innovative cost-share programs between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the State of Illinois. This State Wildlife Grant (SWG) project and the Landowner Incentive Program (LIP) specifically target Hill Prairies and their associated woodlands and are designed to enhance both public and privately owned sites within this significant and very rare ecosystem. The work includes exotic plant control, brush removal, prescribed burning and seed collecting and planting.

Such programs benefit our area and our area’s unique

Tom Rollins, Thomas Rollins Photography

geological and ecological systems. They will help ensure that “sky-flowers” bloom in future spring times, that the nearby woods are brightened with dogwood flowers dancing on air, and that the hill prairies will be, once again, ablaze with summer coneflowers and orange bunch grasses.

Clifftop, a local nonprofit organization, is focused on preserving and protecting area bluff lands.

Versions of this article appeared in the April 3 2009 edition of the Monroe County Independent and in the April 15 2009 edition of the Suburban Journals Clarion Enterprise.

© 2009 all content rights reserved, Clifftop NFP.

Tom Rollins, Thomas Rollins Photography

Turtles seem to have such detached insouciance — an armored implacability, an unsettling hold on life.  They are the most ancient line of living reptiles, with fossilized specimens dated from over 250 million years ago.

Native Americans of the Eastern Woodlands, including the once-local Illini peoples, revered turtles, viewing them as representative of Great Turtle, a being responsible for the creation of all lands.  In some Native Americans’ legends, Turtle appears as “Earth Diver,” the one being able to dive deeply enough and stay below long enough to carry up, clenched under his claw nails,  a few crumbs of magical earth from the floor of the endless ocean.  Once brought into the air, the magic earth grew and expanded to form all the lands.  In other creation legends, additional water-dwelling animals help, but Great Turtle is assigned even more responsibility.  Swans find and swim round the area of the sea where magical dirt can be found.  Otter, Muskrat, Beaver, and Toad dive deeply, but are able to surface with only tiny bits of earth.  They mound this on Great Turtle’s back,  where it grows and increases to become the continent.  In a twist — perhaps a pre-echo — of the modern geomorphological theory of plate tectonics, Native American peoples believed that land forms were fixed to the plates of Great Turtle’s shell.

Turtles’ species longevity and their individual long life span — 50 to 100 years among some of our local species — are attributable, in part, to their impregnable body structure, the shell.  The upper shell, called a carapace, and lower shell, called a plastron, actually are expanded ribs and bones, seamed into plates, and covered in horny scales, which are called scutes. Many people divide the single order of turtles (Chelonia) into “life-style”  groupings, calling freshwater dwelling turtles “terrapins” and land-dwelling turtles “tortoises.”  Scientific classification schemes, however, divide turtles — animals with a carapace and plastron — not on lifestyle, but on the number and composition of the scutes.

Turtles are omnivorous. All eat plant materials and insects. Aquatic species also eat small fish and mammals, amphibians and snakes. Terrestrial turtles relish mushrooms and berries.

While turtles often are viewed as the very epitome of slowness, their loss of mobility came with the benefit of carrying their own fortress with them.  Their armor-plating and ability to withdraw into their own defenses, however, are not the only reason the order has had such a long existence.

Living members of an ancient line, all reptiles were among the first vertebrates equipped with an advanced reproductive morphology, allowing internal fertilization of eggs, insuring greater reproductive success.  Because soft tissue rarely is preserved in the fossil record — leaving unanswered the rather large question of how, exactly, dinosaurs reproduced — living reptiles are evidence that they were the first vertebrates to have, ahem, “naughty bits.”   In an interesting turn, birds, which evolved from reptilian predecessors, generally do not have a phallus, excepting most ducks, swans, and geese.  Of course, the reproductive structure is universal in mammals.

But whether, mammal, bird, or reptile, spring is, according to Judeo-Christian thought as told in the Song of Solomon, the season when:  “….flowers appear on the earth;  the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.”

Whether or not we hear the turtles’ voices, they certainly now are about on the land.  Monroe and Randolph Counties are home to eight kinds of turtles.  Three taxa live mostly on the Bottoms, along the river and in wetlands and waterways of the flood way and flood plain.  Five turtle species are common residents of our bluff lands. Each of our bluff’s species are breeding by May, and each has a distinctive courtship behavior.

Steven Katovich, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org

Our  common snapping turtles, large eight to 14-inch long turtles with big, pointy heads and long, thick, dragon-like, saw-toothed tails, live in numerous sink hole ponds.  In water, they are quite docile; on land, however, they are very, very aggressive and can deliver a painful, though toothless, rasping bite.

At courtship time, a male and female snapper come onto land and face off, head to head.  One moves its head sideways to the left and the other sideways to the right.  And so they’ll sit, for hours, back and forth,

Scott Ballard, Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Note that this baby "snapper" still has its egg-tooth.

with heads alternating left-right, right-left.  It seems a wonder their courtship works, because to us, they seem to be saying “No, I won’t,” and “No, neither will I.”

Painted turtles also are aquatic and live in sink hole ponds.  They are our most common turtle and often can be seen basking on logs above the water.  Three to seven inches long, their heads are colored in strong yellow lines and their necks, legs and feet sport orange and red linings.

Their courtship behavior also proceeds very slowly, but, rather than giving the appearance of an argument, is very genteel.  The male painted turtle gently and repeatedly strokes the female’s face with his clawed front feet.

Red-eared sliders, our only other aquatic bluff land turtle, also enjoy basking sites in

Russ Ottens, University of Georgia, Bugwood.org

and near sink hole ponds.  Medium sized at five to eight inches long, they have a distinctive bright red patch on both sides of their head, just behind their eyes. In a courtship ritual similar to painted turtles, red-eared slider males gently stroke the females’ chin with the backside of a front foot.

Two species of terrestrial turtles live in our bluffs.  Ornate box turtles, now

Paul Feldker, Clifftop

a very rare species in our area,  live in open country, in prairies, grasslands, and glades.  About five inches long, they have distinctive yellow lines radiating from the center of each scute of their high-domed carapace.  Males court females by gently nipping on the edges of the females’ carapace.

Eastern box turtles are slightly smaller, four to five inches long, with a high-domed, olive-brown carapace that shows faint yellow-orange lines.  They have bright orangish heads.  They inhabit our oak-hickory forests and bask along brushy field edges.  They may live well over 50 years.  During courtship, the male draws close to a female, just inches away from her, arches up his head, and voices a slow, pulsating gurgle.

Once the “voice of the turtle” has been heard over the land, females of all of our local turtle species lay their eggs on dry land.  The eggs are covered in a leather-like skin and are not hard-shelled like birds’ eggs.  Females of each of the species may lay

Johnny N. Dell, Bugwood.org

several different clutches over the course of a summer.  All dig shallow pits prior to laying their eggs and then cover them with dirt, using both sets of feet and their tails to both dig and then smooth over their nests.

Our aquatic species use some innovative engineering for nest building.  Fresh water turtles have two large internal bladders, connected to their intestines, which aid in aquatic respiration by helping with osmotic oxygen exchange.  If, during nesting, a female encounters only dried hard ground, she then will discharge bladder water to soften the job site and enable her to dig.  She even will make several trips to a pond to ferry more water to her chosen site.

Some of our aquatic female turtles will travel great distances — up to a mile — from their watery home to their selected nesting sites.  Snapping turtles have been known to slowly march for hours to find their perfect site.  Her selection criteria remain largely unknown, but may have an impact on the next generation’s gender.  The proportion of males to females among the hatchlings is determined by the temperature on the nest site.  Warmer soil temperatures produce females, while cool temperatures result in male hatchlings.

Even as turtles concentrate on “location, location, location,”  when nesting is complete, so, too, are their duties to their offspring.  Once the eggs are laid and carefully covered they are abandoned.  No parental care is given.

Depending on the species, the eggs hatch in two to four months.  Some clutches, laid late in summer, will over winter before hatching after spring sunshine has re-warmed  the nest site.  In all cases, the hatchlings must fend for themselves, scrambling up out of the nest and setting off alone on their first journeys to find food and home sites.

Well over 80 percent of turtle eggs never make it to the hatching stage.  Raccoons and opossums adore the eggs, scavenging widely during summer in search of them.  The size of turtle egg clutches, from four to more than 30 eggs depending on the species, and the 2-3 clutches laid each year, may insure that new generations of an ancient animal line in our bluffs continue to ride on the island made possible by Great Turtle.

Clifftop, a local nonprofit organization, is focused on preserving and protecting area bluff lands.

A version of this article appeared in the May 7 2008 edition of the Monroe County Clarion.

© 2008 all content rights reserved, Clifftop NFP.

Paul Feldker, Clifftop

bird song.  The early-rising listener can hear night fade to dawn and catch the calls of owls as they head to daytime roosts and perhaps also hear the last songs of whippoorwills fading in the distance.  But even while the birds of night remain active, other birds begin dawn song — a glorious, symphonic call and response of many different singers — about an hour before the sun begins to color the sky.  In springtime, our resident birds are joined by migrants.  Some of the migrants will stay for the summer, staking claims on territory,  finding mates and raising a new generation, while members of some other species will pause here only briefly before heading further north.  But, luckily for us, nearly every species — resident, temporary lodger, and migrants — will offer us a song.

Intriguing similarities between some elements of birdsong and human speech have been observed.  Many baby birds, like human infants, babble bits and pieces and phrases as they learn and perfect their songs.  And, both must hear adults in order to learn the correct manner of communication.  Unlike humans, birds produce song through a completely different mechanism.  Though analogous to a human larynx, the voice box — syrinx — of most birds is a dual structure and, for most species of songbirds, involves both elements

Martin Kemper, Illinois Department of Natural Resources

of the trachea and the upper bronchia.  The number of muscle pairs — one to as many as eight — that work the syrinx  are highest among the bird species that have the most elaborate songs.  A few species, such as both Turkey and Black Vultures, have no functional syringeal muscles and are voiceless, capable only of low grunting noises.

Birds communicate many messages through call notes which are given by both males and females.  Alarm, location, roosting, waking, even “good eats over here,” all can be heard from many birds throughout the year.  Bird song, however, is mostly, but not exclusively, produced by males during the breeding season as they define and defend territory and seek a mate to join them.  The males’ message, whether fluted, warbled, chirped, squawked, clucked, or whistled is “Choose me, choose me!”

The female’s choice may be influenced by the complexity and variety of song offered by a male.  Mockingbirds continue to add to their song repertoire

Paul Feldker, Clifftop

throughout their lives, learning and mimicking songs from many other birds, and incorporating sounds made by other animals and even human machinery, such as gunfire, washing machines and emergency sirens.  This skill offers apparent reproductive dividends, as older birds with song stocks numbering into the hundreds are more likely to attract and keep a mate than are young relatively song-poor birds.

The very variety of song can puzzle and frustrate the birder trying to learn “which song from what bird?”  A very few species say their name.  This naming for sound — technically called by the vowel twisting term onomatopoeia — has been used for common names of several species which, not surprisingly, have only a few frequently repeated songs.  Eastern Phoebe repeatedly says “Fee-bee,” sometimes repeating “Fee-bee-bee-bee.”  Echoing through the night, both our local nightjars Whippoorwills and Chuck-will’s-Widow, repeatedly call out their names.  Chickadees, whether our local Carolina Chickadee or the slightly more northern species, Black-capped Chickadee, sing their name as they lead foraging bands through woodlots.

Other birds, at least according to writers of field guides, also sing in phrases we can recognize and memorize as guidance.   This use of phrases or ideas to aid memory — a consonant challenged term called mnemonic — imposes an English translation onto the song phrases of various birds.

Mnemonic phrases have been coined for species as varied as their songs, and, sometimes, are phrases of instruction.  American Robins, for example, instruct the listener to “cheerily cheer up, cheerio,”  while the hidden bird that scratchily orders you to  “Drink, drink, drink your teaeeeee,”  is identified as an Eastern Towhee.  Other song translations are descriptive, as a Yellow

Alfred Viola, Northeastern University, Bugwood.org

Warbler sings “sweet, sweet. sweet, I’m so sweet,” or a Black-throated Blue Warbler confesses “I am so la-zee.”   In some cases, the same song is assigned two different phrases, as White-throated Sparrows can be heard feeling sorry for “oh, poor Sam Peabody, Peabody, Peabody,” or, alternately, praising their summer breeding grounds with “my sweet Canada, Canada, Canada.”

Perhaps the phrases say as much about birders as birds.  An eager birder perhaps hopes that a Chestnut-sided Warbler truly is so “pleased, pleased, pleased to meet -cha!”  that the bird will show itself rather than just singing from the tree tops.

Or, perhaps, the references to tea —  the towhee’s “drink tea,”  or the phrase “teakettle, teakettle,” ascribed to either — or both — Carolina Wrens and Kentucky Warblers — may hint at the listeners’ need for a pickup beverage.  More telling still may be the mnemonic references to beer, as the juncoe’s call notes sometimes are described, or as the Olive-sided Flycatcher calls for a set up of “quick,  three beers!”

Whether beer or tea is one’s favorite tipple, springtime in the bluffs is a great time to hear the many-toned orchestra of bird song.  And, Salt Lick Point is a marvelous place to explore the great outdoors of Monroe County.  It and Fults Hill Prairie Nature Preserve — our two “crown jewels” of permanently protected bluff lands — both are open to the public.

Located between Old and New Valmeyer, the 450-acre tract looms 400 feet above the American Bottoms.  Salt Lick is the highest point in Monroe County, at 810 feet elevation.  The views are breathtaking.

Dedicated as a Land and Water Reserve a couple of years ago, Salt Lick Point features a mosaic of 12 high-quality hill prairies, seven lovely limestone glades, gorgeous racks of limestone bluffs, and stunning runs up upland forest.  The Salt Lick Point Stewardship Committee and the Valmeyer Boy Scout Troop have labored hard at restoration efforts and recently have completed a mile-and-a-half public trail at the reserve.

By the end of April, spring ephemeral wildflowers — those that bloom, set seed, then fade away before the forest canopy shades the forest floor — still should be flowering.  And, forest shade-tolerant and a few hill prairie plants will just be beginning to add color to our bluffs.  About a dozen species of wildflowers should be easily found at Salt Lick Point at month’s end.

Paul Feldker, Clifftop

The delicate white flowers of Harbinger-of-Spring (Ereginia bulbosa) and dainty pink flowers of Spring Beauties (Claytonia virginica), both easy to overlook, can be found on moister slopes and ravines.

The small white flowers of the tiny Whitlow Grass (Draba cunifolia), an Alpine-like relic of the Ice Age and a rarity found only in Southwestern  Illinois, still should be blooming on precipitous edges and ledges of the cliffs.

White-flowered Whorled Milkweed (Asclepias quadrifolia), the first milkweed to bloom each year, and another scarcity in our state, can be found in rocky, open areas of the woods.

Three species of yellow-flowered bloomers, a color more associated with midsummer, add diversity to the bluffscapes’ April palette.  Bristly Buttercups (Ranunculus hispidus), each flower made up of  five waxy-yellow petals, grow throughout the blufflands.  Local Illini Native Americans made a poultice from its leaves to heal wounds.

Yellow-flowered Hoary Puccoon and Fringed Puccoon (Lithospermum canescens and incisum) should be blooming in hill prairies and glades by

Pen DauBach, Clifftop

late April.  Later, when the plants have set seed, the meaning of the Latin name — “stone seed” — is apparent, for few seeds are protected by such a heavy, hard coating as these.  The common name, spelled pocan by French translators of the Algonquin Indian word poughkone, means “blood red,” and was applied to plants which produce red juices.  And, as with “bloodroot,” another early spring bloomer of our bluffs, both Yellow-Flowered Hoary and Fringed Puccoons, were gathered to extract a red dye from their roots.

Wild Geraniums (Geranium maculatum), with rose-lavender flowers, and widely used by early settlers as an astringent, can be spotted in the forests throughout the bluffs.

Four species of blue-blooming plants round out our bluffscapes’ flower tapestry in April.  Violet Wood Sorrel (Oxalis violaceae), with shamrock-shaped leaves that fold down at night, grow on rocky, shaded slopes.  Woodland Blue Phlox (Phlox divaricata) and Dwarf Larkspur (Delphinium

Tom Rollins, Thomas Rollins Photography

tricorne), with flowers shaded towards violet, grace the bases of moister slopes.  And, Cleft Phlox (Phlox bifida) cling to the cliff faces, curtaining the ledges with sky-blue, pale-white, and lavender-pink foams of flowers.

A hike in the bluffs is a springtime joy of color and sound!

Clifftop, a local nonprofit organization, is focused on preserving and protecting area bluff lands.

A version of this article appeared in the April 9 2008 edition of the Monroe County Clarion.

© 2008 all content rights reserved, Clifftop NFP.

Tom Rollins, Thomas Rollins Photography

A March morning in the bluffs is only as drab as one who walks in it without looking skyward, for, in March, the sky-clock clearly is set at springtime.  Trumpeting skeins of geese — Greater White-fronted speckle bellies, Ross’s, Snowies, and Canadas — winging through the skies, draw eyes and hopes upwards: northward bird migration has begun.  The minute-by-minute increase in daylight hours since December’s winter solstice alters brain and body chemistry in animals so that the ongoing necessity of finding food to survive through winter is joined by the imperatives of mating and reproduction.

Two magnificent species of raptors begin to depart their winter ranges in March, heading for their northern breeding territories.  Northern Harriers often can be seen in our area in the winter, while the more rarely seen Peregrine Falcons also grace our winter skies.

Harriers, also called “Marsh Hawks,” are a common sight coursing over fields, especially over the American Bottoms, in winter.  Owl-faced, about two-feet long, with a wingspan of almost four feet, they easily are recognized by their low, skimming and graceful flight over wetlands and fields as they forage for rodents and other small prey.

Terry L. Spivey Photography, Bugwood.org

Harriers are among the few raptor species in which males and females have differently colored plumage.  Adult females are brown above with white breast and belly feathers heavily streaked with brown.  Adult males are grayish above and mostly plain white below.  Both males and females sport a white rump patch, while males also show black wing tips.  As with many raptors, females are larger than males.

Their name, derived from an old English word meaning to rob, pillage or  torment, was, perhaps, an attempt to describe how potential harrier prey must feel as the birds methodically course over the ground in search of unwary rodents.  Harriers seem to set up distinct search patterns as they skim along near the ground, with their heads pointed down, watching and listening, in an undulating flight that follows the nape of the earth.  Once a potential meal is spotted, however, the lazy, easy flight is broken as a bird will quickly bank and turn, fanning its tail and then quickly punch toward the ground, sharp talons extended, ready for a mouse or vole meal.

A far different, though equally methodical, hunting strategy is followed by Peregrine Falcons.  Also called “Duck Hawks,” Peregrines winter along the Mississippi River and the Atlantic and

Scott Ballard, Illinois Department of Natural Resoures

Gulf Coasts.  Slightly smaller than Harriers, both adult male and female Peregrines are gray above and show dark head feathering which extends, helmet-like, in a wedge below the eye.  Peregrines primarily hunt waterfowl and other smaller birds, and often will target their prey from a considerable distance and then swiftly fly in pursuit.  The final aerial hunt often is concluded by a steep vertical dive which has been clocked at speeds of up to 250 miles per hour.  That we may thrill at the sight of a wintering Peregrine is only due to an intense reintroduction program.

The naturally occurring population of Peregrines in the Eastern U.S. and Canada, a subspecies called the “Rock Peregrine,”  became extinct in the early 1960s, a loss largely attributed to the pesticide DDT.  This pesticide, extensively used to control insects on crop and forest lands from 1946 to the early 1970s, undergoes chemical transformation in animals and increases in both concentration in tissue and effects as it moves up the food chain.  As plants, insects, spiders and other food items that were exposed to DDT were eaten by birds, which, in turn, became food for peregrines and other raptors, the amount and resulting toxicity increased.  The metabolized pesticide did not kill adult birds; rather it made the females less able to produce calcium.  Eggs produced by the birds had shells so thin that the weight of the incubating adult birds simply crushed and destroyed the eggs.

Captive breeding programs, begun in the 1970s, have resulted in the release of more than 6,000 Peregrines in Canada and the U.S.  The Midwest recovery effort was begun in Minnesota in 1982.  But, the Peregrines of the Midwest and the Eastern U.S. are not the same as the Peregrine population that had lived here.  The captive-raised birds and their descendants are the result of breeding efforts with up to 12 different subspecies of birds, including some from Europe.

Another reintroduction success story and increasingly seen winter visitor to our area are Trumpeter Swans.  The largest waterfowl in North America, adults are four feet tall, with a seven-foot wingspan, and can

Dennis Jacobsen, Clifftop

weigh up to 30 pounds.  Because of their size, they need 500 feet of water to get airborne.  Adults are all white but the youngsters are tawny-grayish buff through their first spring, seemingly needing a full year’s sun to bleach their feathers into snow white.  Trumpeter Swans have all black bills, unlike Tundra Swans, which often show a small yellow patch, or the nonnative Mute Swans, with their orange bills surmounted by a black knob.

Historically, trumpeters bred from Northern Illinois northward into Canada and wintered all along the Mississippi.  Loss of wetlands habitat and over hunting brought trumpeters to near extinction, with only 100 birds remaining in North America in 1930.  Captive breeding programs and reintroductions, along with recreations of wetlands, have increased their numbers to 4000 in the lower 48 states and to 12,000 in Alaska.

In early November, a mated pair — Trumpeter Swans take lifelong mates — visited wetlands in the American Bottoms of Monroe County and stayed for about a week.  During the week of January 14, a second pair and three youngsters stayed at the large lake in Randolph County Conservation Area.

This family of visiting swans turned out to be “Illinois’ First Family” for they are the first pair to breed in Illinois in over two centuries.  The identification numbers on their neck bands showed that the male (called a cob) was hatched and raised in a Chicago-area zoo; the female (called a pen) had been hatched and raised in Iowa.  Both birds were released in Iowa, where they met and “married,” subsequently relocating to a new home along the Mississippi River in Carroll County, Illinois.  They bred successfully in 2006 and 2007 and brought three chicks (called cygnets) to our part of Illinois this winter.

As Northern Harriers, Peregrines and Trumpeter Swans begin northward migration, some of our earliest spring flowers begin to garland the bluffs.

Amelanchier arborea often is the first, widely prevalent plant to flower in our bluff’s woods.  The small bushy tree produces numerous clusters of small, five-petaled, white flowers, with each flower resembling a small

Tom Rollins, Thomas Rollins Photography

five-bladed propeller.  Amelanchier ranges throughout Canada and the northern half of the Eastern U.S.  It has many common names throughout its range.  In our neck of the woods and throughout the Midwest, it’s mostly called “serviceberry.”  Early settlers dubbed it such because it bloomed when church services reopened after the long, hard winter, which made travel to meeting areas difficult, was over.

Along the East Coast, the early flowering tree is called “shadbush,” because it blooms when shad fish began their migration upriver from the sea.  In Canada, the plant is called “saskatoon,” after a Cree word for its berries.  The ripe fruits also gave the plant an alternate name throughout its range — Juneberry.

Serviceberry’s juicy blue-black fruits have been put to a variety of uses.  Early settlers ate them fresh and used them for jams and cakes.  Native Americans used the berries to sweeten pemmican and also made an infusion from the tree’s bark to cure intestinal worms.  But any person hoping for a feast of serviceberry fruits is in hard competition with birds and mammals who also find the fruits delectable.

The white flowers of False Rue Anemone (Enemion biternatum) are among the earliest spring flowers to decorate the forest floor.  With five petal-like sepals, about one-half inch across, the delicate little plant has

Tom Rollins, Thomas Rollins Photography

compound leaflets of three, each divided into three lobes.  It can be found along our bluff land’s moist creek hollows, with sizable colonies along Fults Road, Trout Camp Road, and Dennis’ Hollow (Highway 156) in Monroe County, and Maple Hollow Road in Randolph County.

Also blooming white in March and early April, are Dutchman’s Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria).  Their three-quarter inch long, sometimes pink- or yellow-tipped white flowers have double spurs and, indeed, look like an upside-down pair of old-fashioned pantaloons.  Their leaves are fern-like in appearance, finely dissected and cut into a lacy pattern.

Many Native American peoples utilized infusions of the plant’s leaves for a liniment to soothe and heal aching muscles.  Early settlers made a tea from the bulbs to promote sweating and as a curative for urinary

Tom Rollins, Thomas Rollins Photography

difficulties.  The leaves of Dutchman’s Breeches contain an alkaloid that can produce a narcotic effect, called “blue staggers,” by the early settlers who discovered this ill result.  The bulbs of the plant can kill cattle in large amounts. Today, all parts of the plant are considered poisonous.

But a view of Dutchman’s Breeches, carpeting the forest along moist and shaded roadways and at the base of our bluff slopes is anything but toxic.  And, if the Dutchman’s Breeches are accompanied by Virginia Bluebells, the effect can be intoxicatingly beautiful.

Arguably the most beautiful of our early spring wildflowers, Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) bring a touch of sky-blue heaven to our

Tom Rollins, Thomas Rollins Photography

bluffs, often blooming even as the last snow melts.

Their porcelain-blue flowers are trumpet-shaped, with numerous blossoms hanging in loose clusters; individual flowers turn lavender, then pink as they age.

Tom Rollins, Thomas Rollins Photography

They often form large colonies, covering the forest floor with a tapestry of blue, which, sadly, lasts for only a couple of weeks.  After flowering and seed-set, the entire plant enters dormancy, dying back and leaving no trace at all of its graceful presence until next spring.  Large colonies of bluebells are easily viewed along Bluff Road between Columbia and Valmeyer on the talus slope below the bluff face.

The skies — filled with the urgency of birds migrating north — and the wildflowers — beginning to peek through last autumn’s leaf mulch — tell us spring is here.  As we reset our clocks to daylight savings time this March, and try again to convince ourselves of our clever alchemy in transforming a morning sunbeam into a more lingering sunset, the enduring rhythms of nature have long-since tolled in the wonders of springtime.

Clifftop, a local nonprofit organization, is focused on preserving and protecting area bluff lands.

A version of this article appeared in the March 5 2008 edition of the Monroe County Clarion.

© 2008 all content rights reserved, Clifftop NFP.

Paul Feldker, Clifftop

Ruby-throated hummingbirds will return to the bluff lands of Monroe, St. Clair, and Randolph Counties in April. They usually arrive the third week of the month.

The little gems cross the Gulf of Mexico twice each year, taking about 18-20 nonstop hours for each 500-mile, over-water crossing. Each bird travels alone (they don’t ride on the backs of other birds!). They spend the winter months in southern Mexico or Central America; most stay here from mid-April to early September.

The males have the ruby throats; females and juveniles are white-throated. At 3 ½  inches in length, they are just about as long as the middle toe of our bald eagles. They weigh slightly less than a penny. They beat their wings 100 times per second and have an average flight speed of 30 mph; in aerial courtship dives, males attain speeds of 60 mph.

A hummingbird’s heart beats about 1200 times per minute. With such a high-energy metabolism, hummingbirds consume food at an enormous rate. If humans were required to sustain such a high-energy lifestyle, they would have to eat 250 quarter-pound hamburgers a day!  Hummers are attracted to nectar-producing flowers, with red, orange and pink flowers their favorites. In addition, hummingbirds eat large numbers of small insects, scooping them up midair, on the fly.

Paul Feldker, Clifftop

Hummingbird nests, built by the females, are about the size of a half dollar and resemble a knot on a limb. Females lay two white eggs, each egg the size of a peanut. Females may have two or, rarely, three clutches per year. After two weeks of incubation, newly hatched hummers have 2-3 weeks of nest life. Then the juveniles will join their parents at your hummingbird feeders.

If you feed hummingbirds, take several precautions. The standard solution for feeders is one cup of white sugar to four cups of water. Never use honey, red dye or artificial sweeteners — these may be fatal to the birds. During hot summer months change the feeders every 2-3 days to prevent spoilage. In the fall, leave your feeders out at least two weeks after you’ve seen the last bird at your feeder — late migrants need the food for their journey and sometimes stragglers still will be moving south into November.

Just about the time our hummers arrive, one of their favorite nectaring flowers

Pen DauBach, Clifftop

begins blooming. Columbine grow in the woods, and along shaded limestone cliffs and roadways of the bluffs. Their distinctive nodding flowers, with five red sepals, five yellow petals and numerous yellow stamens, make them easy to spot, and they are common throughout the bluffs.

Yellow bellwort also will bloom in April. The flowers are drooping, an inch and a half long, with six yellow petals. The stems pierce the leaves giving an appearance of leaves carefully sewn onto the stems by perfectly placed baste stitches.  Bellworts  are scattered in the bluffs’ moist hollows and along shady roadways. Early settlers cooked the leaves as greens and ate the upper stems as a substitute for asparagus.

Tom Rollins, Thomas Rollins Photography

Spicebush, scattered throughout our rich woodlands, began blooming in mid-March and will continue through mid-April. Its lemon-scented tiny yellow flowers on leaf-bare branches make it a standout for discovery. The caterpillars of our spicebush swallowtail butterflies require it as their principal food source. Native Americans used just about every part of the plant for a vast repertoire of medicines. Its red berries, which ripen in August-September, were used by early settlers as a substitute for allspice in cooking and baking.

By mid-April, many migratory songbirds will begin to move into and through our bluffs.  Eastern Phoebes — back with us since March — often return to the same nesting spots year after year.  This site fidelity was first shown by John James Audubon when, in 1805, he happily noted the return to the same site of two phoebes, still tagged with the silver threads he had placed on their legs the previous fall.  Audubon’s experiment is the first known example of bird banding in the U.S.

Phoebes will be joined by some of the most colorful and tuneful birds in the Americas.  Blue Grosbeak, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and Indigo Buntings, members of the same subfamily as our resident Northern Cardinals, all return here in April.  The strikingly colored male Rose-breasted Grosbeak was nicknamed “cutthroat” because of the bright pink bib, giving the appearance of blood staining his white belly, which contrasts with his black hood and back.  Like their cardinal “cousins,” both grosbeaks have large, heavy bills — as indicated by their names derived from the French word “gros” for “big.”  Male

Paul Feldker, Clifftop

Indigo Buntings, as the name implies, are bright blue, but the females are so drab — plain, little, brown birds — they seem almost a separate species.   Indigo Buntings are notable both for their numbers, for in much of the Eastern U.S. they are the most numerous summer songbird, and for their daily songs which will continue well into the fall, long after other birds have stopped singing.

Many people consider the flute-like notes of thrushes to be the finest bird songs.  Several species of thrush will migrate through our area, stopping to rest, eat and sing, but only one, the Wood Thrush, will stay and breed here.  Closely related to American Robins and Eastern Bluebirds, this reddish-brown thrush sports dark spots on the white of its throat, breast and sides.  The loud, liquid sound of its three-to-four note phrases, ending in complex trills, adds a serene note to our forest mornings.

Flashing orange and black, Baltimore Orioles sometimes will come to nectar at fruit feeders and often will construct their distinctive bag-shaped hanging nests in shade trees in towns.  The slightly smaller Orchard Oriole also nests in our area.  Males are a deep chestnut-red above and below with a black hood; females are dull olive above and greenish-yellow below with two white wing bars. Orioles are members of the Icterid subfamily of birds that includes bobolinks, meadowlarks, grackles, blackbirds, and cowbirds.

The group name of cowbirds comes from the feeding behavior of some species as they associate with livestock in pastures, catching the insects flushed by grazing animals.  Their primary claim to fame is their distinctive breeding method: nest parasitism. Female cowbirds lay their eggs in the nests of other birds.  The unwitting host parents then provide all care and raise the cowbird chicks as their own.  Often larger and more aggressive than the host species’ young, cowbird chicks will compete for food and even kill or push out the host species’ actual offspring.  In our area, Brown-headed Cowbirds, which long-ago traded insect foraging among buffalo herds for cows and horses, are common birds of farm, field, and forest edge.  They regularly visit bird feeding stations.  They look like a small blackbird with a stubby bill; the male’s brown head contrasts with the metallic green-black body while females are grayish brown above and paler below.  Brown-headed Cowbirds are known to parasitize the nests of more than 220 species of birds.  Forest fragmentation and the creation of openings within large forest blocks have helped cowbird populations increase, as accessibility to woodland-dwelling songbirds — and their nests — is made easier.

The nice thing about our leafless bluff woods in Spring is that you can see every tree for the forest. And the vile, foreign, stinking Tree-of-Heaven is easily spotted, taking over much of the woods between Bluff Road and the cliff face. Imported from China, and aptly also called stinking sumac, its colonies are choking out our native oaks, hickories and understory trees. Its pale, grey-brown, smooth bark and compound (like an ash or sumac) 2-3 foot long leaves make it easy to recognize. Every part of the tree stinks and every part can cause skin irritation.  In our bluffs, the only good Tree-of-Heaven is a dead Tree-of-Heaven.

Tom Rollins, Thomas Rollins Photography

On the more positive hand, our leafless woods also show us in Spring just how common and dazzling our understory flowering dogwoods and red buds are. If the weather is right in April, with a double-bang for the beauty, both will bloom side-by-side. The air-dancing, cloud-like white dogwood flowers and magenta, star-like red bud flowers give each tree a magical presence, give us a moment of worship, and, together, display our bluffs’ beautiful charm down every vista.

CLIFFTOP, a local nonprofit organization is focused on preserving and protecting area bluff lands.

A version of this article appeared in the April 4 2007 edition of the Monroe County Clarion.

© 2007 all content rights reserved, Clifftop NFP.

Tom Rollins, Thomas Rollins Photography

Chris Evans, River-to-River CWMA, Bugwood.org

Canada geese are very much family creatures.  They mate for life.  Flocks, often numbering 30-100 individuals, are made up entirely of extended family members, with brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins all in the gaggle, led by the eldest patriarch at the head of the distinctive V-formation.

The establishment of wetland refuges and the increase in corn-producing acreage over the last half-century have encouraged new generations of geese to stay year-round rather than migrate to Canada for the breeding season.  Our upland sinkhole ponds and lakes and the wetlands in the bottoms now host permanent resident geese flocks.  Even during breeding season their extended family linkages are at work.  The geese practice a gang brood or “crèche” system — a kind of day care — wherein one pair of adult geese will watch over and train 10-20 little gosling relatives.

Not a loud trumpeting, but the soft refrain of “fee bee, fee bee”  sounding near house and barn is another reminder that spring is near.  Eastern Phoebes, calling their name, are one of the earliest migratory songbirds, often appearing in mid- to late-March.  Phoebes have a great affinity for human-built structures, which offer protective overhangs found in nature at steep stream beds and rock outcroppings in the woods. So long as human landlords are willing, phoebes will nest under eaves or even on top of porch lamps.  Their rental payments are made in insect-eating currency as both phoebe parents strive from spring through fall to raise two broods of four to six chicks each time.  Just as voracious an insect eater as the better-known Purple Martins, phoebes are more drab in appearance.  The seven-inch long birds are brownish gray above, darkest on their head, wings and tail, mostly white below with a buffy olive wash along their breast sides.

Far less drab are the early spring warbler migrants, Northern Parula and Pine Warbler.  Both winter just south of our area and begin to push north in March; both will breed here as well as farther north.  Northern Parulas are tiny little birdlets — four and one-half inches long — and often stay hidden high in the trees as they search for and devour insects, mites and spiders. The cheerful song — a rising, buzzing upward song often ending with a tickle-up tschriiiip — is a location clue for the person focusing binoculars high on the tree tops while trying to ignore the ache that grows and grows (and known among birders as warbler neck).  But patience is well rewarded with a view of this bird’s jewel-like colors: deep blue-gray upper parts extending on the head and sides of the throat, a greenish upper back spot, two white wing bars, bright yellow throat and breast, decorated, on the males, with red and black breast bands, all set off with white belly and undertail feathers.

Johnny Dell, Bugwood.org

Sometimes easier to see are Pine Warblers which will come to bird feeding stations early in spring when their insect foods are less readily available. These aptly named birds nest in pine groves.  Slightly longer than five inches, pine warblers have olive green upper parts, yellow breast and throat, white belly and undertail feathers and two white wing bars.

While songbirds migrate along broad fronts, other migratory birds follow more constricted pathways, perhaps best described as highways or rivers in the air.  Among these are the shorebirds, some of the greatest-distance migrants known, which begin to travel to and through our area in March and April. Our rich bottomlands provide rest and refueling stops along the migratory journey up the Mississippi River flyway.  Pectoral sandpipers, sometimes called “grasspipers”  because they pause to eat and gain strength in wet fields and mudflats as they travel from South American wintering grounds to breeding areas along the Canadian and Alaskan north coasts.  Flying along the same highway are many other shorebird species, making their way from continent to continent by taking advantage of our rest stop area.  Our resident shorebirds — Killdeers — of course, have little need of actual “shores,” and nest in fields, near roads and farmsteads.

Jerry A. Payne, USDA Agricultural Service, Bugwood.org

Just about the time that Killdeers begin to call in spring, Mourning Cloakswill be the first butterflies out and about in the bluffs on our first warmer days in March.  They are Illinois’ longest living butterfly, with a lifespan of one year.  Their four inch wingspan, dark brown color with a purplish cast, and slow, fluttery flight pattern make them easy to spot.  They are among the earliest breeders, mating in March or April.  After mating, females lay eggs on the branches of our numerous hackberry or elm trees.  Shortly after, the adults die. The butterfly larvae feed on new tree leaves and by June or July metamorphose into adult Mourning Cloaks, which overwinter, hibernating in hollow logs or in tree holes.  And then, on a warm March day, they awaken, search for mates, and begin the cycle all over again.

Paul Feldker, Clifftop

Spring beauties will begin to bloom on the moister north slopes and in the ravines of the bluff woods in March.  The four to six inch plant, with two grass-like leaves, has beautiful five-petaled, one-half inch wide, pink flowers striped in deeper shades of pink.  Amerindians and our first European settlers ate the corms. These “fairy spuds” reportedly taste like radishes when eaten raw; if boiled, like chestnuts. Wild turkeys love them and will scratch the soil to dig up the treats.

John D. Byrd, Mississippi State Univ., Bugwood.org

Bloodroot will bloom in March.  The low-growing plant has eight-petaled, large, three-inch across, white flowers, with bright yellow stamens.  The flowers only last one or two days.  Bloodroot, which can be found along the moist creek hollows of the bluffs, was given its name for the red juice of its stems and roots. Native Americans used it for a fabric dye and paint, and taught this to the early French settlers who exported the roots back to France via the Mississippi. Early Virginia settlers also boiled the roots to make a cough medicine. Today, bloodroot is grown commercially for use as an additive in toothpaste and mouthwash.

Pen DauBach, Clifftop

Cleft phlox also blooms in March.  A short, mat-forming plant, with five-petaled, deeply notched, light blue flowers, it clings to the limestone ledges of the bluffs. Large swaths of cleft phlox on the bluff face above and south of Prairie du Rocher can be easily seen from Bluff Road and, if the light is right, give the appearance of patches of blue sky fallen to earth, further beautifying our unique bluff lands.

Pen DauBach, Clifftop

© 2007 all content rights reserved, Clifftop NFP.

Tom Rollins, Thomas Rollins Photography

Spring has already arrived in the wooded bluff lands of Monroe and Randolph Counties. High above Bluff Road, on the limestone ledges of the bluffs’ escarpment, whitlow grass is blooming. A little plant, hairy-stemmed, with tiny, white, four-petaled flowers, whitlow grass really isn’t a grass, but a member of the mustard family. It is a rare plant found only on the bluffs in southwestern Illinois. In order to survive on the harsh and windy bluff face, whitlow grass has developed a clever life-cycle. Its seeds germinate in fall; it grows over the winter and flowers in February; it then produces new seeds and dies back before summer.  It’s called whitlow grass because Native Americans and early settlers used it as a medicinal remedy for whitlows — sores under finger or toenails.

Near the end of February, if we get a few warmer days, harbinger-of-spring will begin to bloom. Also called pepper-and-salt, the plant is found throughout the moist, wooded slopes and ravines of the bluffs. A small, delicate plant, with fern-like leaves, it is a member of the parsley family. The white flowers are in clusters at the ends of long stems and have deep dark reddish anthers. Native Americans ate the plant’s bulbs.

John Triana, Regional Water Authority, Bugwood.org

Great-horned owls, like whitlow grass, also have a unique reproductive strategy. Because young fledgling owls have a very long, 3-4 month, dependency on their parents to learn hunting skills, adult great-horned owls court and breed in the winter. So courting begins in January, egg incubation is usually in February, and fledgling training begins in March. During this time, our bluffs resound with the mellow “hoo” notes, in rhythmic succession, of great-horned mates starting new families. Great-horned owls are also oftenassociated with red-tailed hawks. Every winter the owls use abandoned red-tailed hawk nests for breeding, and every spring the red-tails use untaken previous nests or simply build new ones. Since both owls and hawks are year-round residents of the bluffs and establish permanent territories here, they live side-by-side, with the great-horned owls ruling the night skies and the red-tailed hawks ruling the daylight.

Scott Ballard, Illinois Department of Natural Resoures

Spring peepers and wood frogs are the first frogs to breed in our bluffs, usually starting by late February. Both, like many frogs, have a kind of antifreeze in their blood, and can withstand being totally frozen in the soil of their winter burrows. The earliest spring rains and temperatures above 50 F awaken both to breeding. Spring peepers are about 1” long and collect in the grasses andbushes around our numerous sinkhole ponds to breed. Their clear, high-pitched “peeps,” about one per second, are usually the first calls of spring. Wood frogs, more secretive and harder to hear, are 1.5”-2” long, and breed in small woodland ponds, puddles or vernal pools. They live and hide in forest leaf litter. Their breeding calls are a soft, rapid clucking or quacking sound, much like a duck.

Woodcocks will be returning to our bluff lands in late February. Often called timberdoodles by hunters, they are dry-land shorebirds. Wintering in southern states, they are one of the earliest migrant arrivals. Male woodcocks perform remarkable twilight courtship flights called ‘sky dances.’  Beginning about 45 minutes before sunrise and a half hour after sunset, the males will launch spiraling ascents to 200 hundred feet while producing a rising-pitch trill sound with their wing tips. They then dive back in a zigzag, falling-leaf-like descent to the ground, all the time vocalizing “chip-chip-chip.”  Males may make ten or twenty of these

60 second flights in a row. It’s really a sight to see and hear.

Thoughts on spring should never overlook our beautiful back yard bird menagerie.

If you live in the bluffs, the forest edge is never far away. And, if you regularly feed birds over the winter, there are a dozen or so loyal species that routinely grace your feeders. Cardinals or redbirds, which everybody recognizes, are always the most prevalent. Next come the noisy and pranksterish blue jays. They are important caretakers of our woods. Famous for hoarding and stashing acorns, nuts and seeds in the woods during winter and then forgetting about it, they contribute greatly to new seedling growth. Three of our five native species of woodpeckers are common at our feeding stations, especially if you put out suet. Downy, hairy and red-bellied woodpeckers were all considered sacred by local native Americans; they believed the woodpeckers would keep them safe from lightening. Chickadees and white-breasted nuthatches are daily visitors. And, we must not forget the goldfinches or “wild canaries.” They are easy to overlook when in their drab, brown-little-bird winter plumage. They are so dependent on thistles and weed seeds and chaff for summer food and nesting materials that they are among the last to breed in our area, waiting to late summer. Their practice is a gift for us, because from March to summer, they molt into their golder and golder breeding plumage.

All of the above bird species are yearlong residents of the bluffs. Five additional species, common at our winter back yard feeders, will soon migrate. White-throated sparrows, fox sparrows, tree sparrows, white-crowned sparrows, and dark-eyed juncos will all depart for their breeding ranges in Canada. But all will be back next fall, especially the juncos, the ‘snowbirds’ who return to the same yard, year after year. We just have to remember to feed the birds.

CLIFFTOP, a local, nonprofit organization, is focused on preserving & protecting our bluff lands.

A version of this article appeared in the February 7 2007 edition of the Monroe County Clarion

© 2007 all content rights reserved, Clifftop NFP.