February 27, 2015 Bird Tracks Large, green globes of flowers and thick purple stems make great angelica easy to identify. According to the late, great naturalist Dick Young, “The broad, pinnately compound, toothed leaves and large, rounded blossom umbels give angelica an ethereal, hazy, lazy cast…Its angel name fits.” Holy great angelica, Batman! Over the
Great Angelica, Plant, Wetland
June 25, 2015 Fishing Spider A young female fishing spider snacks on an ebony jewelwing damselfly. If you’ve ever traveled with teens or tweens (or me, for that matter) you know that food for the trip is a primary concern. Meals and snacks are planned just as carefully as the route and the restroom stops.
Arachnid, Fishing Spider, Spider
June 16, 2015 Positive Nature It’s only a short loop, but the path in the Native Plant Garden at the Pottawatomie Community Center can lead to a journey of discovery. When was the last time you got something more than you bargained for … in a good way? I don’t mean to brag but, ahem,
Native Plant Garden, Nature, Pottawatomie Community Center
June 12, 2015 Indigo Pollinators Insect pollinators have been in the news a lot lately and, for the most part, the reports have not been good. Powerful pesticides combined with a lack of suitable habitat and consecutive years of severe weather have taken their toll on these vital organisms. Apis melifera, our familiar yet nonnative
Indigo Bush, Plant, Shrub
June 5, 2015 Wood Thrush The wood thrush’s scientific name, Hylocichla mustelina, is derived from the Greek words for woodland, thrush and weasel—the last word perhaps referring to the bird’s reddish brown coloration. Look, and listen, for wood thrushes in habitat that includes mature trees, leaf litter for foraging, and a nearby source of fresh
Bird, Fly, Wood Thursh
May 22, 2015 Bucks Restoration ecologist Jill Voegtle holds Drop Tine and Young Buck, the two deer whose territory battle led to their deaths last fall. The skulls were then transported to another location for the next phase in their processing. Good Natured readers may remember a column that ran, oh, about six months ago.
Bucks, Deer, White-Tailed Deer
May 15, 2015 Hoppers I’m not sure who started the trend, or when. But over the past year or so, primarily on Facebook and other social media, I’ve seen several instances of adults recreating the photos they posed in as children. Some are better than others; in fact there are a few–like the three brothers
Bug, Cricket, Hoppers, Insect
May 7, 2015 Robins Nests Sheltered from the wind and rain, and out of reach of predators, female American robin, Turdus migratorius, incubates her brood atop a custom-built pie plate platform. When we humans build our homes, we want them to be solid, safe and secure. They are our primary means of shelter from the
Bird, Fly, Nest, Robin
May 1, 2015 Volcano Mulching The Super Students from Dorene Tieche’s fourth grade class at Munhall School performed an original skit, Tree Trouble, at last week’s Arbor Day Celebration in St. Charles. The “tree,” center, suffered from mulch that was mounded too high against its bark. In the end, though, arborists rescued the tree from
Lawn, Mulch, Volcano Mulch, Yard
April 24, 2015 Click Beetle Ampedus nigricollis is just one of several species of click beetle present in Kane County. The insects belong to the family Elateridae, a name derived from the Greek word elat.r meaning ‘driver, or hurler’, a reference to the beetles’ way of hurling into the air when they click. Did you
Bug, Click Beetle, Insect