Ah, Christmas. What fond memories the season brings…
I remember the excitement of going to bed Christmas Eve, knowing that Santa would soon be by with all the rooty toot toots and rummy tum tums a kid could handle. I also recall the joy of racing downstairs in the dim pre-dawn light and discovering packages of all shapes and sizes nestled beneath the boughs of a regal pine, spruce or fir.
What I didn’t know then, yet am keenly aware of now, is that every day is Christmas when you’re a naturalist.
Although pine, spruce and fir trees aren’t native to Kane County, they nonetheless are present in abundance. Folks plant them for their evergreen-ness; their dark, year-round foliage and mostly triangular shapes make them ideal accent trees across our generally deciduous landscape. Those same green leaves (and yes, they really are leaves, even though we tend to call them needles) also make for great windbreaks, which is why you’ll often see these trees planted in rows along country lanes, farmhouses and crop fields.
Where you find windbreaks, you’ll also find wildlife. And that’s where the Christmas part comes in. Just like the brightly decorated trees found indoors this time of year, the evergreens we have outdoors also yield treasures of all types.
For example, maybe you’ve heard about the turkeys we have in St. Charles. Wild turkeys, that is—the sort you associate with Thanksgiving and, maybe, bourbon bottles. Meleagris gallopavo is alive and well, living in and around the area just north of Delnor Woods Park. In fact, from what I understand, the evergreens there are what’s left from a Christmas tree farm that once operated there. (Attention long-time STC residents–can anyone substantiate that claim? I’ve asked around, but haven’t been able to find out if or when the farm operated, nor its name. Your help would be greatly appreciated!)
Anyway, talk about a gift. Even though these big birds likely are descendants of game farm birds, and hence are wild only in a sense that they’re not caged, they’re still an amazing sight to see. They’ve been spotted at Delnor Woods, strutting across the mowed turf; they’ve also been seen by the library and north of town near Valley View.
But it’s those remnant Christmas trees and their evergreen cover that may be the turkeys’ home base. The leaves, okay, needles, provide good shelter, a quality that’s enhanced once the limbs are covered with snow and make a great place to hang out, whether you’re a turkey or a naturalist.
Poking around through the shed—all right, I’ll say it again—needles, you can find all sorts of “presents,”
Turkeys are grazers and, for the most part, herbivores, dining on seeds that fall from native plants as well as neighbors’ birdfeeders. But evergreens also provide shelter for many other critters, including some at the opposite end of the food chain: birds of prey. And, specifically, owls.