EARLY AUTUMN

Hush
It seems cardinals should learn to go to bed early and be quiet. Their noisy, pre-roost maneuvering — in addition to their bright color — most certainly attracts the attention of evening hunters. One local expert discovered that the pellets of long-eared owls contain cardinal beaks more often than all other avian prey species combined.

C'est la vie
Those clever Cornell University ornithologists predict a 0 to 5 percent decline in regional sightings of evening grosbeaks for the next two years. They're not too worried, though, as these birds are well known for their years of irregular irruptions. On occasion, a few flocks of these handsome, black-and-gold finches descend from the north and might be seen hanging out in maples and box elder trees. Some lucky folks may have evening grosbeaks show up at their sunflower feeders. But they won't stay around long. They usually split for their breeding grounds in the northern pine forests before the snow melts.

MIDDLE WINTER

Real Big Fish
There are thousands of lake trout eggs just off the west end of the Port of Indiana breakwater in southern Lake Michigan. The four-millimeter eggs were laid during the fall and will develop slowly in the cold water over the next few months. They will begin to hatch toward the end of winter. Isn't it nice to know that more and more of these massive, majestic fish live deep under the waves?

Our Mounds
I know of a 1930s-era map that purports to show a prehistoric effigy mound, in the shape of a 40-foot-long serpent, along the east bank of the Des Plaines River. I may try and look for it this winter. Rumor has it there used to be a large bear effigy, also along the Des Plaines, near Park Ridge. This might not interest everybody, but the leafless season is a great time to explore the thousand-year-old mounds in the area. While the locations of many mounds and earthworks are known only to archaeologists and are off-limits to the public, some of them, such as Winfield Mounds in DuPage County and Will County's Oakwood, Fischer, and Briscoe Mounds, are not difficult to locate and are public-friendly. The mysterious prehistoric earthworks at Higginbotham Woods east of Joliet are also fun to explore. The mounds are another fascinating piece of our cultural history.

Small Faces
In the winter of 1949, a storm covered the northwest suburbs with ice. Seeking refuge, a pair of shrews entered a Palatine garage. One was a masked shrew, a nervous, mouse-like insectivore typically found in forests. The other diminutive creature was a pygmy shrew. This is significant for two reasons. First, the Guinness Book of World Records rates pygmy shrews as among the smallest mammals of the world, certainly the smallest mammal in North America — they weigh less than a dime. Second, this particular pygmy shrew was the first of only three pygmy shrews ever found in Illinois.

Chicago Wilderness is at the extreme southern edge of the pygmy shrew's range, but they're rarely encountered anywhere else, either. Their habitat is old boreal forest, flatwoods, and mossy bogs, where they root around in the leaf litter — and garages — for worms and insect larvae.

LATE WINTER

Days of Cordage
During a previous life, I spent many late winter days harvesting basswood bark. My choice spot was from a grove of saplings that were growing next to a small pond near Plum Creek in Will County. Bright, sunny days when the sap was rising were the best times to tear long, wide strips of bark off the young trees. The smooth, tan inner bark was then separated from the outer bark, soaked, and plaited into a durable, nearly unbreakable rope.

In late winter, basswood saplings are readily identifiable with their smooth, gray bark and bright red terminal buds. Basswood trees are common in moist wooded areas.

Hoo are you?
Barred owls aren't found in every town, like great horned owls are, but they certainly seem to like Park Forest. During January, their distinctive nine-note call is often heard coming from the lovely, forested banks of Thorn Creek in the predawn hours. Barred owls inhabit wooded river valleys and bottomland forests. Despite their large size — they're nearly two feet long — barred owls have relatively small talons. They dine chiefly on small rodents, leaving rabbits to the big-foots.

Strah Poll
Some naturalists, myself included, like to point out that late winter and early spring is a dangerous time for skunks. We paint a vivid picture of single-minded male skunks, still groggy from their winter downtime, stumbling in front of cars while in search of a mate. It made sense to me. And I certainly thought I saw more dead skunks in March than in other months. But then I learned of the Strah Poll, named after Cathy Strah, a Department of Transportation employee who began recording the roadkill picked up by her crews in Mentor, Ohio. Crunching three years of data, the Strah Poll indicates that late summer and early fall is a far more dangerous time for most of our woodland mammals, including skunks. Another flattened-fauna researcher who uses the name Dr. Splatt corroborates the poll's results. Obviously, this is a research area that seems to be picking up.