Some Rare (and not so rare) Stuff From the Fen

Yesterday was a Bluff Spring Fen workday. In addition to killing lots of lily of the valley, I took the opportunity to view some of the rare plants and animals at the Fen. Some of what I saw was truly rare.

Small White Ladyslipper (Cyprepedium candidum)

Small white ladyslippers are one of the Fen's rarest plant species. They are on the state list of Threatened species. For a number of years they have been decline at the Fen, so it's a pleasure to see them showing something of a resurgence this year.

Prairie Parsley (Polytaenia nuttallii)

Prairie Parsley is rare to the point that it's hard to find even in catalogs of prairie plants and seed. Ours came from seed collected years ago on a railroad prairie near Elgin. This is only the second time it has shown up on our site. It is not quite fully in bloom yet.

Seneca Snakeroot (Polygala senega)

Some of the plants at the Fen are not spectacularly rare, but still qualify as uncommon. This Seneca Snakeroot is from seed gathered at another railroad prairie remnant in Elgin. The seed was collected on the Fourth of July in 1994. It has been blooming at the Fen for about a decade now, and the population is expanding nicely.

Wood Betony (Pedicularis canadensis)

Wood Betony is both uncommon and uncommonly beautiful. I really like the mandala effect provided when I look directly down at the blooming spike.

Southern Dogface (Zerene cesonia)

Some relatively common things are rarely seen at the Fen. Dogface Butterflies are a southern species that only show up at the Fen about one year in five. Apparently 2011 is one of those years. They don't sit still long for photography. I'm really annoyed at that one blade of grass.

Baltimore Checkerspot Chrysalis (Euphydryas phaeton)

Baltimore Checkerspots are a fairly common species at the Fen. It's not unusual to be able to encounter several dozen on an hour monitoring transect. It's very unusual to find a chrysalis, however. Leon found this one on a skunk cabbage leaf.

Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos)

Pearl Crescents aren't rare at all. I don't care. It's always good to see them, and I was happy with the photo.

Putting the Spring in Bluff Spring Fen

Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris)

It's marsh marigold time at the Fen. In a good year, the watercourses are all lined with vivid yellow. This is proving to be a good year, and the effects are spectacular.

Saturday was a Fen workday. While most of the crew was pulling garlic mustard, Kevin and I continued an experiment that has been going on for a few years. We are trying to re-vegetate the bare peat soil of a badly degraded seep by transplanting native sedges that have grown up onto a gravel spit that was bulldozed out into one corner of the Fen. I blogged about it last year. Our results are being very successful. The transplants settle in for the first year, then begin to spread rapidly through vegetative growth. This success is motivating us to continue the experiment.

Carex trichocarpa
Two years ago, this seepage slope was mostly bare peat soil

Spring is in evidence all around the Fen. I am pleased that some of our trout lilies have become sufficiently established to begin blooming.

Trout Lily (Erythronium albidum)

Migrant birds are returning.

Red-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus)

Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis)

I mentioned recently that the 12-spotted tiger beetles are out now. I keep trying for a better photo. I'm making incremental progress, but I'm not yet where I want to be with that species.

Twelve-spotted Tiger Beetle (Cicindela duodecimguttata)

While tiger hunting, I ran into the Fen's other common species. It was a bit earlier than I was expecting.

Six-spotted Tiger Beetle (Cicindela sexguttata)

Overall, it's shaping up as a fine spring at the Fen.

Late Summer at the Fen

Summer is definitely moving along. The late summer flora is getting into full swing out at the fen. We're starting to see the goldenrods and asters in bloom. The yellow flowers in the photo above are wingstem, a species that we did not have at the Fen until we began seeding it. Today it's abundant in some of our savannas and degraded wetlands.

Stiff White Aster (Solidago ptarmicoides)

Rattlesnake Master (Eryngium yuccifolium)


Ironweed (Veronia fasciculata)

We have several other plant species that are conspicuous at this time of year whose presence is mostly or entirely a result of our seeding efforts. The upland stiff aster required little effort on our part beyond throwing some seed around. Rattlesnake master was more stubborn. We have been trying to encourage it for over a decade now. It is finally showing up- we may even be able to collect seed on site this year. There were about a half dozen ironweed plants when I first started working out at the Fen, all in an inaccessible part of the preserve. Today this species is expanding in may of our restored areas, and its striking dark purple blooms are readily visible and avidly visited by insects.

Speaking of insects, the dragonflies are putting on a spectacular show at the moment.

Calico Pennant (Celithemis lisa)


Common Whitetail (Platythemis lydia)


Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis)
Eastern Pondhawk (Erythemis simplicicolis)

Butterflies at the Fen

Baltimore Checkerspot (Euphydryas phaeton)

Early July is the height of butterfly diversity at Bluff Spring Fen. I ran my monitoring route this afternoon and in an hour and a half, I recorded 101 butterflies from 19 different species. I've started a project where I'm staying after my route and trying to photograph the varius species that I'm seeing. This is because I'm trying to convert all of my talks from slide show format to PowerPoint. I could just scan my old slides, but I'll get much better image quality if I take my new camera out with me and take a bunch of photos.

More Baltimore Checkerspot!

The main butterfly event at the Fen is the large population of Baltimore Checkerspots that lives there. They're one of my favorite butterflies- how can you not fall in love with something that beautiful? Ever since I was a little boy, I've been captivated by the red and yellow spots on the velvety black background. I've blogged about this species before. I'm not yet happy with the upper side photo, but it gives a good idea of what the butterfly looks like. Eventually I'll get a shot that I'm happy with.

Black Dash (Euphyes conspicua)

The Black Dash Skipper is another wetland specialist. I love that this species is so predictable. A week ago, I saw none. I knew I'd be seeing some this week, the first ones always show up right about the Fourth of July. I took a couple of dozen photos and managed to get a few that I liked.

Banded Hairstreak (Satyrium calanus)


Coral Hairstreak (Harkenclenus titus)

I saw three different hairstreak species today. The Banded Hairstreak lives in the oak woods. The caterpillars feed on oak leaves. It spends a lot of time up in the canopy. I have a feeling that we significantly undercount it in our butterfly surveys. The Coral Hairstreak likes prairie edges. The vast majority of the time I find it, it's on butterfly milkweed, as it is here.

I didn't take a picture of the third hairstreak that I saw, because it wasn't a very good specimen. But I was very glad to see it. The Acadian Hairstreak (Satyrium acadica) hasn't been seen at Bluff Spring Fen since 2004. I was afraid we had lost it, so it's really good to see that it's still around.

Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma)

Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa)

Most of the butterflies that I see at the Fen are common species like this Eastern Comma and Mourning Cloak. You don't have to go someplace special to see them. Still, I'm trying to get a more complete collection of digital images, so I'm not about to pass up good photo opportunities. The results this time around were a mixed bag in terms of quality, but I'm reasonably happy over all. Getting a couple of shots that I'm pleased with when I venture out like this feeels like progress to me.

Memorial Day Weekend

I really enjoyed the long weekend. I got in a lot of my favorite things: gardening, Fen and time with friends. Saturday we did a fair bit of work around the yard. On Sunday, we went out to the Fen. It was hazy, but otherwise beautiful. The oak leaves are just expanding and still a fairly yellowish green. I wanted to take a picture of a columbine. Walt posted a picture of a garden columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris) on his blog recently and I wanted to post our wild columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) as a comparison.

Wild Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)

The six-spotted tiger beetles are having a very good year this year. They are everywhere (no complaints here).

Six-spotted Tiger Beetle (Cicindela sexguttata)

Each spring, we see Sulphur-winged Arphia grasshoppers on our hill prairies. These belong to the band-winged grasshoppers, a group that is more common out west. Members of this family typically have brightly-colored wings that flash when they fly up. True to it's name, the Sulphur-winged Arphia flashes vivid yellow when it flies. I have never been able to get a good photo. On Sunday, one posed for me.

Sulphur-winged Arphia (Arphia sulphurea)

On Monday, Elgin hosted the annual Fox-Trot Race. Part of the race is along the banks of the Fox Rive. Leon ran again this year, and I had my traditional brunch.

Go Leon!

I made fontina-bacon foccaccia, sour cream coffee cake, and jam cake. The jam cake is a new recipe acquired from Ur-Spo. I used home made Blackberry jam in mine. I have a lot of jam at the moment , this is a great way to use it up.

Ur-Spo's Blackberry Jan Cake

Serving suggestion from Ur-Spo: "Frost with jam, whiped cream, or fluffy frosting. Or have it withoug any topping like my men."

I prefer mine lightly dusted with powdered sugar.

Bioblitz- The Afterparty

Because the weather was so uncooperative for the official bioblitz, and because Sunday was such a beautiful day, I decided to go out to Bluff Spring Fen and do my own version. Mainly I wanted to get some pictures of the late spring flora. It did not disappoint.


The plant that the Fen is most famous for, the small white ladyslipper orchid (Cypripedium candidum) , was in full bloom.


We have two species of puccoon at the Fen. Fringed puccoon (Lithospermum incisum) lives in our driest habitats.


Hoary puccoon (Lithosperum canescens) likes more mesic situations. Here Haploa caterpillars (probably Haploa lecontii) chow down. Next month, they will turn into white moths that are abundant at the Fen.



Golden alexandars (Zizia aurea) and heart-leaved golden alexandars (Zizia aptera) differ in both the shape of the leaves and the habitat. Golden alexandars can be found in many places, whereas heart-leaved golden alexandars live in dry settings.


Cotton grass (Eriophorum angustifolium) is actually a sedge. It's fluffy seed heads are dotted all over wet areas at this time of year.


Wild hyacinth (Camassia scilloides) is beginning to bloom in the Fen's woodland.


We can't have a bioblitz, even an unofficial one, without animals. This pearl crescent (Phyciodes tharos) was not cooperating, but I managed to get one good shot anyway.


I would never have noticed this robin's (Turdus migratorius) nest if the robin hadn't flown out and started yelling at me. I'm not sure how drawing a potential predator's attention will help your eggs to survive. Fortunatley for her, I was only a potential predator.


Yeah, I know, cute, cute, cute. Vertebrates get all the good press.

The Fullness of Spring in 3 Images

In Spring, a young Sumac Leaf Beetle's fancy turns to thoughts of love
(Blepharida rhois)

Blue wood phlox is in full bloom
(Phlox divaricata)

Check out my snazzy orange leggings
Eight-spotted Forester Moth (Alypia octomaculata)

Tiny Turtle

On Saturday, we found a hatchling painted turtle out at Bluff Spring Fen. This one is only a little bit bigger than a quarter. Too cute!