What's in a name?

My wife and I were driving through Cook County and I started to see some of the names for the different nature preserves in the area.  They were really interesting...and got me to wondering how people come up with the names for different things like this.  Is it quite the literal translation that creates the name?  Were they just being creative?

It reminded me of when I was living in Medmenham, England.  This was a small place just outside another small village named Marlow.  (It was down the Thames...pretty close to Henley on the Thames...where the royal regatta was held and George Harrison lived).  One of the street names always struck me as funny - Spittle Street.  I'd joke with my friends and family about this.  Where people trying to figure out to name it...and then someone spat and the guy said, "I know..Spittle Street!"

These names struck me as similar:

Belly Deep Slough - Is the slough really only so deep that if I waded into it, it would come up to my belly?
Hidden Lake -  Not so hidden now...is it?

I am sure others were more literal:


Little Red School House Nature Center - I assume there is a little red school house they made into a nature center here... (I'm sure the Nature Nerd would be able to tell me if this is true)
Moraine Valley - I assume the valley is a moraine...
White Oak Forest Preserve - umm...there were a lot of oaks there...my guess would be they were white oaks.

We did have a good time walking through one of the woods down there.  Surprisingly, I never got the name of the one we actually walked through.  We did a nice hour hike that took us down through a ravine and a long a lot of switchbacks.  The forest down there is different than up by us.  Not a lot of undergrowth...but definitely a lot of fallen leaves.  It did seem to be a lot of oak trees.

Rock Cut State Park

Two weekends ago, my wife and I went out to Rockford, Illinois to help my in-laws with some different things around their house.  I ended up creating a dry-well for one of their underground drainage pipes to drain into.  It was not as hard as I thought it would be, because after digging a hole about four feet deep, I hit sand.  That was a wonderful surprise considering the fact that if I was going to do the same thing in my yard, I would have hit clay at about two feet deep.  I also moved some gravel and added it to different places.

While I was doing that, my wife went to a local orchard there and came back with a good six bags of apples (which later turned into several quarts of very tasty apple sauce).  When both she and I were done with our different activities, we were able to go to Rock Cut State Park and observe how fall was hitting the state just about and hour and a half west of us.  (Interestingly enough, they are in a different zone than we are for growing plants).  There were a lot of cool things that I saw there...here are some of them:

This is a fungi of some sort we saw at the beginning of the walk.  Perhaps the Nature Nerd, Chicago Gardener, or someone else will know what type of fungi this is.  It reminds me of that egg-shaped building in London.

The Rockford area was definitely further along in the autumn season than where we live was.  There were a lot more leaves on the ground than in the forest preserve by our house.  That being said, there were several trees like this one.  The colors of certain trees (usually maples it seems) have been amazing this year. 

I loved the shape of this tree.

It was really a day to see different types of fungi.  I think this is another version of the one pictured above.  Maybe after it has started to open, but I could be wrong.










There were shelf fungi all over the place.

Finally, to find this was quite a surprise to me.  I didn't expect to see flowers and berries on a tree.  They were really beautiful.  If anyone knows what type of berries these are...

All in all, it was a nice walk.  We saw a few other things, such as a mass of what looked like milkweed bugs all over a rusted railing.  We also found a path that was supposed to be a bridge turned into a ford of sorts.  If I had had my boots, we would have gone across.  Maybe next time.  Rock Cut State Park has a lot more to explore.

Quick Update (or Do My Eyes Deceive Me?)

I have seen a couple of things nature-wise I did not think I would see here in Illinois over the last few days.  The first was a black squirrel.  Well...it wasn't really black - but more of a very, very dark gray.  I have seen black squirrels in Michigan - and this was very close.  Once again...no camera.

I also saw a big hairy dog-like thing as I drove between the entrance to our local forest preserve and a bog across the street.  It happened at night and it was the glow of the eyes that grabbed my attention.  At first, I was thinking it was a coyote, but it seemed to be too big for that.  I suppose it could have been someone's dog on the prowel, but it seemed a little too shaggy and feral for that.  I know there have been lone wolves down in our area before...makes me wonder.

The last week has been miserable temperature-wise.  It has been at least 10 to 12 degrees cooler than it should be all that time.  It is much better today with sunshine and light jacket temperatures.

That Time of the Night

I feel really fortunate to have a forest preserve literally right across the street from where I live.  It means I can go over there and explore at a moment's notice.  I had such an opportunity today.  I had taken the dogs for the big loop around the lake, come home, and then realized my wife had gone off to try and catch me on the walk.  While we did not meet up when I went out to try to catch up to her, I was able to explore the woods at one of my favorite times of day to do this - dusk.

I love the animal activity that I see in the preserve at dusk.  Today was no different.  The first thing I was able to see was confirmation that the beavers are still there - beyond the fact their dam has been reconstructed.  One of them was out and swimming around in the bottom portion of the lake.

Just a few feet down from this, I saw a small ball of fur.  I stopped and found it was a small field mouse or vole.  (I'm leaning toward the vole...but will have to do some research to make sure.)  I was able to just stop and sit down to watch it - no more than a foot away.  It was a fat little thing and was eatting grass as I sat and watched it.  It never moved...just kept on eating.

The final event of my walk happened when I was about to turn the corner to go out of the preserve.  On the path in front of me was a herd of at least six deer.  They stopped and looked at me, and I froze in my tracks.  I started to inch forward very slowly - stopping whenever they would stop eating and look at me.  At about twenty feet away, I stopped and waited.  A doe decided she was going to come and check out what this new animal was stalking toward her herd.  She came straight at me - stopping once and  awhile to stomp the ground.  She came within ten feet of me before she slowly when off the path into the woods.  She did not run off though...just walked inside to eat some more.  I think I may have been able to get even closer if people would not have come up the path behind me.

What you see at dusk can be amazing.

Frogs, Frogs, Everywhere...

I do not know if it is the rain, or just the time of year, but I have been seeing a lot of frogs lately.  Last night, I went on a walk with my dogs.  A couple of minutes in, I saw something hopping across the sidewalk - a little toad.  About half-way through the walk, the dogs all of the sudden stopped and looked to the side.  I followed their gaze and saw the biggest frog I have seen in a long time.  It had to be at least 5 - 6 inches long.  I am guessing it was a bullfrog.  Near the end, we saw a medium-sized toad.  So I saw the small, medium, and large of the frog and toad family on that walk.

Today, my wife and I took the dogs on a longer walk around the lake.  It was in full sunlight, and I still saw three small toads along the way hopping along the path.  These were a reddish brown in color though.

I also saw another interesting thing on the walk today.  Earlier in the year, we had seen mother turtles laying eggs along the path we walk around the lake.  I though all of them had been eaten or hatched by now.  However, today we saw a hole that was newly dug out of and had the remains of hatched eggs.  It looked like all the baby turtles had made it into the reeds. :)

Off the Beaten Path...Kind of

If you are ever traveling along 173 between Antioch and Rockford, Illinois, take time to stop off at the Tuttle Clarkson Nature Area. I have driven past it many times as my wife and I have traveled to visit her parents in Rockford. This time we were actually able to stop and explore it.

The Nature Area is actually not that big. It has two paths. One is a paved path that goes through a prairie area. That path is pretty uneventful and is extremely short. The best path is a grass path that takes you through the different habitats of the area. It is only about a half of a mile loop, but you go through at least three different areas. There is an upland woodland area, a sedge meadow area, an oak forest area, and - my favorite - the fen.

A fen is actually something I had never heard of before. It is a lot like a bog. The big difference is that whereas a bog has source of ground water that is not moving...the fen has a subterranean source of water that is moving beneath it. Peat is still formed and there are a lot of the same types of vegetation. Tuttle Clarkson takes you through the fen by means of a boardwalk and bridge system. It was a very cool experience...especially since a fen is a rare thing to see in northern Illinois.

It's great to see what happens when you take the time to explore somewhere new.