I recently spent two nights camping and exploring the charmingly-named Ferne Clyffe State Park in southern Illinois' Shawnee National Forest. The tent camping is among the best I've seen, with large pads on secluded, heavily wooded sites, plus the requisite (adorable) scavenging raccoons. As you'd...
It has been fun to watch emerging insect life here in Champaign. It's a little too early for the migratory Monarch, because the Monarch's caterpillar food source, milkweed, isn't flowering yet. But Illinois has plenty of butterflies who overwinter as hibernating adults, eggs, caterpillars, or...
On May 13, a group of master naturalists kicked off the cleanup of the rain garden we maintain for Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation at 302 North FirstStreet in Champaign.The siberian irises (Iris sibirica)were at their peak with blue false indigo (Baptisiaaustralis) just about ready to...
Have you ever tried to distinguish a male plant from a female one?
Take, for example, the Jack-in-the-pulpit. Later in the season, the females will be showing red berries. Right now, in early May, the plants all look the same.
The sexuality of Jack-in-the-pulpits is actually quite complicated....
As a reason to get together and eat and do some good, Master Naturalists will assemble bluebird and bee nesting boxes at a potluck from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 25 at the Urbana Park District operations building at 1101 East Kerr, Urbana, IL. Please send an...
A recent sunny morning ushered in a visiting butterfly to my yard and I was lucky enough to snap a few portraits.Then, a couple of friends asked about Tiger Swallowtails and how to attract them to their own yards.
According to the Illinois Natural History Survey book Butterflies of Illinois...
Roger Inman has won the Best in Show award in the third annual East Central Illinois Master Naturalist photo contest, with a picture of an unusual ice formation at Homer Lake. Other winners were Cathy Barnard in the Open Category, Kathy Rowland in the Mammal Category, Betsy Kuchinke in the...
The University of Illinois Extension Forestry produces a monthly invasive plant phenology report that gives information on the development of invasive plants across Illinois, informing readers about what is in bloom, leafing out, setting seed, and senescing in different regions of the state...
In the spirit of the old community "barn-raisings," Master Naturalists will put together bluebird and bee nesting boxes at a potluck from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 25. Both bluebirds and bees have to struggle to find nesting places because of widespread destruction of habitat. The "assembly party...
Diane and Ed Wilhite (MN 2009) recently traveled to New Zealand. Here's what Master Naturalists do on vacation.
While in New Zealand, we spent some time removing invasive plants on a stretch of coastal land that is being restored to a native environment. With their remote, fragile biome,...