Yesterday, we traveled about 30 miles north to Lake Forest and Middlefork Savanna. I had heard of this Lake County Forest Preserve site before and had never made the trip. We trudged about 1.1 miles through snow, twice crossing the Middle Fork of the North Branch of the Chicago River (right). We saw four rough-legged hawks on the journey. Two of the hawks were dark morphs and two were light morphs. The dark morphs have a striking dark brown and white pattern on the wings. These birds travel from the tundra to our area each winter, and it's easy to picture them soaring over the tundra on a snowbound day like yesterday. They get the name 'rough-legged' because they are one of the few raptor species that have feathered legs.
Perhaps what we will most remember from the trip happened at the very end. There were a few nondescript buildings near the parking lot. We did notice three large wire enclosures that hosted what appeared to be injured raptors. As we approached them (harris' hawk, red-tailed hawk, great horned owl), a woman feeding the birds invited us inside to the lightly advertised Wildlife Center. It just so happened those buildings hosted one of the country's largest collections of venomous snakes. We suddenly were given a personal tour of the center. We saw dozens of reptiles-everything from toads, salamanders and frogs to iguanas, geckos and turtles. Who knew Lake Forest was home to such a place. Some areas of Lake County are home to the endangered blanding's turtle and massassauga rattlesnake, FYI, and the center included a baby blanding's.
Perhaps what we will most remember from the trip happened at the very end. There were a few nondescript buildings near the parking lot. We did notice three large wire enclosures that hosted what appeared to be injured raptors. As we approached them (harris' hawk, red-tailed hawk, great horned owl), a woman feeding the birds invited us inside to the lightly advertised Wildlife Center. It just so happened those buildings hosted one of the country's largest collections of venomous snakes. We suddenly were given a personal tour of the center. We saw dozens of reptiles-everything from toads, salamanders and frogs to iguanas, geckos and turtles. Who knew Lake Forest was home to such a place. Some areas of Lake County are home to the endangered blanding's turtle and massassauga rattlesnake, FYI, and the center included a baby blanding's.
No comments:
Post a Comment