CliffNotes
The View from on High: Eagles to Milkweeds
From high on the bluff’s clifftops, such as at Fults Hill Prairie Nature Preserve or Eagle Cliff/Miles Cemetery, observers have an entirely new perspective and ability to literally look down on soaring birds, perhaps spotting an eaglet in its awkward initial attempt at flight. The eaglets, which hatched in January or February, fledge after three […]
Spring, Sprung and Snapped, Sprouts Again
What started as a beautiful and beautifully early spring in our bluff lands transmuted into a second winter. Dogwoods, just into their first flush of white bloom alongside the brilliant magenta red buds, now are burned brown by frost. But robins are singing from tree limbs incongruously clothed in browned and dying foliage and new […]
The Hummers are Coming and Spring is a’hummin!
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Ruby-throated hummingbirds will return to the bluff lands of Monroe, St. Clair, and Randolph Counties in April. They usually arrive the third week of the month. The little gems cross the Gulf of Mexico twice each year, taking about 18-20 nonstop hours for each 500-mile, over-water crossing. Each bird travels alone (they don’t ride on […]
Geese Trumpet and Call In the Spring
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Canada geese truly herald and trumpet the arrival of spring over the bluff lands of Monroe, St. Clair, and Randolph Counties. Conservationist and hunter Aldo Leopold said it best in 1940 with the observation “…one skein of geese, clearing the murk of a March thaw, is the spring.” Canada geese are very much family creatures. […]
Early Spring in Our Bluffs: Grass, Frogs, Owls & More
Spring has already arrived in the wooded bluff lands of Monroe and Randolph Counties. High above Bluff Road, on the limestone ledges of the bluffs’ escarpment, whitlow grass is blooming. A little plant, hairy-stemmed, with tiny, white, four-petaled flowers, whitlow grass really isn’t a grass, but a member of the mustard family. It is a […]