Alex Palmer's Natural History Notes and Thoughts

This blog post consists of notes from a lecture on herpetology in Cook County, Illinois as part of a Master Naturalist Training Series.  The speaker was Jake Huffman, a naturalist with Sand Ridge Nature Center in the Forest Preserves of Cook County.  The lecture took place at Sand Ridge Nature Center in South Holland on Friday, September 11, 2015.   Introduction/Overview The class Amphibia consists of frogs, toads, newts, and salamanders.   There are also other groups of animals that fall within class Amphibia, but they are not found in Cook County.  The word "Amphibia" is derived from Greek to mean "dual lives." Recommended field guides (titles) for identifying local amphibian include: Amphibians and Reptiles of the Great Lakes Region The Illinois Natural History Survey Common Toads and Frogs of the Chicago Region (published by the Field Museum) Some amphibians in Cook County are somewhat unusual.  Newts are a special subgroup of salamanders that have

When people asked what sparked my initial interest in pursing a career in the environmental field, I always refer back to hikes with my father in local parks and nature preserves in my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio.  Some of my favorite moments with him where when we stumbled upon a grove of Black Raspberries ( Rhubus occidentalis ) (figure 1) or a large mulberry tree ( Morus alba ) and  then gorging ourselves on the sweet and abundant fruits.  It was always such a novelty to have the ability to eat fruits and other edible berries from the wild in their natural form with their uncensored shapes and flavors.  I was able to understand early on in my childhood that produce originated from a tree or a bush before being neatly packaged in a well-lit and air conditioned supermarket.   Eating fruits from a wild growing tree also helped to foster my relationship with nature. Figure 1:  Black raspberries, a common wild berry in the Eastern United States.   As such, when I served as an inter