Severson Dells

Saturday, June 20, 8:00 am-12:00 noon

Leader: Keith Blackmore. For ages: junior high to adult. We will begin with an introductory lecture about ponds and pond life and then spend a couple of hours exploring the pond environment and collecting representative organisms. The organisms will be identified, discussed, and released back into their natural community. Those who have hip boots or old sneakers and shorts can help with the sampling. Others can sort materials on shore. Fee: $5. Call 1-815-335-2915 to register.

When: Saturday, June 13
Where: Severson Dells Nature Center
Time: 9:30 AM - 12:00 Noon

We seem to live at a time when electronic gadgetry serves as a crutch for many of our activities. Witness the vast array of cell-phones, hand-held GPS devices and mobile navigation systems. Can anyone read a road map anymore? Are we in an era when analytical thinking and personal observation skills take a back seat to blind allegiance to what a machine says? If our technology fails us can we still function and continue with our plans or are we like the proverbial canoe heading upstream without a paddle?

Severson Dells Nature Center will offer the chance to leave your high tech digital route finding devices at home and instead rely on a map (actually printed on paper) and your ability to interpret it. If you’re up for the challenge you can choose to also test your skills with the original “high tech” navigational device, a compass. Best of all is the fact that while you are honing your route finding skills you are surrounded by the woodland, prairie, creek, hills and, of course, the dells of Severson Dells Forest Preserve.

This is an activity known as orienteering, a popular sport in parts of Europe, but existing in relative obscurity on this side of the “big pond.” Many Americans when asked if they can find a particular location blithely exclaim, “I can’t read a map!” This indifference toward map reading and finding one’s way almost seems a cultural norm. However the exploration of our continent was done by those who relied only on basic navigational devices and/or dead reckoning. The likes of Daniel Boone, David Thompson, John Fremont and Lewis and Clark found their way without a map because they were the ones making the map. Many who went through the ranks of the Boy Scouts received training in map and compass and that organization still offers a merit badge in orienteering.

Here’s how it works. Come to Severson Dells Nature Center on Saturday, June 13 between the hours of 9:30 AM and 12:00 noon. There you can check out a map which will have trails, streams, pond and various man-made structures shown on it, along with a series of x’s representing checkpoints which you are challenged to locate. If you choose the easier orienteering route all of your checkpoints will be located along established trails so go ahead and wear your shorts. Those up to it can choose the more challenging route where some of your checkpoints will be off the trail, which means out in the woods or in the middle of the prairie. As you probably already figured out, shorts are not advised for this route. You will need a compass to do the more adventuresome route and you can check one out at the nature center.

A short course on map reading and compass use will be offered at the nature center at 10:00 AM for those wishing instruction before heading out on the trail. Attending the course is not mandatory, however, and anyone can come between the hours mentioned above and head out on his/her own. This activity is a great opportunity for families and individuals to get outside in a beautiful location and learn backwoods route finding skills at the same time. There is no fee for participating. However donations to Severson Dells Nature Center will be appreciated. Call 815-335-2915 for more information.

Submitted by,

Richard Benning, Severson Dells Nature Center

Don Miller ponders trees in this week’s Rock River Times.

Tree huggers wrap up a bur oak.

He writes:

The old adage of “can’t see the forest because of the trees” has taken on a new meaning for me. I always thought it described some people who just didn’t get the big picture.

And . . . .

“Can’t see the forest because of the trees” may mean that one is so centered on the beauty or uniqueness of a single tree, the surrounding ones all disappear. Much like being at a crowded airport and not noticing anyone except the loved one you are focused on. I decided I needed to do some soul-searching and to seek out the trees that are in my life and mind. I found each tree special for a variety of reasons.

Click here to read the story.

Rockford’s Eddie Calloway is an amazing bird photographer who always keeps up on the latest high tech gadgets and applications. He’s also a wonderful blogger.

His in his latest blog post at Birdfreak.com, he takes a look at his crystal ball and sees a bright future where advanced technology plays an important role.

Predicting the future is sorta like picking football results. The longer into the future your prediction, the higher the probability you will be wrong. So, what is in the years ahead for birders? As we get more fast-paced and high-tech, we think birders will become more advanced as they make a push to slow down and enjoy the birds they have helped conserve.

Read more: The Future of Birding and Conservation: Predictions and Wishful Thinking

ⓒ Photo By Robert Renk

In the plant world, skunk cabbage is one of the first signs of Spring. Severson Dells member Robert Renk captured these images of skunk cabbage March 28 during the Skunk Cabbage Meander at Anna Page Park.

ⓒ Photo By Robert Renk

It’s called skunk cabbage for good reason: It stinks. And it’s a good survival strategy as the rancid odor attracts flies, bees and gnats that pollinate it. Skunk cabbage blooms way before other wildflowers. The plant generates heat and is sometimes seen surrounded by snow and ice.

It grows in wet areas like creek and river bottoms, and wetlands. Its maroon petals and green leaves provide marked contrast to the leave litter that it emerges from.

Even though parts of the plant are poisonous, Native Americans used skunk cabbage to treat headache, muscle ache, hysteria, respiratory problems, epilepsy and various other ailments.

Why bring a child to summer camp? How about because nature experience changes lives.

Rockford Register Star Go columnist Geri Nikolai discovered that last year when she brought her granddaughter to a Grandparents and Grandkids camp at Severson Dells.

The experience changed her granddaughter’s life, replacing a sense of fear about nature with a sense of wonder and opening her eyes to the splendor of nature.

Click here to read the story. GERI NIKOLAI: Teach children to love nature

Learn more about Severson Dells Nature Center’s Summer Camps here.

By Brian Leaf

This was the spring we planned to spy on a pair of red-tailed hawks nesting in the downtown’s River District.

The hawks had other plans.

They moved back into their nest before we humans could equip the large orange and white tower near Church and Jefferson streets with a wireless camera to broadcast the raising of their young to school classrooms and homes through the Internet.

The project, proposed by Severson Dells Nature Center, has been delayed until spring 2010.
Federal rules protect nesting raptors, whether they’re in a dead tree or a manmade tower. The rules also prevent humans from risking an aerial attack from an angry feathered missile protecting its family turf.

Hawk Cam is part of the Year of Innovation initiative to highlight unique projects throughout the region that result from collaborations between businesses and non-profits.

Our partners — AT&T; SupplyCore; Wilson Electric; Special Power, Inc.; the Labor Management Cooperation Committee of IBEW Local 364 and the Northern Illinois chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association; and BirdFreak.com – are still enthused about the project.

Work on the project is expected to continue later this year, after the birds have left the nest.
Thank you, partners!

When you’re downtown, keep your eyes open for the red-tails, one of North America’s most common raptors, but a relative newcomer to the city.

They do seem out of place. It is normally a bird you see sitting on fence or telephone posts during a country drive, waiting for a rodent to appear in the grass. They usually nest in the crotch of a tree, 50 or 100 feet up.

But increasingly, red-tails are living the urban life, building their nests of sticks on buildings or man-made structures like the AT&T microwave tower. The most famous pair of urban hawks is

Pale Male and Lola, who moved into a building in Manhattan near Central Park. A PBS documentary was made about the NYC birds.

Red-tails eat rodents, small mammals, birds and reptiles. Scientists say the bird’s success in cities is, in part, because it can modify its diet to adjust to local food sources.

Breeding pairs usually remain together until the death of a partner. Females lay one to four eggs. Males do most of the hunting.

Red-tails have returned to the tower for at least the past three years and they’re often seen perched on the tower next to the AT&T building, or chasing flocks of frantic pigeons that may provide regular meals for these city dwellers and their brood.

They’re quite a sight to behold. But wait a year and hopefully you’ll get a much more intimate view into the life of Rockford’s River District red-tails.

This story appears in the March 18-24 edition of the Rock River Times.

At dusk on Sat., March 14, a fire was lit to manage a 4 acre prairie near the limestone barn at the Pecatonica River Forest Preserve. It was the finale to the Severson Dells Nature Center’s spring awakening, sponsored by The Law Office of Jim Black and Associates. Severson Dells board member Chris Mann captured the blaze with his camera.

Before the fire.

The fire begins.

Dan Johnson of the Winnebago County Forest Preserve District was the fire starter.

The crowd watches.

Big blue stem’s last stand.

Look at that!

The blaze pushes on.

Everything was orange. Then the fire died out.

The barn and prairie, after the fire.

David Olson photo

We’re welcoming spring on Saturday, March 14, with a Spring Awakening Gathering at the Pecatonica River Forest Preserve. MAP

Come learn how maple syrup is made, enjoy a barn dance, take part in a community supper and watch the prairie burn at dusk.

Click here for the schedule of activities.

From the Rock River Times
Severson Dells Nature Center strives to create a sense of place for the people who visit our site or take part in our programs. It’s a location where the names of plants, and animals as well as people become familiar to all. There’s a comfortable feeling one gets whether you are walking along the creek on the way to the dells or just sitting in the “bird room” watching the chickadees and nuthatches devour sunflower seeds from the feeder.

A sense of community grows out of such a sense of place. People get to know others who share their love of nature, their gratitude for solitude or a chance to take a nice walk in the woods. Severson Dells Nature Center, thanks to the generosity of The Law Offices of Jim Black and Associates, wants everyone to celebrate the sense of community by coming out to the “Spring Awakening Gathering” at the Pecatonica River Forest Preserve, 7260 Judd Road, Pecatonica, 1:30 p.m., Saturday, March 14.

Read Don Miller’s Rock River Times story about the Spring Awakening gathering