Braidwood Dune and Savanna

Travis Mahan capturing an image.

Large twayblade photographed by Travis Mahan at Braidwood Dunes and Savanna in Will OCunty, IL.

Spring passerine migration ended pretty abruptly this year and my last two May outings were not very productive in terms of birds. But when Travis Mahan called to say he was coming up to look for a rare orchid, I was happy to join him. Travis is part of a small cadre of superb birders downstate who are responsible for many of the rarities that show up within our boundaries. He is usually one of the folks who meets us upstate listers when we drop everything and head down to tick some wayward species that he, Dan Kassabaum, Mark Sieffert, or Keith McMullin have located, or at least spread the word on good birds found by others (as with last year’s tropical kingbird). Travis has also been avidly seeking out the state’s orchids to photograph. What makes this particularly challenging is that flowers are more vulnerable than birds, and thus those who are privy to where they are tend to be highly reticent in sharing the information. Every so often, there are reports of local orchid thefts. (Hey, maybe I should do a book on someone who engages in such behavior. I could call it the “Cyprepedium Absconder.” Catchy title.) I see no problem if you know the person and trust them, so I have shared what I know with Travis.

Last year he asked me if I knew the whereabouts of a rare orchid, which it turns out I had never even heard of. It seems that within the last 15 years or so it was split from a much more widely occurring species that I do know well. The new one has a slightly different color, petal shape, and blooming time than the species from which it was separated. Travis further explained that it is known from only one site in the state, Braidwood Dune and Savanna.

Braidwood is not a particularly birdy place, and few birders spend much time there. But it is the principal remnant of a remarkable place recognized as early as the 1920s as being of extraordinary floristic diversity. It covers an area that was once inundated by glacial melt water and was known as Lake Morris. When Lake Morris receded, it left as its legacy many hundreds of acres of dune and swales. Dry prairie studded with prickly pear cactus thrives a few feet from wet prairie where sundew are common. It has of course shrunk over the decades due to various kinds of development but the Will County Forest Preserve District carefully manages and protects 315 acres. Most, if not all, of this land has also been dedicated as an Illinois Nature Preserve, which gives it the maximum legal protection possible in the state.

Travis and I met at the agreed upon time. He had arrived earlier and had heard a singing Alder flycatcher, a late migrant that I will probably miss this year. We hiked over the property checking out promising locations that Travis had scouted out on previous visits. We did flush a woodcock and located a couple of species of orchids but not the one we wanted. (Further research by Travis suggested we might have been a tad early, as the species tends to bloom throughout June.).

Our biggest coup, it turns out, was another of Travis’s finds- he spotted and photographed a “northern” oak hairstreak butterfly. To find out more information about it, Travis went on the Illinois Birders Forum which has a butterfly section. Jim Wiker, an authority on Illinois butterflies, sent a detailed response that I am relying on for the next few sentences. It turns out that this is a species that has a widespread range but is largely restricted to the canopy layer of oak and hickory woods. Thus it is rarely seen and even more rarely photographed. (And when photographed, not generally very well. Jim thought Travis’ shot was one of the best he has seen.) This was apparently the first Will County record.

Obviously the experience of seeing the butterfly will stay with me, but it becomes even more significant in the light of these words by Jim: “ I would expect this butterfly to appear anywhere in Illinois but it is not one you can ever plan to see. You just have to be lucky, as you were. Cherish it as it may never happen again.”

"Northern" oak hairstreak photographed by Travis Mahan at Braidwood Dunes and Savanna Nature Preserve.

          

Tags: braidwood dune and savanna, northern oak hairstreak