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Spring - 1946
Nature Bulletin No. 64 May 4, 1946
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
Clayton F. Smith, President
Roberts Mann, Supt. of Conservation
SPRING - 1946
Now is the time for camera enthusiasts, lovers of wild flowers and
students of birdlife to roam the forest preserves. This is the first spring
in several years when the hawthorn and the wild crabapple have reached
their peaks of blooming at approximately the same time. Solid banks of
white and pink blossoms create vistas or breath-taking beauty. There
are enough late-blooming varieties so that the spectacle should continue
for at least 10 days.
The myrtle warblers, first of the many kinds of warblers that pause here
on their migration northward, have been seen flitting through the tree
tops. The bluebirds and the robins are sitting on their eggs. The towhee
and the indigo bunting are heard calling And occasionally glimpsed.
Goldfinches rise ant dip in yellow arcs across the fields. The tree
swallows, with their metallic blue backs, swoop across the Palos
marshes.
The woodlands are carpeted with wild flowers. Some of the earlier
species, notably the bloodroot, the Dutchman's breeches and the
dogtooth violet or adder's tongue, have flowered and gone to seed but
acres of the pink and white spring beauties are still blooming. Big
patches of blue phlox appeared on April 19 and the delicate blue bells
of the Jacob's ladder on April 24. The violets, both blue and yellow, are
blooming richly and so is the purple trillium, or wake robin, with its
deep maroon flower. In the northern part of Cook County there are
large areas where the forest floor 18 covered with the big white
trilliums. The yellow of the crowfoot, the white of the toothwort and the
anemone, and the lavender of the wild geranium add to the symphony
of colors.
DO NOT PICK WILDFLOWERS. They wilt quickly. Their delicate
beauty is lost indoors. Many species are destroyed by picking. Leave
them for others to enjoy.
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Update: June 2012
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