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.