September is the kindest month. A month when electric bills are going down and gas bills have not yet begun to go up. A month when mosquitoes are dying off but butterflies are still with us. A time when migrant songbirds enliven every backyard and parkway and the last flowers of summer are in full and glorious bloom.
The bobolinks that nest on the prairie have already left for Argentina, but a few savanna sparrows and eastern meadowlarks were still around. A red-tailed hawk perched on a tall snag in the patch of trees at the north edge of the prairie. As the day warmed and the thermals started rising, the hawk soared over the prairie. He was joined by three turkey vultures, birds whose six-foot wingspans made the red-tail look tiny.
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In spring 1990 the strips were disked again before being seeded with a mix of prairie species with a heavy emphasis on grasses. Since 1990 the areas between the strips have been sown with prairie species with a heavy emphasis on wildflowers.
When I visited the prairie was rich with prairie dock, showy goldenrod, and Jerusalem artichoke. Small bur oaks and black oaks, hardy survivors of prairie fires, were scattered over the land. A turkey vulture, one of the Palos nesters, soared in the cloudless blue sky.
Along this watercourse I found a lovely example of the shaping influence of the stream. Within a meander bend where the stream provided fire protection to the south, west, and north grew the only sugar maples in the woods. They were big trees. They survived years of wildfires, and since 1981 they have survived prescribed burns deliberately set to maintain the health of the woods.
