Spring Creek Stewards
Events
Calendar of Events
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Directions to the Worksites:
Headwaters:
Higgins Rd., north of I-90 and west of Sutton Rd./Rt.59. Turn north onto Wichman Rd.
Penny Road Pond:
Take Rt. 59 to Penny Rd. (north of Higgins, south of Dundee). Go west on Penny Rd. through the forest preserves and look for the parking lot on the south side.
Healy Road Savanna:
On Higgins Rd., continue west of Headwaters, pass Beverly Lake. Take next right, a small unmarked street, only open for our work days.
Steeplechase Shrubland:
Park behind the Barrington Riding Center, 361 Bateman Rd., Barrington Hills. On east side of Bateman Rd., north of Algonquin Rd.
Spring Creek Valley Prairie
Take Bateman Rd. to Longmeadow Rd. which is between Dundee Rd., (Rt. 68) and Algonquin Rd. Park on the north side of Longmeadow Rd. Please do not park on the grass. The entrance to the prairie is across Bateman. Follow the signs to the site.
Summer work days
By Stephen Packard
Summer work days are different and wonderful. Just recently at Galloping Hills, we pulled the isolated sweet clover from the moist soil, among beautiful rare plants coming up in response to our seeding over the past few years. We listened to the songs of rare birds, who depend on our work.
Some of the great plants coming up:
compass plant
prairie dock
rosinweed
dropseed grass
little bluestem
porcupine grass (headed out with seed)
prairie betony
pale purple coneflower (in bud)
purple prairie clover
white prairie clover
prairie coreopsis
white false indigo
short green milkweed (in bud)
wild quinine (in bud)
others that we didn't happen to see today, but we've seen previously:
butterflyweed
flowering spurge
sky blue aster
blue-eyed grass
Some of the rare birds that sang and fluttered around us:
dicksissel
grasshopper sparrow
bobolink
meadowlark
and, near the edge, yellow-billed cuckoo
We'll often have a contingent who are pulling weeds or gathering seeds on summer workdays. Know anyone who might enjoy it?
