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The northern cardinal is Illinois’ state bird, known for the male’s bright red color and both sexes’ crests. Found only east of the Rockies, cardinals sing year-round, with females often singing on nests. They mate for life, build layered nests, and eat seeds, fruit, and insects. Cardinals defend territory even against their reflection and can live up to three years, sometimes much longer. Several states share the cardinal as their state bird.

Owls don’t chew their food well and sometimes swallow their prey whole. Similar to a hairball, what cannot be digested, like fur and bones, forms into a pellet that the owl spits up typically once a day. Owl pellets are dark in color and turn gray as they dry and are often mistaken for poop. They can be found on the ground under roosting spots. The larger the bird, the bigger the pellet. Be sure to use gloves when handling or examining.

Detritivores are animals that eat dead or decaying plants and animals, helping nature recycle. Earthworms, millipedes and slugs are common detritivores that improve soil health by breaking down waste into nutrients. Without them, dead matter would pile up and plants would struggle to grow. You can help by composting at home. Visit Plum Creek Nature Center’s Compost Trail to learn more.

Chipmunks and 13-lined ground squirrels are both rodents that look alike, but differ in stripe patterns, habitat, and hibernation. Chipmunks have five wide stripes, live near woods, and store food. Ground squirrels have 13 narrow stripes, prefer grassy areas, and truly hibernate without storing food. Both are active by day and omnivores. In Illinois, chipmunks are easier to tell apart from tree squirrels like the eastern gray squirrel and eastern fox squirrel.

Queen snakes are nonvenomous, water-loving snakes found in Will County. They’re gray, brown or green with yellow belly stripes and mainly eat recently molted crayfish. These snakes are rarely aggressive but may release a smelly fluid if caught. Named from their Latin name Regina, queen snakes give birth to live young and can often be seen basking near rivers, streams, or ponds.

During the fall, chipmunks are busy prepping for winter by gathering food, bulking up and building burrows. These diurnal omnivores use cheek pouches to store food and live in an underground system of tunnels. Rather than hibernating, they fall into deep sleep and wake to eat stored food. They’re born tiny and helpless, grow fast, and live just 2 to 3 years. A group is called a scurry, babies are kits, and adults are bucks (males) or does (females).

More than 3,000 different kinds of walking sticks live in the world, with the common walking stick being the most reported. A walking stick's eggs can be housed by ants and take a few months before a baby walking stick, or nymph, emerges. During their molting process, walking sticks have regenerative properties to regrow any legs it has lost. They have adapted for survival by using camouflage, being active at night, and by altering their rigidness to feel like a stick when fe

Northern water snakes live in and near water across Illinois. They grow 2 to 4 feet long, with females being larger than males. These carnivores eat fish, frogs, birds, and more, swallowing prey while they are still alive. Northern water snakes are non-venomous and are active by day in spring and fall and at night in summer. They have rough, keeled scales with banded backs. and can give birth to live young - up to 100 babies per litter. Though harmless, they may bite if threa

All 6,000 species of Daddy long legs, sometimes called harvestmen, are not spiders and are more closely related to ticks and scorpions. Baby daddy long legs molt every 10 days and become adults in about a year. For defense, they spend more time hiding than crawling and have scent glands that release an unpleasant odor. They can also amputate a leg to run away from predators but will not survive very long without a pair of their sensitive, longer legs. They are completely harm

The activities Firefly Flash! and Firefly Tag are ideas from Cindy Blobaum’s book, “Explore Night Science!”. In Firefly Flash, players pick secret “boy” or “girl” cards with light patterns of dots and dashes on the back. "Girls" stay put and flash lights, while "boys" search for their matching light pattern. If unmatched, the "boy" is out. In Firefly Tag, players run from a tagger and must reach a flashlight or glow stick to be safe. If tagged first, you're out. Play continue

Humans see color through three types of cones for red, green and blue, but some people have two or even four. Many animals see differently. Bees and birds can see ultraviolet light, which helps them find food or mates. Reindeer use UV vision to find lichen and track predators. Butterflies may have the widest color range. Dogs and cats have only two cones. UV vision gives many animals a unique view of the world that humans can’t see.

Located on their back legs, some bees, such as honeybees, have pollen baskets, formally known as corbiculae, that act like pockets for them to store any pollen that has been collected. With the ability to hold up to 1 million grains of pollen, bees can visit more than 100 flowers on a trip before having to return to their hive. To help the pollen stay in place, bees will mix the pollen with nectar to make it sticky.

Though mayapples, also known as the American mandrake, grow dispersed from one another in the spring and stand at about 1 foot tall, they all sprout from one underground rhizome stem, making them one giant plant grown from one seed. It takes five years for a mayapple to grow a rhizome stem and to start growing a big colony. They get their name from its white flower and the poisonous apple it produces. Every part of the mayapple plant is poisonous and will make you extremely s

Eastern comma and question mark butterflies are easy to spot thanks to tiny punctuation-shaped markings on their wings. Both overwinter as adults so they are among the first butterflies seen in spring. They have two broods a year and look different by season. Their spiky caterpillars feed on elm hackberry and nettles. Adults drink from sap fruit and droppings. Look closely at their underwings to spot a silver comma or a question mark.

Pillbugs, also known as roly-polies and many other nicknames, are not really insects, but rather crustaceans. They are the only crustaceans that live entirely on land. They do not urinate due to their high tolerance for ammonia and also eat their own feces. Pillbugs are scavengers and serve as decomposers returning nutrients to the soil. Roly-polies pose no risk to humans.

Ever wonder how fish survive winter in frozen lakes? Since they’re cold-blooded, their body temperature matches the chilly water. As ice forms, warmer water sinks to the bottom, and fish rest there, barely moving. They don’t hibernate but enter a low-energy state, needing little food or oxygen. When spring comes and the water warms, they become active again.

Groundhogs have several names including land-beaver, whistle-pig, and woodchuck. They are rodents and part of the squirrel family. They live in underground burrows and hibernate as early as late October up until February, around the time when Groundhog Day is celebrated. Despite being a tradition since 1886, no science backs up Punxsutawney Phil’s predictions.

Test if your jello critters can survive winter with this experiment! Pour Jello into small containers. Just like animals need insulation and a warm place to live, build “homes” using materials like mittens, leaves, or bubble wrap for insulation. Place your Jello critters outside in their homes and leave one out in the open. After 30 minutes, check if they stayed liquid (survived) or turned into jello (died). See which homes kept your critters warm!

Snapping turtles are cold-blooded and can absorb oxygen underwater in winter via a cloaca (their butt). This cloacal respiration helps them survive while brumating. Their shells neutralize acid buildup, and they can be aggressive on land. Known for snapping jaws, snapping turtles can’t fully hide in their shells. Two species exist in Illinois: the common snapping turtle and the endangered alligator snapping turtle, which are the largest of its species, weighing at 150 pounds.

All animals poop, and their droppings can reveal clues about their diet and lifestyle. Coyote scat may contain fur or bones and is used to mark their territory. Rabbits eat their droppings for extra nutrition. Deer poop is similar to rabbit droppings, only larger. Bat droppings, called guano, resemble rice grains. Goose poop is tube-shaped and is often green or white. Horses can produce up to 50 pounds of manure daily. Bird poop is mostly white uric acid, which doesn’t wash a