Hamill-Winter Prairie: Where It All Started
Hamill-Winter Prairie was the original purchase by The Nature Conservancy in October, 1986.
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The Ornate Box Turtle will have nothing to do with water. It lives in the sand. |
The owner’s plan was to sell five-acre plots for a series of homes to look north from the tops of seven knobs---a spectacular view. Fifteen minutes before the sale was to begin a Board member of the Illinois Chapter of TNC, John Santucci, wrote a check: then the TNC plan began. From this area which had not been plowed we would take native seed and convert cropland into restored prairie. In ’87 we sowed native plants in our large West Field. In ’91 the field north of the knobs was planted.
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Clustered Poppy mallow, Callerhoe triangulata, a somewhat rare plant that likes sandy soil, has recently started showing up in several places near Lowden Rd. |
With other purchases, and an annex, the unit is approximately 180 acres. The Yellow House on Lowden Rd---about ¼ mi. S. of the visitor entrance---is the NE corner of Hamill-Winter Prairie. The boundary goes west past the power tower to the trees. The south boundary is a lane (Pusseytoes) also running to the trees and beyond. The “annex” is a wooded knob in the SW corner with Oaks, Hackberry, Hickories, Black Cherry and Walnut.
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| Bobolinks are a happy bunch out here. | This Hoary Puccoon, Lithospermum canescens, is more than 12 years old. |
Notice the rock outcrop well to the west, in the middle of the unit; that’s Coyote Point. North from there a wet area provides us with a different plants, and crawdads.
The seven knobs and swales contain about twenty American Plum thickets. This habitat is important for nesting Bell’s Vireos and Empidonax Flycatchers. There are several large Bur Oaks and Black Oaks, which create a savanna, which will grow in the coming decades as more oaks reach maturity.
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| Regal Fritillary taking off from a Prairie Thistle, Cirsium hillii, bloom. (Photo courtesy of Ann Haverstock.) |
More than ten species of birds we see regularly use the grasses as nesting habitat: Sparrows---Grasshopper, Henslows, Lark, Vesper----Sedge Wrens, Bobolinks, Eastern & Western Meadowlarks, Dickcissels, Turkeys, and Harriers. There are relatively few places in Illinois for most of these species to nest.
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This Prairie Sunflower, Helianthus mollis, is the worse for wear. |
Battling invasives is major work throughout the preserve. Just here tens of thousands each of Multiflora Rose, Honeysuckle, Black Cherry, King Devil, White and Yellow Sweet Clover, and Red Clover have been removed, as well as thousands each of King Devil, Pussy Willows, Wild Parsnip, Canada Thistle, and Reed Canary Grass. Another dozen alien species show up les often.
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A Badger’s eye view of Cylindrical Blazing Star, Liatris cylindracea. |
The work is worth it when we see the hundreds of species of native plants, as well as the birds, Deer, Badgers, Coyotes, Thirteen-line Ground Squirrels, Regal Fritillary and Aphrodite Butterflies, and Ornate Box Turtles.
Recently we’ve been pleased that so many Shooting stars, Dodecatheon meadia, have returned. Here they emerge in May, in duff left from last year. |
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We’re a short walk from the visitors’ kiosk on Lowden Road. To visit Hamill-Winter Prairie walk south from the visitors' kiosk.
Hamill-Winter Prairie stewards: You can contact Mike Adolph at |