In North America, the number is fewer than 30. Sizes range from the giant and Australian bird wings, the largest of all butterflies, to pale and much smaller species. True swallowtails in North America are large, brightly colored with tailed hind wings.

Taxonomists also note that in North America, most swallowtails fall into one of four sub-groups. These sub groups are named Black swallowtails, Giant swallowtails, Tiger swallowtails and lastly Pipevine swallowtails.

Each of these sub groups have spherical eggs and upon hatching, the caterpillars have prominent eye spots. A forked organ behind their heads may have orange, red or yellow forked organs behind the head. A foul odor comes from the caterpillar, is ill tasting to birds or other predators, and the eye spots may also confuse or deter predators.

When a caterpillar of the swallowtails produces its chrysalis, the final product may resemble green or brown bits of wood or leaves. These suspended chambers overwinter in vertical positions that are well attached by a silken girdle.

Come next spring, the transformed caterpillar splits open its case, and emerges into the world as a fully formed butterfly. If you are at the right place at the right time, you may be offered an opportunity to observe these beautiful critters for yourself.

I hope you are lucky on your next foray into a prairie land setting. Good luck.

———-

Other prairie flowers are numerous. In today’s story, I have included Pale-purple coneflowers and the bluish vertical stalk of blazing stars. These colorful standouts will catch your eye even if smaller flowers may be inconspicuous.

Still, if one looks carefully, it is possible to find a wide variety of flower types. A good botanical field guide or a specific cell phone app can nowadays be of tremendous help in the identification of unfamiliar plants.

Within prairie wetland settings, much of what we now call Iowa was, prior to settlement, a world-class treasure of botanical specimens. Iowa once had 28 million acres of prairie, 3 to 4 million acres of woodland and 1.5 million acres of wetlands. To the eye of early settlers, this complex of unusual grasses and other flowering plants may have seemed like an unconquerable landscape.

History shows that it was conquered — by the plow, the cow, the dredge and the saw. Thus, Iowa has the distinction of being the landscape within its borders that is the most modified in the continental United States. Only about 4 percent of Iowa reflects lands with native character, and remnant native prairies in particular are pegged at just one-tenth of one percent of Iowa’s 56,000 plus square miles.

Settlers found much of Iowa landscapes as an inter-mix of wet and boggy sites with drier uplands between the wet places. Wildlife abound from numerous birds, a few larger mammals such as bison, deer, bear, elk, badger, fox, coyotes, wolves, numerous small mammals, ducks and geese in just about every shallow water filled glacially dug depression — all of this in a setting for as far their eyes could see.

Wetlands were a roadblock to travel, making any straight line pathway an almost impossible task. A zig zag route had to be found around wetlands in order to keep horses hooves or wagon wheels on dry enough land to make passage.

Those thick stands of prairie plants were water filters and their roots a water retention network. Old surveyor notes many times told of how a heavy downpour of rain fell upon the men conducting the survey, and they told of how the water did not run off into creeks very easily. When water did find its way to a drainageway, small creek, and eventually the rivers of Iowa, it was crystal clear. Travel across rivers could be dangerous, winter or summer.

If the ice was thick enough, travel might succeed. Otherwise, barges were built by inventive minds to move people, livestock or other goods across rivers.

In the history books of Iowa, when statehood was achieved in 1846, there was a land program granting to the state 1,196,392 acres of public domain wetlands for swamp reclamation. Counties were given this land and it could be and was bartered for public utilities or sold cheaply to immigration companies who had the task of convincing settlers to try to live on it. Some of these acres were given to railroad companies as inducements to build rail lines and road beds. By 1906, wetland inventory was estimated at 930,000 acres. By 1922, that number had decreased to 368,000 acres.

In 1955, wetlands were reduced even more to 155,000 acres. In 1980, the wetland label remained on only 26,470 acres of natural marshes within the north central segments of Iowa’s most recently glaciated soil association. Statewide wetland inventory in 1982 was 110,000 acres.

What makes the above numbers a bit of a gamble is due to no specific definition for a wetland. No reliable means of comparison was agreed upon in the past, and even today, it can impart controversy. What we do know is this: wetlands have slowly gained some favor as important

habitats. Wetlands are an important cog in our wheel or how we exist, both ecologically and economically.

After big rain events, wetlands are storage sites to hold water for filtering and slow release. Wetlands offer opportunities for recreation such as waterfowl hunting, trapping, fishing, canoeing, photography or simply enjoyment of nature. Wetlands are sometimes now constructed to become part of the filtering process for wastewater treatment facilities.

What has emerged as a good definition for wetlands: an area inundated or saturated by surface water or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient for hydrophytic vegetation to develop. Examples of different wetland types could be listed as marshes, deep or shallow;

floodplain forests, alder thickets, fens, bogs, coldwater streams, open water lakes, oxbows of former river channels, seeps, ephemeral ponds, wet prairies, willow thickets, sedge meadows and of course farm ponds.

I trust this little discussion about wetlands is helpful. I encourage your to explore local prairies, sedge meadows, fens and wetland sites to discover for yourself the wealth of plant life that exists, or persists, in these special places.

———-

Roadside upland wildlife surveys will be conducted this month by biologists and game wardens. They follow designated routes in every region and county in Iowa.

Data they gather on sightings of pheasants, quail, partridge, rabbits and other critters is tallied, and ultimately, the data is compiled into programs at research stations to help tell the stories of trends within regions of Iowa. Ups and downs and steady state levels happen all the time. If good weather conditions allow, the data can be judged as good to very good indicators of wildlife trends.

There are 218 routes that biologists follow in Iowa. Each route is 30 miles long. A perfect day is clear with light winds, a heavy dew from the night before, and a bright shining sun.

Each route begins at sunrise. Each drive is made at a very slow pace. Since the routes are the same, the only thing that may change is the adjacent habitat.

From studies made in the 1950s at Iowa State University by Dr. Klonglan, he demonstrated that wildlife observed on mornings with medium dew averaged seeing one-third fewer birds than mornings with heavy dew. Heavy dew requires good to excellent soil moisture prior to the roadside count methods being undertaken.

What biologists may already suspect is that our lack of rainfall events in July in some areas of Iowa may bias sightings to the low side. There may be more pheasants or quail in the area, but if no dew or low level dew, they will not seek out roadsides as readily to dry off.

Thus sightings will not reflect population densities. Last year pheasant trend lines seemed to put total population counts at around 400,000 birds. By month end, results of the survey routes will be compiled.

Stay tuned to hear what the likelihood is for fall 2023 seasons.

———-

Garry Brandenburg is the retired director of the Marshall County Conservation Board. He is a graduate of Iowa State University with a BS degree in Fish & Wildlife Biology.

Contact him at:

P.O. Box 96

Albion, IA 50005

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