Feix expects to see increased numbers of these birds in the estuary this spring. Shallow-water plants also provide increased cover, nesting and resting places for wetland mammals such as muskrats. Research is currently underway at Old Woman Creek to examine the effects of fluctuating water levels on wetland plant communities. Farther east, at Headlands Dunes State Nature Preserve in Lake County, DNAP botanists predict an explosion of plants this year as low waters expose broad tracts of sand. Most years, only a handful of these plants struggle for survival on the strand.
Wider beaches mean more beach plants in a year when lake levels are low.
Twelve thousand years ago, Headlands Dunes was part of the prehistoric Atlantic coastline of North America and many plants native to the dunes are a remnant of that period. The inland sea rocket is a fleshy succulent that soaks up water from moisture-laden breezes and grows about 12 inches high. Seaside spurge is its evolutionary opposite, lying nearly flat on the sand so it can survive buffeting by strong winds and waves. The spurge features interesting geometry, growing in a near-perfect circle from one central stem buried in the sand. Tumbleweeds such as the winged pigweed and Russian thistle blow across the beach in late summer.