FIELD NOTES BLOG

Nocturnal Animals

education2.americorps
October 16, 2025

Learn about nocturnal animals found at severson!

With the onset of fall and spooky season come many fun changes in our world, like cooler temperatures, colorful leaves, and grasses turning golden and brown. This turn of the seasons also shortens our days. These longer nights create more opportunities to see animals that come out primarily when it is dark, also known as nocturnal animals. Many different animals have adapted to come out at night primarily as a way to avoid daytime predators, conserve water that could more easily escape their bodies under the heat of the sun, and many other reasons specific to their needs. The following are some of the incredible nocturnal animals that can be found at Severson and in the surrounding region. They are also some of the amazing creatures we will celebrate at our upcoming event Spook the Dells later this week!




Coyotes

Coyotes are adaptable to many habitats, historically navigating prairie and desert landscapes but now also seen traversing everywhere from complex urban landscapes to rural farm communities. They primarily eat small rodents, fruit, and other small prey with occasional shifts to larger prey like rabbits and deer. Coyotes tend to be nocturnal especially when living near human settlements, as this behavior helps them avoid contact with humans while hunting.




Raccoons

Raccoons are closely related to bears and dogs, and their bodies can grow anywhere between 16-28 inches with a 12 inch tail. Although raccoons don’t fully hibernate during winter, they primarily spend time in their dens with the onset of colder months. Their dens can be found in a variety of places, from logs to burrows to barns. Raccoons' nocturnal behavior is supported by their naturally higher body temperature, awareness of moon cycles, and strong senses of sight and hearing.




Bats

Bats are the only flying mammals, and can be found all over the world in a vast range of ecosystems. Their latin name, Chiroptera, means hand-wing, for the way that their wings appear like webbed hands. The largest bat in the world is the flying fox, with a wing span that can reach six feet, and the world’s smallest bat is the bumblebee bat, who is smaller than your finger. Nocturnal foraging and hunting behavior helps bats enjoy plants that may only open their flowers at night, and they are specially adapted to maneuver their environment at night because of their use of echolocation. 




Owls

Owls have sharp talons and curved bills that they use for hunting, which means they are considered birds of prey. Owls like to spend their time hunting for small live prey, roosting aka resting, or nesting and raising young. Some owls like to roost alone, and some like to roost with others, which provides important benefits like the ability to share hunting information, mate, and stay warm during colder months. Like other animals, owls benefit from the safety of hunting under cover of darkness, especially because they have large, rod-filled eyes which give them a very strong ability to pick up on the subtle lighting variations of nighttime landscapes.




Spiders

It is thought that there are some 51,500 plus species of arachnids, or spiders, found across the world. These eight-legged creatures hunt their prey, primarily insects, in a variety of ways, with some spinning the beautiful webs we can see around us. Notably, the Orb Weaver spider’s beautifully rounded webs can be easily seen at Severson from late summer into this time of year.




Skunks

Skunks are famed for their unique ability to emit a pungent substance called thiol, which gives them their trademark smell. Although they are known for this ability, skunks usually only use this response to a perceived threat when it’s their lost option. Skunks dig long burrows themselves, but they often prefer to take over a burrow previously made by another animal such as a fox. Skunks forage for their food, things such as insects, rodents, etc. They actually can even eat poisonous snakes because they are immune to their venom. Their nocturnal behavior helps skunks locate their preferred prey and stay cool while they hunt.


Opossums

Opossums are North America’s only marsupial(animals with a pouch). They are known for “playing dead” or “playing possum”, which they do when predators or other perceived threats fail to be intimidated by their hissing sounds. Opossums are primarily nocturnal as a way to avoid predators and conserve energy. 



To learn more about these animals and even meet a few, join us at Spook the Dells on October 18th from 6:00pm-7:30pm.

RECENT ARTICLES

Lowdown with Linda: Volunteering

By Linda Sandquist • April 27, 2026
As our organization’s Director of Development, I have the pleasure of presenting opportunities to people to invest their time, treasure, and talent in the work we do. I ask people to invest their financial gifts to keep our operations going and I’ll soon be asking people to help fund the renovation of the former clubhouse at Prairie’s Edge into Wild Roots Nature Center. I ask people for their talent when I consult members of our board of directors on investment matters, legal questions, and networking opportunities. But the best ask is when my colleagues and I ask people to give up their time to help Severson Dells (soon to be Wild Roots Nature Center ) provide hands-on, science-based nature education. We simply cannot operate without our volunteers ! Imagine a school field trip without the smiling adult faces who help kids howl like coyotes, touch a toad, or smell wildflowers for the first time. Our Science Saturday Hosts bring science to life at our activity stations and engage intergenerational visitors with fun and intriguing STEM education. Our Conservation Crew volunteers get their hands dirty when they pull up and destroy invasive species, collect prairie seeds, and install native plant gardens in the community. It’s my pleasure to wrap up the month of April with a big thank you to all the people who volunteer for Severson Dells Nature Center. You are special people and deserve to be recognized. I would be remiss if I didn’t ask anyone reading this to consider volunteering here with us . I promise we will welcome you with open arms and you will feel connected to other like-minded people and a very special place. You’ll make a difference in your life and in the lives of others. And that’s my lowdown.

City Nature Challenge 2026

April 22, 2026
City Nature Challenge is Friday, April 24th- Monday, April 27th As spring becomes in full bloom, every naturalist's favorite time of the year returns: City Nature Challenge! City Nature Challenge is an annual, global, 4-day bioblitz at the end of April, where cities compete and collaborate to document plants and wildlife in and around cities throughout the world and help fight biodiversity loss! Every observation you make of WILD nature is a data point that helps scientists and researchers understand and protect nature for all of us. This event first began in 2016 as a friendly competition between Los Angeles and San Francisco, with the goal of engaging residents and visitors in documenting nature to better understand urban biodiversity. Since then, it has turned into a worldwide competition that over 100,000 people participate in! The goals of this now global event is to engage the public in the collection of biodiversity data, with three awards each year for the cities that make the most observations, find the most species, and engage the most people. Participating in the City Nature Challenge is easy, and it’s accessible to people of all ages and education levels in the sciences! All you have to do is download the free mobile app iNaturalist , take photos of wild flora, fauna, or fungi, and share the photos to iNaturalist to document your observations. If your plant ID isn’t too sharp, don’t worry! iNaturalists automated species identification feature can often help you identify what you're spotting, as well as the community of users on iNaturalist that includes professional scientists and expert naturalists. The observation period is followed by several days of identification and the final announcement of results. In Rockford, we are part of the Rock River Valley City Nature Challenge Team. The Rock River Valley Team is coordinated by Severson Dells Nature Center and includes multiple partner organizations. Any post made in Winnebago, Boone, Ogle, DeKalb, and Stephenson counties counts toward the Rock River Valley Team's total. This means anyone who makes posts in this region is part of our team! Partner organizations include Rockford Park District, Nature at the Confluence, Byron Forest Preserve District, Northern Illinois University, Boone County Conservation District, Forest Preserves of Winnebago County, Natural Land Institute, DeKalb County Forest Preserve District, and Atwood Nature Center.

Spring Wildflowers

By Caedyn Wells, Lauren Bonavia, Olivia Price, Caroline Pacheco • April 15, 2026
April showers bring May flowers… and they're already beginning to appear! These newly emerging wildflowers remind us that the season is changing and that soon the lands around us will be in full bloom. With all of the excitement, let’s dive into some of the things that make flowers so incredible! In this month’s blog, we’ll be learning how to ID wildflowers, talk about the shape and arrangement of certain flowers, their benefits to wildlife, and lastly about their colors and anatomy!