William Shea was on his lunch break and walking in the River Road Seedbeds of the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie when something caught his eye. A female wolf spider was carrying a cluster of babies on her back as other youngsters navigated the webs on the milkweed.

Shea, a 28-year-old Mokena resident who works half the year as a visitor information assistant at Midewin and the other half as a biological science technician for plants, pulled out his phone and snapped a photo.

“It was just a nice happenstance thing,” he said.

Shea submitted that image to the Woodsy Owl & Friends 50th Birthday Photo Challenge, which called for photos that capture life at Midewin. It ended up winning Shea the best wildlife photo title and a tie for best overall photo.

Shea got the news in September during an online celebration of the birthday of Woodsy Owl, a conservation education mascot for the United States Forest Service.

“I was pretty pleased,” Shea said. “Spiders don’t necessarily have the best publicity. That a spider photo was that well-liked was a bit of a surprise to me.”

But Frank Pascoe, a professor of biology at the University of St. Francis, said the image offers an interesting lesson in something that is “specific to wolf spiders.”

“It’s very unusual,” Pascoe said. “There are some spiders where the female will stay in the silken retreat when the young emerge, but it’s only the wolf spiders that carry them on the back like that.”

Pascoe said several species of wolf spiders are fairly prevalent at Midewin. There are 56 species of wolf spiders in Illinois, and between 10 and 12 call the tallgrass prairie in Wilmington home.

Wolf spiders have a “very strong maternal instinct,” Pascoe added.

“Before the babies climb on the back of the female, the female actually carries around the egg sac,” he said. “She attaches it to her spinnerets at the rear, so you’ll see the wolf spiders running around with this white ball attached to the rear. That’s their egg sac that they carry with them everywhere. They protect it ferociously.”

When it comes time for the young to emerge, the female actually cuts the sac open, at which point the babies crawl up onto her. She usually carries them for a week, until they are old enough and strong enough to fend for themselves better, though they occasionally hop off for a quick drink of water.

It is a sight Shea has seen many times before, though never to the degree of what he captured this summer.

“That was the first time I’ve seen them on the mother’s back in that great a number,” he said. “But before I’ve seen them on the ground with just a few on there.”

Pascoe said the timing to catch such a sight really depends upon the species of wolf spider. Some mature earlier in the season, some later. Pascoe conducted a survey of spiders at Midewin and wrote a manual for spider-watching there. Physical copies can be obtained at the visitor center, while a digital version can be found at fs.usda.gov/main/midewin by navigating to the “Learning Center” and then “Nature & Science,” and finally under the “Wildlife” box.

Pascoe said the spiders at Midewin aren’t rare or exotic, but many qualify as interesting arachnids. The most common family found at the prairie is jumping spiders. They can come in a variety of sizes but are often brightly colored — black and red, black and white, and some metallic.

“There’s a good variety of jumping spiders out at Midewin,” Pascoe said.

Shea often visits Midewin during his free time in addition to when he is in the field for work. He likes to keep an eye out for wildlife and photographs anything interesting or that might need to be identified later. When it comes to arachnids, Shea is partial to what are commonly known as garden spiders.

“I do have an appreciation for them,” Shea said. “They’re the pretty orb weaver ones. Those are always a nice treat to see.”

The other overall winner of the photo competition, a shot taken by Carl Pixel of Chicago, features a coyote howling on the Henslow Trail. Monika Bobek, of Chicago, was named a finalist for taking the best owl photo for an image of a barred owl in spring. Channahon’s Barbara Parisi snapped the best sunrises and sunsets photo with an image of the Henslow Bridge at sunrise. And Janet Lyons, of Dwight, nabbed best native Illinois prairie plants photo for a shot of yellow coneflower and bergamot. Grace and Olivia Thompson were recognized in a Photos by Kids category for images of a blue lobelia and lily pads on a pond.

Photos entered into the contest are to be featured in the 2022 Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie Conservation Education Guide, with the howling coyote set to grace its cover.

Bill Jones is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.