Journey With Nature

Heard any good hoots lately? Or seen the silhouette of a squatting, ghost-like creature with points on top of its head? If so, consider yourself lucky. You were treated to the sights and sounds of the Great Horned Owl.

Henry David Thoreau once wrote, "Nature is full of genius, full of divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand." Nature's genius is nowhere more evident than in the bark of leaf-less trees in winter, for the bark of a tree is no less distinct than the leaves that grace its branches in the summer.

Birders take note: in Northwestern Indiana lies a 76 hundred acre jewel in progress. Kankakee Sands in Newton County is on track to becoming a bird mecca, without question one of the premier places in the Midwest to view a number of amazing birds.

Although it's not a big secret, few people realize that royalty summers in Indiana by the thousands. They especially enjoy the fine dining found across our state such as milkweed and sweet nectar. As summer ends, they quietly head south for the winter, preferring a few exclusive spots in the cool Mexican highlands.

Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone with the Wind wrote, "Land is the only thing in the world that amounts to anything, for it's the only thing in this world that lasts. It's the only thing worth working for, worth fighting for..."

It's hard to imagine that Indiana's diverse landscape was once covered by a sheet of ice a half mile thick. Yet without glaciers, our state would lack the natural communities that make it so unique. As recently as 16,000 years ago, the last glacier remnants were slowing melting away and transforming its surroundings. This is the story of how glaciers created our historical Hoosier landscape.

The oldest continuous wildlife survey in the Western Hemisphere happens every winter holiday season. Can you guess what it is? Here's a hint: think birders, and lots of them. It's the Audubon Christmas Bird Count. For over a hundred years, thousands of people from North and South America gather to count birds in their area.

What do a Pink Heelsplitter, a Fat Pocketbook and a Purple Wartyback have in common? They may sound like Harry Potter characters, but they're actually three freshwater mussel species found in the Tippecanoe River.

Back in the 1950s, the plant autumn olive was promoted as the best thing for wildlife since Noah's ark. A woody shrub from Asia with cream-colored flowers in the spring and bunches of red berries in the fall, autumn olive was planted all over Indiana to provide wildlife habitat.

Mighty oaks from little acorns grow. A true saying if ever there was one. The mighty oak is the cornerstone of many Indiana forests. The oak tree has been around for almost 90 million years and can live to be over 400 years old. Indiana is home to 22 native species with the white oak being the most common.

As odd as it sounds, it is not uncommon to see American eels in Indiana's rivers. What is unusual is the eel's journey to our waters and back to their breeding ground that makes this long, serpentine fish such a fascinating creature.

This past September Kentucky's annual Short's Goldenrod Festival once again celebrated one of the rarest plants in the United States. Short's goldenrod, a federally endangered species, was found solely in the Bluegrass State up until a few years ago. Now Indiana shares their good fortune as the attractive, unassuming plant was found in Harrison-Crawford State Forest in 2002.

Space may be the final frontier, but a world virtually unknown to us lies right beneath our feet. The mysterious underground world of caves, with their intricate passageways and dramatic formations, is a wonderland just waiting to be explored.

What plant do you picture when you think of wetlands? Cattails, right? Not surprising, as cattails are very common in Indiana's waterways and marshlands. Unfortunately, most of the cattails you see today are actually an aggressive invasive species that is rapidly choking out habitat for native plants and wildlife.

What would be spookier than a Halloween hike to a nature preserve once called Shades of Death? Nowadays we call it Pine Hills, but thanks to its box canyons, steep hogback ridges-one aptly named the Devil's Backbone-and tales of a mad hermit, it's no wonder that it was once given such a sinister name.

Autumn along the Tippecanoe River is a sight to behold, as the leaves turn brilliant shades of red, orange, and yellow along its banks. On early fall mornings you may even see the silhouette of a fisherman casting his lure and waiting patiently for a bite.

Pulled together by gravity to flow across the ground, raindrops gather into a little stream of water and may follow a number of paths: into a river, through a wetland or an ocean. No matter where they end, the raindrops will eventually become part of a watershed.

The river otter: fun-loving, frisky, and free-spirited. And now, after a 50-year absence, these charming creatures are back home in Indiana.

The Swamp Rabbit is not your ordinary rabbit; it lives a solitary life in swampy areas typically in the southern United States. Southwestern Indiana is the northern limit to its range and the populations are at best tenuous.

Have you ever tossed away your aluminum beer or soda can with a smidgen of guilt but not a smidgeon big enough to save the can for the recycling bin? After all, how much difference can the recycling of one can make? A lot!