Have you ever been in a room, heard a person entering, and by the sound of their footsteps, know who that person is without hearing their voice? That’s how it is for me, seated at my desk in the Kankakee Sands office! I can tell who is coming into the office because each of my coworkers has their…
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It’s March! And there is so much to be glad about – the great greening up of the overwintered landscape, the songs of birds in the early morning, and the thawing of the land leading to the prairies of Kankakee Sands being soaked with water. How glad I am for these wet, marshy places filling with…
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Have you been to Kankakee Sands and fallen head over heels in love with the prairie and bison? It’s easy to do when you witness first-hand the beauty this wide open big-sky place that people have reconstructed with their hands and hearts. Have you sat and watched the bison grazing passively on the…
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Feel like adding a little joy to your day? A late afternoon walk or drive at Kankakee Sands, amidst the wintertime ice-covered prairie that glitters and sparkles as the sun sets, to see the short-eared owls is a wonderful way to end a day! When I first wrote about short-eared owls in 2011, I…
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Our August skies are aflutter with butterflies over the Kankakee Sands prairie. The nectar-rich flowers of the blazing stars, milkweeds, and bonesets are decorated by the wings of various butterflies, including swallowtails. A fun (and sometimes challenging) part of being among so many butterflies…
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Summertime is swimming time in Indiana. Perhaps you enjoy swimming in an outdoor pool, creek, or one of our many Indiana lakes. Imagine swimming in a 36,000-acre lake! That was Beaver Lake, once the largest lake in Indiana. It was part of the one-million-acre Grand Kankakee Marsh, a grand wetland…
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Did you know that Indiana Dunes National Park is home to some of the most diverse ecosystems in the Midwest? Join Emily Graslie, former Chief Curiosity Correspondent at The Field Museum in Chicago, as she explores the Indiana Dunes in this episode of The Brain Scoop . Emily dives into the fascinating…
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This spring and summer, I have been enjoying the call of the grasshopper sparrow—a dry, insect-like buzz that tells me they are near. A friend recently informed me that this pretty little prairie bird has a second song—a rapid series of squeaks, chirp and trills that rise and fall for several…
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Spring has sprung and that means our Kankakee Sands wetlands are teeming with activity. The Kankakee Sands Bird Viewing Area on the west side of US 41 is a particular fan favorite right now due to the wide-open wetland filled with glistening water and critters galore. One needn’t walk through a…
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Did you know that the first week of April is National Be Kind to Spiders Week? To be kind to spiders (that is, to resist all instincts to squish them), one must first appreciate spiders, which admittedly can be hard to do when you are a little nervous or even terrified of them – known as…
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