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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What is the Indiana Dunes Known For? There's more to the Indiana Dunes than warm sand, blue water, and miles of hiking trails. For example, as of 2021, it's the fifth most biodiverse national park in the United States, right behind Yosemite! The Indiana Dunes' environment, ecology, and history are…
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It’s December, and I find myself singing along to all the holiday songs on the radio and playing in the stores. That song about walking in a winter wonderland sure is a fun one to sing… Sleigh bells ring, are you listening? In the lane, snow is glistening A beautiful sight We're happy tonight…
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It’s the fall seed harvest time of the year. Most days, after spending time in the prairie harvesting native plant seeds that we will sow this winter, I emerge covered in a multitude of seeds of various shapes and sizes. And if I am covered in seeds, I’m thinking that perhaps the bison grazing the…
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I love smelling flowers. I’m sure there are oodles and oodles of articles and scientific journals describing in great detail the smell of this flower, the fragrance of that flower, and all the chemical compounds that go into making those aromas. But there is a limit to what words can do. Sometimes…
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