Beverlybaynes
Mod Squad
A good friend and I took off early this morning to go find a new state nature preserve about an hour away.
After a yummy breakfast at the Cracker Barrel, we first headed north and made a brief stop at a daylily garden in a small town just north of the city. The owner was out, deadheading, and we had a delightful half-hour's conversation with her. She's getting older, and planning to dig up about half her acre garden next month, since it's getting to be more than she can handle, and will be passing out clumps to those who stop by. Guess where I'll be going next month??!! This is a certified AHS display garden, so you can just imagine the quality and variety!!
But back to birds . . . .
It was a most un-July-like day! After a few days of very humid weather in the 90s, a cold front moved through yesterday, and it was 54F when I left the house this morning. The air was crystal clear and there was a wonderful breeze.
But the birds didn't seem to appreciate it much -- as we traveled across county roads to our general destination, we just didn't seen much at all -- not to mention any hawks or Kestrels -- nothing!!
We got to Tri-County FWA in Kosciusko County, the heart of northern Indiana's lake country. This area is all glacier-sculpted landscape, with tons of wetlands and small ponds and lakes. The preserve we were looking for is state property, and just had it's 'grand opening' about two weeks ago.
We first just wandered about Tri-County a bit -- I thought I knew where this new property was located, but obviously didn't. But we were starting to see a few things here and there. There has been an Osprey release two summers in a row now, and as we were scanning one small lake in the middle of nowhere (seemingly), Rosie pulled a lunching Osprey out of a small bunch of snags, a good distance across the water. Oh, for a scope!!!
Saw Green Herons and Great Blue Herons a few times, a few Canada Geese here and there, lots of turtles, and kept hearing Eastern Towhees but never seeing them. Spotted a couple of Blue-winged Teal, either juvies or in eclipse -- not sure. Couple of Pied-billed Grebes . . . Cedar Waxwings hawking for insects over a marsh . . .still very quiet.
After finally asking for some directions, we discovered we had been making our first mistake by asking for PIZ=GAH Marsh -- we were assuming the pronunciation followed the spelling -- Pisgah. Learned that everyone there calls the area PIZ-GIE instead.
We finally stumbled upon the place (we thought) and walked about 3/4 mi back to a small beautiful lake -- but where was the great boardwalk we'd heard about??? We kept walking, finally seeing our first soaring Red-tailed Hawk, and trying to identify all the dragonflies and butterflies we kept seeing -- did ID Widow Skimmers (lots!!), Twelve-Spotted Skimmers, and several gorgeous Buckeyes. There was also this tiny blue-violet butterfly we saw once or twice -- have no idea what it was; it's wingspan was maybe 3/4 in or less. Beautiful color.
We finally heard someone coming along the path on a mower. This older gentleman stopped and we learned he was the original landowner, who had sold 148 acres to the state to prevent development. What a pleasure it was to encounter him and be able to thank him for doing that!! Found out that we were actually at little Lake Esther (named for his late wife), where he still lives. I think he was probably even older than he looked (which was maybe in the mid-70s), because when we asked about the preserve with the boardwalk, he mentioned it was about '40 rods on down the road'. I haven't heard anyone use 'rods' for measurement in ages!!
We finally located this preserve --about 40 rods on down the road -- and what a gorgeous place this is!!!!
Lots of nicely paved off-road parking, restroom facilities and a totally handicap-accessible boardwalk -- all newly built this summer. The boardwalk extends about .3 of a mile, running along a hillside in a mixed-oak/hickory/hemlock woods, with views out over Pisgah Marsh. A scope will definitely be needed for waterfowl viewing, but I can just imagine a warbler feast there next May! The end of the boardwalk has a viewing deck (there are small decks with seating about every 400 feet along the boardwalk) over Pisgah Lake, separated from the marsh by a beaver dam and small dike.
While we were still seeing very few birds, the potential of this place was just overwhelming!! We do know that Sandhill Cranes are already nesting here, and the possibility of it as a waterfowl hot spot is terrific.
And it's just perfectly beautiful!! Of course, we were seeing it on a remarkably mild July day (doubt it got much over 70 degrees today!!!) with bright sun and a spritely breeze -- no bugs, yay!! It was so quiet and calm there . . . I just fell in love with place, can you tell???
Of course, I still love Muscatatuck NWR, and will always visit it whenever I have the chance. But this place is about 40 miles away, compared to the 200 to Muscatatuck!!
Very little to note in the way of birds, outside of what I've already mentioned, unfortunately. But the entire day was so delightful, I wanted to tell you about it.
And on the way home, we spotted a sign that just made my day complete -- a turnoff to a church camp I had stayed at as a child. I always knew it was in that general area, but couldn't remember what lake it was on! So we wheeled around, and followed the signs several miles back to the camp. Lo and behold!! There's lots of lake homes right there now, but the original cabins are still there, too! -- they have to be 50+years old now, and are still being used!!! It's no longer a children's church camp, but appears to be a church family camp/conference center, still run by the Friends Yearly Meeting here in Indiana. What a totally retro moment -- and a big giggle!! I think I spent a week there in about 1959!!
Enough of this now. I can't wait to visit Pisgah again, but for now, I'm heading to bed with a good British police procedural!
After a yummy breakfast at the Cracker Barrel, we first headed north and made a brief stop at a daylily garden in a small town just north of the city. The owner was out, deadheading, and we had a delightful half-hour's conversation with her. She's getting older, and planning to dig up about half her acre garden next month, since it's getting to be more than she can handle, and will be passing out clumps to those who stop by. Guess where I'll be going next month??!! This is a certified AHS display garden, so you can just imagine the quality and variety!!
But back to birds . . . .
It was a most un-July-like day! After a few days of very humid weather in the 90s, a cold front moved through yesterday, and it was 54F when I left the house this morning. The air was crystal clear and there was a wonderful breeze.
But the birds didn't seem to appreciate it much -- as we traveled across county roads to our general destination, we just didn't seen much at all -- not to mention any hawks or Kestrels -- nothing!!
We got to Tri-County FWA in Kosciusko County, the heart of northern Indiana's lake country. This area is all glacier-sculpted landscape, with tons of wetlands and small ponds and lakes. The preserve we were looking for is state property, and just had it's 'grand opening' about two weeks ago.
We first just wandered about Tri-County a bit -- I thought I knew where this new property was located, but obviously didn't. But we were starting to see a few things here and there. There has been an Osprey release two summers in a row now, and as we were scanning one small lake in the middle of nowhere (seemingly), Rosie pulled a lunching Osprey out of a small bunch of snags, a good distance across the water. Oh, for a scope!!!
Saw Green Herons and Great Blue Herons a few times, a few Canada Geese here and there, lots of turtles, and kept hearing Eastern Towhees but never seeing them. Spotted a couple of Blue-winged Teal, either juvies or in eclipse -- not sure. Couple of Pied-billed Grebes . . . Cedar Waxwings hawking for insects over a marsh . . .still very quiet.
After finally asking for some directions, we discovered we had been making our first mistake by asking for PIZ=GAH Marsh -- we were assuming the pronunciation followed the spelling -- Pisgah. Learned that everyone there calls the area PIZ-GIE instead.
We finally stumbled upon the place (we thought) and walked about 3/4 mi back to a small beautiful lake -- but where was the great boardwalk we'd heard about??? We kept walking, finally seeing our first soaring Red-tailed Hawk, and trying to identify all the dragonflies and butterflies we kept seeing -- did ID Widow Skimmers (lots!!), Twelve-Spotted Skimmers, and several gorgeous Buckeyes. There was also this tiny blue-violet butterfly we saw once or twice -- have no idea what it was; it's wingspan was maybe 3/4 in or less. Beautiful color.
We finally heard someone coming along the path on a mower. This older gentleman stopped and we learned he was the original landowner, who had sold 148 acres to the state to prevent development. What a pleasure it was to encounter him and be able to thank him for doing that!! Found out that we were actually at little Lake Esther (named for his late wife), where he still lives. I think he was probably even older than he looked (which was maybe in the mid-70s), because when we asked about the preserve with the boardwalk, he mentioned it was about '40 rods on down the road'. I haven't heard anyone use 'rods' for measurement in ages!!
We finally located this preserve --about 40 rods on down the road -- and what a gorgeous place this is!!!!
Lots of nicely paved off-road parking, restroom facilities and a totally handicap-accessible boardwalk -- all newly built this summer. The boardwalk extends about .3 of a mile, running along a hillside in a mixed-oak/hickory/hemlock woods, with views out over Pisgah Marsh. A scope will definitely be needed for waterfowl viewing, but I can just imagine a warbler feast there next May! The end of the boardwalk has a viewing deck (there are small decks with seating about every 400 feet along the boardwalk) over Pisgah Lake, separated from the marsh by a beaver dam and small dike.
While we were still seeing very few birds, the potential of this place was just overwhelming!! We do know that Sandhill Cranes are already nesting here, and the possibility of it as a waterfowl hot spot is terrific.
And it's just perfectly beautiful!! Of course, we were seeing it on a remarkably mild July day (doubt it got much over 70 degrees today!!!) with bright sun and a spritely breeze -- no bugs, yay!! It was so quiet and calm there . . . I just fell in love with place, can you tell???
Of course, I still love Muscatatuck NWR, and will always visit it whenever I have the chance. But this place is about 40 miles away, compared to the 200 to Muscatatuck!!
Very little to note in the way of birds, outside of what I've already mentioned, unfortunately. But the entire day was so delightful, I wanted to tell you about it.
And on the way home, we spotted a sign that just made my day complete -- a turnoff to a church camp I had stayed at as a child. I always knew it was in that general area, but couldn't remember what lake it was on! So we wheeled around, and followed the signs several miles back to the camp. Lo and behold!! There's lots of lake homes right there now, but the original cabins are still there, too! -- they have to be 50+years old now, and are still being used!!! It's no longer a children's church camp, but appears to be a church family camp/conference center, still run by the Friends Yearly Meeting here in Indiana. What a totally retro moment -- and a big giggle!! I think I spent a week there in about 1959!!
Enough of this now. I can't wait to visit Pisgah again, but for now, I'm heading to bed with a good British police procedural!
