We went to Cantigny Park to see tulips, purple cabbage-y things, and assorted other flowers whose names I’ll never know. But the surprise — and highlight — of the day was the rafter of wild turkeys that crossed our path, bringing a broad smile to the kiddo’s face.
I have a story in this month’s Indiana Living Green about a new initiative to reduce the carbon footprint of America’s national parks. The piece highlights the eco-friendly efforts of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, which is where I took the photo below of my dog, Emerson. Note the nuclear cooling tower in the background. Note, too, the look of disdain on my hound’s face. I suspect he was honked at me for keeping him on a short leash.
Last month we had chorus frogs. This month we have courting frogs. These two croakers were too distracted by each other to care about me and my camera lens peering down at them from an arm’s length away at the edge of a pond.
On a recent weekday morning, I used an audio recorder to capture the sound of a woodpecker in my backyard. Listening to the recording, I heard the bird steadfastly boring into a nearby pine tree, but I also picked up a multitude of other sounds — a Metra train heading into Chicago, a jet flying to or from O’Hare, cars making their way up and down Highway 43, a barking dog, chirping birds, a creature of some kind scampering across my deck. It quickly became evident to me why my wife and I typically wake up at 5:30 each morning. The combination of nature and mass transit does not make for good slumber. It does, however, make for an aurally rich way to start the day.
I’m quite familiar with the 100-mile stretch of Highway 41 between Chicago and Attica. I’ve traveled the route countless times over the course of my life, using it to escape the sprawl of suburbia and enjoy the solitude of my family’s Indiana farm. But only recently did I discover Kankakee Sands, a 7,800-acre expanse of restored prairie — owned and managed by The Nature Conservancy — bordering Highway 41 in Morocco, IN.
Yesterday, while returning home from a trip to Indianapolis, I made a quick stop at Kankakee Sands to capture a few photos in a field of wildflowers. Unfortunately, a howling wind made it challenging to capture crisp images.
I know. Excuses, excuses. Nonetheless, I’ll be sure to bring my monopod the next time I head down Highway 41.
Prairie grass, cattails, and a cluster of trees photographed at Openlands Lakeshore Preserve, a meticulously restored ravine and bluff ecosystem 25 miles north of Chicago in Fort Sheridan, IL. Trees dot the edge of the preserve’s ravine, which along its eastern edge plunges sharply to the Lake Michigan shoreline.
A harbinger of spring, the chorus frogs have emerged from their mud-encased slumber and broken into constant song. I captured this audio on a recent unseasonably warm evening, positioning myself — and my Zoom digital recorder — near the marsh at Techny Prairie Park. I’m hoping to sell the audio to HoMedics for use in the company’s SoundSpa products.
