Southern Indiana Trails

Have you ever taken time to observe nature? Or truly digested the unspoken wisdom it has to offer us? Fall's appearance is somewhat graceful as it gives its grand finale before it bids adieu. Not paying attention, we didn't notice the slight shift of colors in the oaks and maples; nor did we see the aromatic pines pregnant with their geometrical cones. In its sporadic and beautiful display of life and death, Mother Nature is a catalyst of human life. As the days grow longer and the nights become colder, we suddenly find ourselves reflecting upon our lives. Spring's green leaves no longer adorn and shade the earth below. Orange and black monarchs no longer flutter in the distance. And right before our eyes, wind-blown foliage gathers across our now, wilting lawns. Almost bittersweet sorrow, we catch a glimpse of deer and their young sprinting through a sleepy forest. In our gardens, yellow and orange mums cleverly hide squirrels as they scamper for fallen acorns, pecans and ...

Autumn approaches. It is back-to-school season, harvest season, foliage-watching season, and, of course, football season. As many of you know, it is also migrating season for many birds. Soon, many of our winged friends will be wind-bound to warmer climes. It is a very important time of year for birds, and there are some things that backyard birders can do to help them. (I should note that every time of year is very important for birds; fall simply has its own set of challenges and opportunities.) Beginning in the late summer into fall, long-distance migrants begin to exhibit communal roosting behavior. Purple martins, having recently fledged their young, gather in large groups in preparation for their long trip to South America. They abandon the purple martin birdhouses that were lovingly tended over by caring landlords for the past several months. Purple martins only eat insects, which they catch on the wing, often displaying an amazing aerial mastery in the act, so providing food is...

Sloughs Wildlife Management Area During mid-September, monarch butterflies are passing through this area on their journey south in search of warmer weather and more favorable wintering grounds. At the end of their journey they'll congregate almost exclusively on 12 mountain peaks located just west of Mexico City, Mexico. There, nearly all of the living North American monarch butterflies come together for a breathtaking spectacle as the Mexican trees and shrubs literally drip with these colorful creatures. Although monarchs migrate every year, there is still so much we still don’t know about these magnificent insects. Monarch Watch, an educational outreach organization, developed the tagging stickers to track the monarch's journey progression and to answer some of the mysteries surrounding these unique butterflies. The sticker tags, placed on a monarch’s hindwing, each have a unique identification number, a reporting e-mail address and phone number so that tagged butterflies...