Saturday morning, day 2 of Eagles in Flight Weekend, we set off for Turkey Run as I volunteered to sit for a couple of hours at the Event Table for the Friends of Turkey Run and Shades State Park Organization who sponsors the weekend. It was a snowy day; probably an inch had fallen by the time we left home at 7 AM. After my shift, daughter and I sat in on Alan Bruner’s workshop on Keys to Identification of Common Raptors in the Turkey Run Area. For those who don’t know Alan. He is involved with the Indiana Audubon Society and a birder extraordinaire!
We then left the main part of the park and drove to the Lusk Home/NarrowsCovered Bridge on an annual pilgrimage on Trail 1 to a couple of places where a spring causes boggy areas. We always check here for our first sighting of skunk cabbage blooming. This tradition dates back to my childhood forays to this area with my dad in late winter or very early spring.
We had a hard time spotting the bloom, as usual, but finally found one blooming. This is the earliest we have actually looked for the plant, but did so because of a blogpost I read by Jim McCormac, an Ohio naturalist . Our previous dates were: 2/20/13; 3/19/11; 3/20/10. (Note: this doesn’t mean we saw the bloom earlier this year, just that we searched for it earlier this year!)
On Trail 1, we saw:
- Carolina Wren
- Chickadee
- Tufted Titmouse
- Downy Woodpecker
Our species list on our way home by way of Clinton Falls and Rockville were:
- American Kestrel- 6
- Red-tailed Hawk – 7
- American Crows
- Turkey Vultures
- Red-shouldered Hawk – 2
- Bald Eagle
At the Rock River Landing in Crawfordsville, we saw an Adult Bald Eagle close by the nest.
Jan's Nature Blog 