Indiana Dunes National Park

Mother’s Day Hike

After a leisurely Sunday drive along country roads, we arrived at Tippecanoe River State Park about noon. It was an overcast day to partly sunny with a high of 60 degrees.

We walked first to the Nature Center, which was closed. Big Surprise there! And walked over to a fishing pier to look at the river. The trees were filled with Baltimore Orioles singing their hearts out. ROC looked down at the river’s edge and saw two Northern Banded Water Snakes swimming onto the shore. He is not a snake lover like SAC and I are, so he was not amused! He is always looking out for Eastern Massasauga, Cottonmouth Water Moccasins and Timber Rattlers on our hikes! We also saw a little Dekays Brown snake along the river.

We decided to hike trail 4 and part of 5. It was a perfect day and the trail was easy to hike and follow. Flowers were blooming and the trees were alive with birdsong.

One of our favorite birds was the entertaining Pileated Woodpecker. I first saw him clinging to a small sapling. He looked quite like a Red-tailed hawk does when they’re clinging to a power line – wobbly. IT then flew down to a fallen log and proceeded to flip last fall’s leaves looking for tidbits for lunch. We probably watch him for ten minutes or so – mesmerized by his performance.

SAC and I took a short hike along a wetland/pond area beside the road. It had two fishing piers on it and we walked from one to the other. We are always on the lookout for our nemesis bird the American Bittern – and our nemesis mammal – the otter. Now Indiana actually spent money to reintroduce otters to the state because of their rarity. But this past year, they let them be trapped because there are so many. I KNOW people have seen them at Muscatatuck, Prophetstown, and here at Tippecanoe River (one of the reintroduction sites), but unfortunately we have never seen one.

We did have a good walk and SAC got to see two families of Canada geese with their goslings, which brought some squee moments!

After driving some more, we finally left as we hadn’t had lunch yet! We drove down to Monticello and ate at the wonderful Sportsman Inn. for some fantastic hamburgers to fortify ourselves after a 5.6 mile 4 hour hike with 12 new (possibly 13) State Park Birds.

Home at 8 PM. A long day, but quite satisfying.

Blooming flowers were:

• Purple Trillium
• Phlox
• Spring Beauty
• Yellow Cinquefoil
• Rue Anemone
• Wild Geranium
• Bue Violet
• Mayapples
• Yellow Bellwort

Birds seen or heard:

• American Robin
• American Goldfinch
• Baltimore Oriole
• Turkey Vulture
• Grey Catbird
• Song Sparrow
• Great Blue Heron
• Northern Parula
• White Crowned Sparrow
• Northern Cardinal
• Black Capped Chickadee
• Louisiana Waterthrush
• Northern Waterthrush
• Oven Bird
• Hairy Woodpecker
• Eastern Towhee
• Indigo Bunting
• Northern Flicker
• Great Crested Flycatcher
• Red Shouldered Hawk
• Tufted Titmouse
• Pileated Woodpecker
• American Crow
• Eastern Phoebe
• Yellow Warbler
• Red Bellied Woodpecker
• Red Headed Woodpecker
• Common Grackle
• Red Winged Blackbird
• Brown Headed Cowbird
• Canada Goose
• Warbling Vireo
• Orchard Oriole

*Bolded species are new in state parks.

Four State Park Blitz – March 20 & 21

After picking up SAC from work on Saturday afternoon, we drove to Batesville to get a jump-start on our State Park weekend.

Sunday dawned cold at 34 degrees but sunny and promising. Arriving at Versailles State Park we drove around to familiarize ourselves with the park. We stopped at the Nature Center (see Rant post) – which was closed – and then we decided to hike trail 1.

We were surprised to see so many wildflowers in bloom or getting ready to bloom, but since we have had a seemingly early spring following a relatively easy winter, I should not have been surprised.

We added several birds to our State Park IBBY challenge.

Birds Seen at Versailles:

• American Robin
• Red-winged Blackbird
• Tree Swallow
• Turkey Vulture
• Eastern Bluebird
• Canada Goose
• American Crow
• Bald Eagle
• Killdeer
• Northern Cardinal
• Brown Creeper
• Tufted Titmouse
• Yellow-rumped Warbler
• White Breasted Nuthatch
• Carolina Chickadee

Flowers in Bloom:

• Trout Lily
• Spring beauty
• Bloodroot (leaves still cloaked tightly around stem)
• Spring cress
• Salt & Pepper (Harbinger of Spring)
• Cut Leaf toothwort

Versailles has a lot of hills and ravines and after getting on a wrong trail and backtracking for a while, we finally made to back to the car. We hiked 3.45 miles.

After killing ourselves on the Versailles hills and ravines, we drove on to Clifty Falls State Park. We stopped at the Nature Center – which was closed (Rant Post forthcoming) and took our traditional hike on the trail to the Tower. We have to do this every time we come to this park. It is a short easy hike – unless you climb to the top of the tower, which we always do! I love looking down on the Ohio River and back towards Madison.

Again we drove around the park to re- familiarize ourselves with the layout before deciding what trails to take. Since all the trails seem to be point to point, ROC was more than happy to drop us off and sit in the Inn reading in the overlook room or in front of the fireplace while he waited for us to return and our room to be ready.

I left it to SAC to decide which trail to hike. We started to hike Trail 2, but the water was too deep and the temperatures too cold for us to ford at that trail point. So we opted to hike trail 5 to 8 to 2 to 1. Again we traversed ups and downs in the ravine and across the creek twice – more fordable on that trail. It was a gorgeous hike and we quickly warmed up.

 

We were hoping to see some black vultures among the turkey vultures and we were not disappointed. As we came to the end of our hike we went past the Nature Center, one black vulture was on the bird feeder post and one was in the window sill of the building!

We were keep entertained by a pair of pileated woodpeckers and a red-bellied woodpecker as they hopscotched through the trees keeping up with us as we panted along!

We were able to add three more birds to our State Park IBBY challenge.

Birds Seen:

• Carolina Chickadee
• Tufted Titmouse
• Turkey Vulture
• Eastern Towhee
• Northern Cardinal
• White Breasted Nuthatch
• Red-Tailed Hawk
• Red-bellied woodpecker
• Pileated Woodpecker
• Hairy Woodpecker
• Black Vulture

Flowers in Bloom:

• Dutchman’s Breeches
• Squirrel Corn
• Phlox
• Rue Anenome
• Trillium Sessile (Wake Robin)
• Spring Beauty
• Salt & Pepper (Harbinger of Spring)
• Cut Leaf toothwort
• Blood Root
• Virginia Bluebells (some out most almost out)
• Redbud
• Spice Bush

We hiked 4.64 miles and had a substantial supper at the Clifty Falls Inn where we spent the night in a gorgeous room overlooking the Ohio River and right down Main Street Madison, Indiana.

After a great breakfast buffet at the Inn the next morning, we drove on to Charlestown State Park. We drove all over to get the lay of the land and then ROC & SAC decided we were going to hike the trail to Rose Island – a former amusement park wiped out by the 1937 flood. The hike to and from the “island” (really a peninsula) was a seemingly straight up and down (seems to be a theme for this weekend!). At least this trail was paved, so we could look around a little as we walked instead of being worried about roots and rock outcroppings sending us over the ledge!

The trail on Rose Island itself was graveled and very easy hike. We had a leisurely walk around the newly marked (need better word – museum person!!!) It was enjoyable and informative.

We hiked 1.43 miles on this trail. We saw no birds or flowers in this park, but we thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a great mixture of nature and history.

Our last stop was Falls of the Ohio State Park in Jeffersonville. It was very windy, but sunny and around 54 degrees. The water was very high, so we were not able to walk on the lower shelf of fossils, but we did enjoy walking on the upper shelf.

We added a new IBBY State Park Bird:

• Double Crested Cormorant

We didn’t go into the newly redesigned Visitors’ Center/Museum for two reasons. It was getting late and ROC and I had to go to work Tuesday morning early. And also it costs $9 per person. The last time we were here we went through the Visitors’ Center and it was a wonderfully informative and well-down and I can’t imagine what they did to improve the Visitors’ Center, but I hope to enjoy going through it sometime soon.

We did make a quick stop at the Clark Cabin and saw the eagle nest across the river on an island. Both parents were on the nest.

Our drive home was as uneventful as one could wish. We drove 459 miles, walked 10.49 miles and added 8 new State Park birds. Great weekend Blitz!