John Brenner's cane leans,
resting at table edge,
leaning like John leaned into it's tree limb strength,
to check stock of fireplace wood,
water garden,
water horses.

John Brenner's cane rests,
but waits,
like John waited,
for invitation,
supplication,
to make pilgrimage
for Poplar branch,
moth's dinner,
procuring a fitting host plant
for winged inspiration
of hostess.

John Brenner's cane,
a resting limb,
branch of tree for holding him,
third leg,
hewn limb of twin limb,
still holding fast to tree,
that even at rest can cradle birdhouse
that cradles nest.

...birdhouse,
lovingly crafted by John,
devoted architect,
builder,
of houses for Gene's feathered kin,
and her feathered dreams.
The Little Bird Woman sees her plans cradled,
and tended,
as she leans,
on him,
as he leans.
Both cradled in the love of the Limber-lost,
where so much is found. 

John Brenner's cane rests,
While frog chorus reverberates,
bird song elucidates,
cicadas pulse,
deer seek running streams,
raccoons scamper and sway and chatter.

All this a welcome song that soothes the nerves
worn raw, 
raw made of the same sound bites,
alphabet letters,
as war,
marching forward,
or backward.

Battle cried
and guns fired,
in another unCivil War.
John had enlisted,
August 15, 1862,
side by side with Joseph Aspey,
musician,
who might have tried to imitate nature's songs
for Company D,
who might already intuit,
seek the soothing,
of the Eden nurtured by Gene.

Gene, who forever mourned the loss of one butterfly,
with crushed wing,
inadvertently maimed in reflexive grasp
of falling,
became nature's pacifist,
leaving gaps in walls,
where all may pass through.
Where Light is always welcome.
Where John Brenner's cane rests. 

Friends of the Limberlost and Friends of Ouabache State Park were pleased to host the Indiana Master Naturalist 2017 Gathering on October 6-7. We thank all that attended. We hope you will come back to the Land of Limberlost.

The Limberlost pre-trip on Friday was a visit to an Amish School and an Amish midwife's home and her birthing rooms.  It is an honor to be invited into the Amish community. The "scholars" and their teacher Benjamin were welcoming. Questions were asked and answered, songs were sung, making it an enjoyable visit. We learned that one of our IMN volunteers at the Oliver Mansion and that Benjamin uses an Oliver plow. Besides teaching, Benjamin is a farmer and bird watcher.

Friday evening, Friends of the Ouabache hosted a dinner and bison hike. Jody Heaston gave a great talk on the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) at Ouabache State Park. The park has one of the CCC "Iron Mike" statues. The fire tower was saved and is slated to be restored over the winter. These two projects have been achieved due to the hard work of the Friends of the Ouabache. The evening finished with Adrienne Provenzano "Songstress of the Limberlost" performing.

Saturday morning started with chimney swifts flying over the Limberlost Visitor Center while the early hikers were gathering. Naturalist Curt Burnette led an early hike at the Music of the Wild preserve. Gene Stratton-Porter wrote part of her book Music of the Wild about this area.

Ken Brunswick, retired East Central Ecologist, wrote a book called "The Limberlost Born Again." Ken had a special book signing and enjoyed meeting IMN from around the state. 

The day included a program on Gene Stratton-Porter by Site Manager Nicky Ball, a tour of the Limberlost Cabin by Randy Lehman, a program on Moths by Willy DeSmet. Hikes at the Loblolly Marsh were led by East Central Ecologist Ben W. Hess and Naturalist Curt Burnette. 

A highlight of the day was lunch on the beautifully restored 1860 Ceylon Covered Bridge. It was a perfect day for lunch on the bridge and a walk at Rainbow Bottom. 

Melissa Fey arranged a nice ending to the day with a program by Floyd Leichty at the Clock Tower and a tour of the Mennonite Church in Berne.

Gifts from the Four Directions
     Loblolly Marsh Look-out

In the East,
yellow leaves and the super
hot sun reminds me of a peach.
Hope in a new day.

In the South, 
leaves of red--red cedar wood tree.
when I look at the South,
I look at the Beautiful-Life.

In the West,
spiky Mystery that flies ---monarch
butterfly wing spots---and the dark
of the buckeye, reddish black.

In the North,
Wisdom's white rocks and white doors.
It's a little purple in the middle---
the white morning-glory.

Collaborative poem by Claire (East), Tyler (South), Ethan (West), and Cameron (North)
Participants in "Among Sights, Sounds and Silences: A Poetry Workshop at the Limberlost"

Bones in a Forest

It's death exposed
in leaves, nuts and dirt---

on display like  a museum
brought to us today.

Maybe it's a dinosaur
like my dinosaur

and his name is Baby Dinosaur.
Or it could be a coyote

with a long jawbone
for a better bite.

It could be a dog
that fell down panting

because he was tired.
The white teeth

look like saws
of old farmers

staring at this land 
only dreaming.

Collaborative poems by Cameron, Claire, Than, Peggy, Rosemary and Tyler
Participants in "Among Sights, Sounds, and Silences: A Poetry Workshop at the Limberlost"

Thank you to Rosemary Freedman for the photos and to Jack Freedman for the group photo.
Thank you to Indiana Poet Laureate Shari Wagner for creating and teaching these poetry
workshops at Limberlost this year.

     The Limberlost Territories consists of primarily five nature preserves around Geneva, Indiana. They are: Loblolly Marsh, Limberlost Swamp Wetland Preserve, Rainbow Bottom, Music of the Wild and the Bird Sanctuary (for more about the Bird Sanctuary see 7/7/2017 blog). They make up the almost 1800 acres of restored wetlands in southern Adams County and northern Jay County that have been created in the past 20 years. 
     Under the Resource tab of limberlost.weebly.com is a map of the Limberlost Territories.
    The Loblolly Marsh is Indiana's 250th state dedicated preserve. It is part wetlands, uplands, and woods. There are trails to hike in all seasons.  This is one of the natural gems of Indiana. The Friends of the Limberlost own a pavilion and small woods there. 
     The Limberlost Swamp Wetland Preserve is the largest of the preserves. It is most noted for some of the rare birds that have been seen from along County Line Road. It is partly in Adams County and partly in Jay County. The Friends of the Limberlost own a small parking lot, where visitors can walk the Deacon's Trail. It is the area where Gene Stratton-Porter set her second book "Freckles" and her vulture study. 
       The Music of the Wild is a preserve that has the Limberlost Creek flowing through it. Trails were created there in 2015. Some of the trails are impassable in the spring with the rains. Gene Stratton-Porter wrote about this area in her book "Music of the Wild" part II The Fields. 
     The Bird Sanctuary was the first preserve created by the Limberlost Conservation in 1947. It is wooded and is now attached to the Music of the Wild.
       Rainbow Bottom is on the north side of Geneva and is next to the Ceylon Bridge, the last covered bridge on the Wabash River. This 231 acre preserve is along river. Gene Stratton-Porter set her books "Song of the Cardinal" and "At the Foot of the Rainbow"  at this location. 
    The Friends of the Limberlost work with the DNR Nature Preserves and East Central Regional Ecologist Ben Hess to manage these properties. In the future, it is hoped that the Limberlost Territories will increase in size and create a better habitat for birds, insects, mammals.
      Thank you to Nicky Ball for the photos taken at the Loblolly Marsh. The first is a hike on 9/9/2017 and others are from photos of this week.

An Indiana Woman's Novel

About a year ago "The Song of the Cardinal" a book written by Mrs. Gene Stratton-Porter, an Indiana woman, attracted attention because of the new note it struck in the nature study line.  "Freckles," her latest production, just issued by Doubleday, Page & Co., is a more ambitious effort. It, too, deals with out of door life---the forest, the birds and the flowers---but, in addition it contains a love story of an ardent sort. The scene is laid in and about the Limberlost, the big tract of forest land mentioned in "The Song of the Cardinal," and supposed to be located in northern Indiana. The hero, a nameless youth known as "Freckles" is in the employ of a lumber company and in his work as watchman of the timber tract acquires a deep love for the wild things of the wood. His sympathy for and acquaintance with birds are especially great and he finds welcome companionship among the feathered creatures. A "woman with a camera," who also loves birds, comes to know him and through her he meets "Angel," a young girl of marvelous attractiveness with whom he falls hopelessly in love. There are difficulties and complications, because he is a nameless waif, but these are eventually cleared away. There are also adventures, dangers, and even tragic occurrences, but they only serve to throw the final happiness into relief.

The enthusiasm for nature which pervades the tale is given an intensity to which the average reader will hardly be able to rise, but as it is in keeping with the tone of the nature literature now so popular, perhaps no criticism belongs to it on that account.

The book is likely to be widely read. The volume is profusely illustrated by Earl Stetson Crawford.

A Decatur, Ind., correspondent has this to say of the author and her work "Gene Stratton-Porter is an Indiana woman, a native of Wabash, where she has a host of friends. She has worked all her life to fit herself for a literary career and began publishing four years ago. She is an ardent lover of nature and in order satisfactorily to illustrate her writings in this line she has so mastered the camera that her right to the position of the greatest living photographer of birds is undisputed. No one approaches her work in bird pictures. For the past four years the editors of the Photographic Times Annual Almanac have tendered her first place in natural history photography.

"She was for two years the nature historian of the staff of Outing, and it as on that publication that her skill with the camera became evident and the charm of her nature writings was recognized. All of her short stories she has sent to the Metropolitan, whose editor accepted her first venture in that line and immediately invited her to write his leader for the following Christmas."

"As she only does nature illustration Mr. Crawford was sent to her home to draw the characters for her novel under her supervision, so that they could not fail to illustrate and harmonize with the story."

"Mrs. Stratton-Porter lives in a picturesque log cabin, designed by herself, at Geneva, Ind. She devotes all her time to her camera work afield and to literary work at home."
 

Source: The Indianapolis Star, 6 Nov 1904, p. 13. 

Notes:
The Limberlost was once 13,000 acres in southern Adams and northern Jay Counties. Today the Friends of the Limberlost and DNR Nature Preserves is working to restore some of these wetlands that Gene Stratton-Porter made famous. 
The inspiration for her book was Ray Boze who worked for Gene.
E. Stetson Crawford spent part of the summer of 1904 in Geneva illustrating "Freckles."

The King Rail by April Raver

One hundred years ago, a young woman was standing along a dirt road in Geneva. She carried with her a camera weighing close to 40 pounds while she observed the birds and bugs and animals enjoying a crumbling fence along the edge of a field. When suddenly she heard a sound....

Fast forward one hundred years later, another young woman was standing alone along a dirt road in Geneva. She, too, carried a camera with her while she observed the butterflies and birds and animals along the edge of the fields and wetlands. When suddenly she, too, heard a sound....

"M-U-M-M-M-M" "GYCK!" "GYCK!" That's how Gene Stratton-Porter described that noise she heard that day so many years ago. She quickly made her way across the swamp to where she found a noisy bird calling among the reeds. Gene called her "The Queen."

Last weekend, it was I who stood along County Line Road, when I heard that same sound. I wasn't sure what it was...and I had a hard time finding words to describe it other than "LOUD!" After spending some time trying to locate the source of the sound, I was still confused. Thanks to today's technology I pulled out my cell phone and recorded a quick video of the voice as it echoed through the air. I posted it to my Facebook page and asked...."What is that loud noise!?!" I was fully expecting to be told "frogs" which seems to be the answer every time I get confused by a call I'm not sure of. But not this time! One of my birding friends quickly commented on my post that he was no expert but to him it sounded like a King Rail! A King Rail! I was surprised by that answer. I quickly googled "king rials" and listened to their call on All About Birds. Much to my surprise it sounded just like it! I shared my post to the Birding in Indiana Facebook page and asked...."Could it really be a king rail?" My phone started dinging immediately as people commented agreeing that it was indeed a king rail! The excitement on the post was electric. I text a birding friend who lives not too far from Limberlost and let him know what I was hearing. He headed that way.

The rail continued to call and I continued to try to see it! The call was so loud it was echoing across the fields creating an illusion of more than one bird. When my friend arrived, we could tell the bird was somewhere in the reeds along the creek bed. My friend friend noticed a path worn in the reeds where the rail appeared to travel back and forth along the bank. We stood quietly on the opposite bank, listened to the calls, and watched the moving reeds. Eventually the rail appeared in one of the openings at the water's edge. We both gasped! There it was! What a beautiful bird! Bright orange neck, long beak, big feet and the cutest little white bottom...a King Rail! We were able to watch the bird for a good while as it traveled back and forth along its little path in the reeds. We both took many pictures and a couple of videos before we left. As we went on down county Line Road for some more birding, we did indeed hear a second king rail about a quarter mile down the road from the first!

As I stood and watched that little rail wander in and out of the reeds, I couldn't help but think of Gene one hundred years ago. Was she caught in the same awestruck wonder, as I was that day? Did she notice how loud the call was? Did it echo against the fence posts as Gene listened? Did she appreciate what it was that she was observing?

When I stand on the edge of the Limberlost I always think of Gene and her swamp. As the killdeer yell while flying overhead and the blackbirds trill from the tip of every reed, I stand quietly and look around. After the rains, the swam is alive with water.  Mallards, egrets, herons, mergansers, and teal play in the waters. Vultures and eagles ride the currents over head. Frogs sing from every corner and snakes slither by in the sunshine. Monarchs and dragonflies buzz across the grass. Did Gene stand in the same spot one hundred years ago and soak in the beauty much like I do today?

If you've never visited Limberlost Swamp, I encourage you to take the trip. Take a moment to walk down Deacon's Trail. Listen to nothing but the sound of the frogs and blackbirds. Let the wind blow your hair and the sun tan your skin. Notice the spots on the sandpiper and the lines on the dragonfly's wings. And if you hear a "M-U-M-M-M!" "GYCK!" "GYCK!" know that is just The Queen shouting "Limberlost Lives!" 

Note: April Raver is a member of the Friends of the Limberlost, president of the Mississinewa Audubon Society, and volunteer for the annual SANJO Christmas Bird Count as well as other organizations.

Collaborative Poems by Indiana Poet Laureate Shari Wagner's August 26, 2017 Arts in the Parks and Historic Sites poetry workshop at Loblolly Marsh Nature Preserve, Limberlost State Historic Site
Contributors: Kristine Anderson, Cassie Caylor, Tanya Caylor, Rosemary Freedman, Linda Reising, Christina Simmons, Katie Simmons, Jessica Thompson Kathleen Yeadon (Rosemary and Kathleen were
part of the July 22 workshop also)


The Prairie Dock
    after Mary Oliver

Come with me
through a yellow canyon

of prairie dock, their faces
bee magnets

or vagabond stars 
urging us on

to hide and seek
in an ocean of yellow. 

They show us courtesy,
blooming in late August

announcing, or rather
chiming, the fall. They

whisper in passing 
how small we are. They are

The celebrities of the prairie,
waving like sails catching

the wind. But wait--
their leaves cling like ballast

close to the ground. Come,
grasp those leaves, rough

like the hands of farmwives.



August Gold

"What a quantity of gold
there is in a marsh........"
-Gene Stratton-Porter

There's gold 
in the petite bells
of partridge peas,

in how they line-up
along the stem, good
soldiers at attention

There's gold 
in evening primrose,
gold as in slow churned butter
and pressing your lips 
to the first peach
of the season

There's gold in tickseed
ready for the pounce

and in rudbeckia's 
black and yellow-winged
butterflies

There's gold
in cottonwood leaves,
yellow hearts
pasted over green

Gold in prairie dock,
a thousand stars
anchored to the earth,
reaching for the blue

There's gold
in the goldenrod, or so
Thomas Edison believed,
making rubber tires
for Henry Ford's car


The pictures were taken by Shari Wagner.

Butterfly Farming by Melissa Fey

I never dreamed that when I attended a workshop on Monarch butterflies in August 2015 that I would get "hooked." I went to learn about the life cycle of the Monarch and the fascinating story of their migration journey to Mexico every year. We each were sent home with a Monarch egg and a caterpillar and that was all it took.

The story of the Monarch (Danus plexippus) butterfly is truly fascinating. The butterflies that leave here in the Fall fly almost 2,000 miles to winter in Mexico. They live in large colonies that hang from trees. In March, they start to migrate back north. They will get as far as Texas and deposit their eggs on the new grown of milkweed plants for a new generation and then die. The Monarchs that hatch in Texas will fly as far as Tennessee and lay their eggs; these butterflies that emerge are the ones that fly to the Midwest in the early Summer. It is unknown why they migrate or how they know where to go; just one of those mysteries of Nature.

That first year, 2015, I raised and released 73 Monarch; 2016 was not as good a year for the butterfly and I was only able to raise and release 35 butterflies. However this year is turning out to be a great year for the Monarch. 

I started looking for eggs in early July. Before long I had numerous baggies full of milkweed leaves with eggs attached. It normally takes about 3-5 days for the eggs to hatch, at that point I transfer the leaf to a plastic container where the caterpillars continue to eat and grow. The caterpillars continue to eat for 14 days before turning into a chrysalis. In about 10 more days they emerge from the chrysalis as a beautiful Monarch butterfly. The last couple of days before the caterpillar turns into a chrysalis they have a voracious appetite and eat several leaves each day. I have to check the caterpillars morning, noon and night to make sure they have plenty to eat and to clean out the waste in their containers. This means that every day I am out foraging for more and more milkweed leaves and finding more and more eggs and caterpillars.

This year I devised a method to allow the caterpillars more freedom and fresh air, rather than being stuck in a plastic jar. I purchased a mesh organizer that has 6 large compartments. I refer to it as my "caterpillar condo". Once the caterpillars have grown to 2" long I move them to the "condo," where they can munch on leaves and explore the mesh surrounding them. When they are ready to turn into a chrysalis they climb to the top of their compartment and attach to the ceiling. This way when they emerge they can hang down and have a large open area to flex their wings. There is an occasional escapee and they sometimes move from one compartment up to the next, so I think they like it.

The butterflies that emerge towards the end of August are the ones that make the long tip to Mexico. An organization called Monarch Watch tries to gather data from citizen scientists, such as myself, to determine the numbers of the Monarch plus their range. I purchase tags that are affixed to the Monarch's lower wing. The tag is 3/8" round and has an 800 number, website address and a coded number unique to each butterfly. Information I gather: date released, location and sex, are recorded on a spreadsheet for each coded number and then emailed to their organization. In Mexico, they pay villagers to read the tags so scientists can record and track the Monarch migration. Their website can be accessed the following year to see what butterflies "made it."

The Monarch butterfly is not endangered, but its numbers have dwindled because of loss of habitat, drought and cold weather. What can you do to help? We cannot control the weather, but we can help with the butterfly's habitat by planting milkweed. This is the only plant that they will lay their eggs on and the caterpillar will eat. Please help bring back the Monarchs.

To learn more about the Monarch visit: www.monarchwatch.org  
To keep track of the Monarch migration visit: www.learner.org/jnorth/monarch


Melissa Fey is an Advanced Indiana Master Naturalist and an an officer on the Friends of Limberlost State Historic Site board. 

In her book "Music of the Wild," Gene Stratton-Porter quoted Thoreau and disagreed with his statement about cutting down the clouds. In her writing, she showed that she understood about the need for conservation and the consequences for not conserving our resources.

There is a preserve just south of Geneva Indiana called Music of the Wild; Part II of the book was written about this area along the Limberlost Creek. The preserve is open to the public. In October, the second annual guided hike of this area will be given by Limberlost Naturalist Curt Burnette or you can rent-a-naturalist through Limberlost State Historic Site for your own custom tour.  

​
Gene's writing:
It was Thoreau who, in writing of the destruction of the forests, exclaimed, "Thank Heaven, they can not cut down the clouds!" Aye, but they can! That is a miserable fact, and soon it will become our discomfort in air until they meet other vapor masses, that mingle with them, and the weight becomes so great the whole falls in drops of rain. If men in their greed cut forests that preserve and distill moisture, clear fields, take the shelter of trees from creeks and rivers until they evaporate, and drain the water from swamps so that they can be cleared and cultivated, they prevent vapor from rising, and if it does not rise it can not fall. Pity of pities it is; but man can change and is changing the forces of nature. I never told a sadder truth, but it is truth that man can "cut down the clouds." In utter disregard or ignorance of what he will do to himself, his children, and his country he persists in doing it wherever he can see a few cents in the sacrifice. 

Indiana Poet Laureate Shari Wagner is our poet-in-residence at Limberlost State Historic Site in 2017. These workshops are made possible by the Arts in the Parks and Historic Sites program with a grant from the Indiana Arts Commission.  In her July 22 workshop, she incorporated some of Gene Stratton-Porter's poems.  Below are three short poems that Gene wrote for "Music of the Wild." The photographs at the end of the poems are Gene's.

The Orchard Moth
When the sun has gone to rest,
And the moon rears her shining crest,
The night moth courts in orchard glade,
To the screech owl's wavering serenade.

The Smokehouse
Through cycles the sycamore lifted its head,
      Above savage and beast with stealthy feet,
Now it stands by the old woodshed,
      And serves to cure the summer meat.

Screech Owl
The screech owl screeches when courting,
     Because it's the best he can do,
If you couldn't court without screeching,
​     Why then, I guess you'd screech too.