Spring Birds at Limberlost by Kimberley Roll.

We thought our Limberlost followers would enjoy a look back at some of the birds that Kimberley Roll photographed at the Limberlost Territories this spring. 

Sandhill Cranes flying north in mid March. A pair has been spotted in May at the Limberlost Swamp Wetland Preserve. Our hopes is that they are nesting here. 

Redheaded ducks

Woodcock. This bird is a secretive one. Normally it is heard by its "peenting" call but not seen.

Robin

Hooded merganser

Green-winged teal; not as common as the blue-winged teal which have been nesting at the Limberlost Swamp Wetland Preserve. 

Northern shoveler

Great blue heron are commonly seen all year round at Limberlost.

The dickcissel is a summer resident at Limberlost. You can hear the calls during this spring and summer.

We hope you enjoyed your look back at some of the birds who visit the Limberlost Territories. this spring.

From Chorus of the Forest, Part One, "Music of the Wild"
by Gene Stratton-Porter

Note: Gene Stratton-Porter's book "Music of the Wild" was published in 1910. Some of the places that Gene walked, studied and wrote about in this book, may be visited today. Her words are vibrant and descriptive of this area of the Limberlost Swamp around Geneva that she loved. 


The leaves and mosses near earth were the darkest, growing lighter through never-ending shades. No one could have enumerated all of them. They were more variable and much more numerous than the grays. But in dim forest half-light all color appeared a shade paler than in mere woods.

From the all-encompassing volume of sound I endeavored to distinguish the instruments from the performers. The water, the winds, and the trees combined in a rising and falling accompaniment that never ceased. The insects, birds, and animals were the soloists, most of them singing, while some were performing on instruments. Always there was the music of my own heart over some wondrous flower or landscape picture or stirred to join in the chorus around me.  The trees were large wind-harps, the trunks the framework, the branches the strings. These trunks always were wrapped in gray, but with each tree a differing shade. 

Woods on the Limberlost Territories, spiderwort, phlox, fungi, and the Limberlost Creek. Photos by Terri Gorney.

The Universal Dandelion by Gene Stratton-Porter

If the little yellow flower were imported and cost us $5 a plant, we would all be growing it in pots and exhibiting it as something rare and beautiful. But because t grows in field and wood and is the universal flower of the soil, few people bother about it or take the trouble to notice how pretty it is. It is useful too, for the roots are a fine blood purifier and the wine of our grandmothers is justly famous. Properly cooked, there is nothing better to eat than the leaves, and honey gathered from the flowers is delicious.

The leaves gave it its name. They are long and slender with a lovely rich green color and ragged edges which have reminded scientists of the tooth of a lion - dent de lion - or lion's tooth. The bloom is a flat round disk of gold, thickly petaled and lightly dusted with pollen. After a day or two of bloom the disk folds up for the seed to ripen, and in a few days lifts itself again, except that this time it is a ball of misty white. it stands only for a little, which before the wind harvests the seed and scatters them to the four corners of the earth.

We hope you enjoyed Gene's writing about the dandelion.