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Wherein is revealed the Bird Woman’s love of the “moon-flowers of June’s darkness”

11/30/2015

 
By Curt Burnette

  Although Gene Stratton-Porter was known as “the Bird Woman of the Limberlost”, an 
alternate nickname could well have been “the Moth Woman of the Limberlost” as Purdue 
entomologist Tom Turpin has suggested.  Gene’s love of moths, specifically the group known as the giant silk moths, even surpassed her love of birds.  In her book, Moths of the Limberlost, she writes “Primarily, I went to the swamp to study and reproduce the birds.  I never thought they could have a rival in my heart.  But these fragile night wanderers, these moon-flowers of June’s darkness, literally thrust themselves upon me.”  She quickly came to realize that “...the 
feathered folk found a competitor that often outdistanced them in my affections…”

     Gene’s use of moths in her writings went beyond the publication of her nature book Moths 
of the Limberlost, published in 1912.  In fact, that book was the result of her use of moths in her most famous novel, A Girl of the Limberlost, just three years earlier.  Hundreds of fans of that book had written Gene, asking her “to write of my experiences with the Lepidoptera of the swamp.”  In A Girl of the Limberlost, the yellow emperor moth plays an important role 
throughout much of the book, helping to propel the plot along.  It even brings the story to its 
conclusion when Edith Carr offers one to Elnora Comstock (the girl of the Limberlost) as a peace offering.

     In various other ways, moths permeate the story.  Elnora goes to meet the Bird Woman after she reads a sign displayed in a bank window stating that caterpillars, cocoons, chrysalides, pupae cases, butterflies, moths, and Indian relics of all kinds will be purchased.  Elnora meets Philip (her future boyfriend) as she is attempting to remove a moth cocoon from underneath a bridge.  On a moth-hunting excursion in the Limberlost with Philip and her mother, Elnora finds a pair of luna moths, and the trio marvel at the emergence of a regal moth from its pupa case.

     Moths are also featured in Gene’s books Morning Face, Music of the Wild, and Tales You 
Won’t Believe.  Within one story in Tales You Won’t Believe, titled A Wonder Tale, Gene relates an experience she had at the Limberlost Cabin one late May night.  She awoke at about 2:00 in the morning to the sounds of innumerable moths beating at the screen of the back porch door, where she had placed a newly emerged female Cecropia moth.  As Gene picked up this female to move it, it sprayed its liquid pheromone all over the front of her nightgown.  This pheromone is a powerful aphrodisiac, attracting male moths from miles away.  Gene stepped out onto the porch and stood there on that beautiful moonlit night, while male Cecropia “came floating like birds down the moonbeams” to alight on her.  Before long, she had scores of these giant moths anxiously perched all over her or fluttering about nearby.  She wrote that this was “…a thing so exquisite that God Himself must have enjoyed the excellence of His handiwork” and it was “an experience that probably never has fallen to the lot of any other human being.”

Nature Preserve Spotlight - Loblolly Marsh

11/23/2015

 
Picture
By Benjamin W. Hess

Large wetlands can be a rare site in Indiana especially in heart of the farmland of East Central Indiana. However, the restoration efforts to bring back a once great wetland are alive again in Jay County.  This once great wetland of approximately 13,000 acres was home to an array of flora and fauna which at that time were not considered rare as they are today.
 
This wetland covered parts of Jay and Adams County. One small rural town, Geneva, was home to a talented writer named Gene Stratton-Porter and sat on the borders of the great Limberlost Swamp, and the Loblolly Marsh being but a portion of this vast wilderness. This great swamp inspired her to write stories, create the characters within, and live a life with a strong sense of conservation to protect the natural wonder of our wetlands and to protect the experience of the natural world.
 
The Loblolly Marsh Nature Preserve sits in an area which was mainly a wetland surrounded by islands that opened up into small lakes that are now gone and was fed by the Loblolly Creek.  As more people came to the area, they wanted to tame this vast wilderness to farm these productive soils, harvest its great stands of timber, and drill for oil.
 
As Gene’s time was ending here in Geneva and before she moved north, the land was being trenched, drained, and prepared to grow crops. The Great Limberlost Swamp and the Loblolly Marsh were nearly lost except for little pockets of wetlands here and there. Then in the early 1990’s the rebirth of the great Loblolly Marsh began to take form.  Land that flooded almost yearly and historically was part of the Limberlost Swamp was chosen for restoration. Now at nearly 440 acres of restored habitat, the Loblolly Marsh is thriving.
 
The marsh is still changing as its soils are healing from decades of farming, draining tiles, and farmers keeping the native flora and fauna at bay. Every year with persistent stewardship, the land continues to heal and show us what Gene may have seen in her great swamp. There are bald eagles, sand hill cranes, beavers, mink, and cricket frogs, just to name a few which have come back to the area to reclaim what was once their home.
 
This nature preserve has plenty of parking and a fully accessible ADA trail to allow for all to enjoy nature in its splendor. It has also been listed as a hot spot for birding by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Many schools from near and far take field trips to learn about the benefits of wetlands, their function, and the history of the land. Other visitors may enjoy a hike outdoors to hear, see, and embrace nature. On foot one can take a trail to experience wetlands, prairies, upland forest, and the fauna that call them home. From Loblolly Marsh towards Geneva, nearly 1700 acres have been restored. Additional trails are available as well. 
The wetlands of The Limberlost have brought back many new and familiar faces.  The Loblolly Marsh which began as vision of a local farmer was inspired by the Gene Stratton-Porter books and is supported by many across the United States as The Friends of the Limberlost. 
 
The Limberlost has been reborn to amaze all who walk through this restored wonder of flora and fauna once more.

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THE ITSY, BITSY SPIDER…

11/16/2015

 
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By Bill Hubbard

SPIDER!!   The mention of the word is enough to evoke a primal fear response in many folks.  
Few creatures are held in lower esteem than the spiders.  Most of us have had otherwise lovely 
walks in our favorite natural areas rudely interrupted by a spider web becoming attached to our face.   Or worse yet, the creature begins crawling in our hair and onto our neck.  Perhaps the unwelcome creature made an appearance in your kitchen, shower, or bed.  Unfortunately, most of these creatures met with an untimely, and usually quite violent, end.  I like to call it the “Garfield response”.  WHACK! SQUISH! And another spider’s life span has come to an end.

Far too seldom do we take a moment to appreciate the beauty and complexity of the spider.  We too often are consumed by the tales of spiders crawling into our ears to lay eggs or crawling down our throat as we sleep.  I have yet to see any documented evidence of that happening.  But then, we saw it on the internet so it must be true, OUI?

Let me insert a disclaimer here.  I am certainly not an authority on spiders so you may wish to 
“fact check” this document before sharing it as gospel.

There are over 35,000 species of the class Arachnida (which includes spiders, ticks, mites, 
scorpions, harvestmen, etc.).  In Indiana there are over 400 species of spiders but only two are 
venomous, the Black Widow and the Brown Recluse.  The Brown Recluse is a medium sized 
spider with a fiddle-shaped design on its dorsal cephalothorax.  It is very reclusive (get it?), 
preferring to live in heavy cover such as lumber piles.  It does have a bite that is likely to cause 
severe tissue damage in the area of the bite.  However, a human fatality due to a Brown Recluse bite is extremely rare.  Nevertheless, you should take precautions when working in an area that may be used as a home by the Brown Recluse.  The Black Widow spider, found mostly in southern Indiana and southern states, is another spider that can cause serious (sometimes fatal) health issues to a person who has been unlucky enough to be the recipient of her venom (yes, it is only the female Black Widow that poses a health threat to humans).  Of course, almost all spiders are able to inject venom but the end result for humans is usually only minor irritation.  

In perspective, worldwide the Black Widow and Brown Recluse together kill 6 people per 
year (most young children who do not get medical attention) whereas mosquito borne diseases kill an estimated 3,000,000 people per year!

The next time someone says SPIDER, please don’t have the “Garfield Response” but rather take a few moments to see the beauty of the creature.  Study the complexity of the web, be it orb weaver, funnel spider, trapdoor spider, or any of the hundreds of other spiders with which we share our habitat.  Marvel at the maternal care needed to produce an egg sac that protects the developing young until they hatch.  Wonder at the adaptation that allows the spiderlings to balloon away on the wind to establish a new home.  

Let us all try to share our world with the spiders.   Are we not all connected in the web of life?​

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Pretty Bird Romance

11/9/2015

 
By the Chicago Daily Tribune, 14 Aug 1903, p. 7.

“The Song of the Cardinal” has the true Spirit of Nature.

“The Song of the Cardinal,” by Gene Stratton-Porter (Bobbs-Merrill Co.), is as pretty a story as 
may be found among nature books. Not only is the bird romance full of beauty, the rich beauty of the field and swale, but the imaginative has been so artfully blended with the real that the result is unusually satisfying.

The Cardinal was the son of the king of the swamp and the loveliest of mothers. Pippins the first egg, which was of marvelous size, he emerged into an admiring world, a gladsome place, indeed. Fed to repletion with the fattest slugs, the choicest berries, and the finest tidbits of the forest, he grew to sturdy manhood. His fond father taught him how to find his food, to fly gracefully, to bathe, to sharpen his glossy beak between polished stones, to live the glorious life in the open. Every day new things appeared unto him, and joys innumerable rose in his path. One day he met love, and then the little ones came. Life was full then. And a white haired man, with a cheery mate and blooming child, came to know the Cardinal, who delighted them with his “See here! Wet year! See here!”

The true spirit of nature is in this book. It is written con amore, from a wide knowledge of the 
bright plumaged song bird it portrays, breathing of the blithe creatures of the air. The 
illustrations are exceptional, being made from photographs obtained by adroit use of the 
telescopic lens, reproduced with excellent results.

Note: This is one of the early book reviews that Gene Stratton-Porter received on her first book “The Song of the Cardinal.” Gene received praise across the country for her first work that was inspired at a place called Rainbow Bottom in Geneva Indiana. The 231 acres in Rainbow Bottom along the Wabash River is owned by the Friends of the Limberlost and is open to the public.

Wherein our columnist mulls over the symbolism of a nation rescuing its national symbol

11/2/2015

 
By Curt Burnette

     The bald eagle became the unofficial symbol of the U.S. as part of the Great Seal of the 
United States when it was adopted on June 20, 1782.  The official designation as our national 
bird and symbol did not occur for another seven years, in 1789.  During those seven years, 
there were those who felt the bald eagle was not the best symbol for our new country.  Most 
famously, Benjamin Franklin thought bald eagles were “of bad moral character” and so he 
suggested the wild turkey would be more suitable.  Obviously, Ben’s argument did not succeed.

     As amazing and brilliant as Benjamin Franklin was, most Americans would have to say it is a good thing he didn’t have his way on that particular issue.  It is hard now, these many years 
later, to think of our nation and not think also of our majestic national symbol.  But what would our founding fathers have thought if they could have looked ahead and seen a future where the symbol of their new nation was vanishing?  Would they have wondered about the greatness of their new United States, a nation that selected a national symbol that had become threatened by the growth of this young country?  Was this the nation they envisioned?  Probably not, but if they were to look a bit farther into the future, into our modern time, they would indeed see a wonderful example of a people who saw their national symbol in trouble—and did something about it.  This was surely the kind of nation they thought they were creating. 

     Bald eagles were common in this country before it was settled, but wetland destruction and 
human persecution resulted in their disappearance from much of the country, even by Gene 
Stratton-Porter’s time.  It is unlikely she ever saw them as she wandered the Limberlost.  The 
last recorded nest in Indiana was in 1895.  Then, in the middle of the 1900s, the widespread use of the insecticide DDT caused the eggshells of the few remaining breeding eagles to thin and crack, so an already damaged population was weakened further.  Bald eagles still were plentiful in Alaska, but in the rest of the states our national symbol was in serious trouble.

     Our nation then did what great nations do—study the problem, understand what steps need 
to be taken, and do what is necessary.  DDT was banned.  Many wetlands were restored.  
Protective laws were passed. Eagles were reintroduced back into many areas they had vanished from, including Indiana.  Between 1985 and 1989, 73 young eagles were released in Indiana, and by 1991 the first chicks were hatched.  By the mid-1990s, there were a dozen nesting sites in our state.  In 2013, the DNR quit counting nests because there were too many to keep track of—over 300!

     We take great pride in our national flag and have rules on the proper ways to display it and 
dispose of worn ones.  Why should we show less care and concern for our national symbol?  
The United States of America is not a country that would allow its national symbol to vanish 
without a fight.  The battle was won.  Bald eagles are back and doing better than ever.  We have yet another reason for our citizens to proclaim they are “proud to be an American.”

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