Nature Notes: Bobolinks - Birding at Kankakee Sands
Header photo by Gary Soper. If you think saying the word “bobolink” is fun, you’d be right! Even more fun is seeing the bird itself. …
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Nature Notes: Leaning In - Dark-Scaled Sedge at Kankakee Sands
Photos by Trevor Edmonson This July we will be busy with harvesting hundreds of pounds of sedge seeds to include in this year’s prairie planting at Kankakee Sands. We will be harvesting twelve different sedges, each one so unique, and really quite lovely, if you just take the time to lean in and look more closely…
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Nature Notes: Meadow Muffins - Dung Beetles at Kankakee Sands
We often talk about the types of plants that our Kankakee Sands bison are eating, and how that will affect the prairies. What we rarely talk about is what is happening at the other end of the bison. Bison poop, bison patties, dung, feces, meadow muffins…there are a whole host of flowery alternatives (my kids and I came up with 23 different terms!) to describe the very important resource that our bison are contributing to the prairie. …
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Nature Notes: Prairie Parents - Bison at Kankakee Sands
Header photo credit © Jason Whalen/Big Foot Media Just like many of us that are working from home, our bison continue to work from their home at Kankakee Sands. The bison have been busy enriching the plant diversity by eating a plethora of grasses, creating sandy depressions when they wallow in the ground, and pooping out nutrients to enrich the soil, just as they have been doing since they arrived in 2016 when they were brought to Kankakee Sands to assist us in managing our prairies. And this spring, about 25 of our 70 bison will take on an additional job… parenting…
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A Welcome Distraction: Smith's Longspur at Kankakee Sands
Photo by Shari McCollough Thank goodness for the Smith’s longspur. It’s a welcome distraction… a…
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The Buffalo Man at Kankakee Sands
On a chilly March morning, John Hardwick pulls into the bison viewing area at Kankakee Sands. With his thermos of hot coffee handy, he’s ready to begin his day. John volunteers as a Bison Ranger at Kankakee Sands. He’s been doing this for four years, and in those four years he has inspired hundreds of visitors with information about Kankakee Sands and our bison herd. …
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Nature Notes: Kankakee Sands Bison are Changing It Up
Photoby Scott Johnsen My drive to work involves one stop sign and a herd of bison. It hasn’t always been that way… My commute used to involve one stop sign and several agricultural fields. That all started to change in 1996, when The Nature Conservancy began planting 8,000 newly-acquired acres with native prairie grasses and flowers. …
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A Bird, A Plane, A Sandhill Crane!
Though she has been offered a leaf blower, my dear friend chooses to rake her leaves the old-fashioned way --- because she wants to be sure to hear the melodious, rattling trumpet-like call of the sandhill cranes as they fly over! She doesn’t want to miss a single awe-inspiring moment of these majestic birds…
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Super Cool or Super Creepy, or Maybe a Little of Both? Bats at Kankakee Sands
Imagine a spooky Halloween scenario, or a scary movie with a haunted mansion, and chances are it’ll include at least one flying bat. A bat flapping its wings on a dark night has become synonymous with creepy. Overcoming that stereotype is a steep hill to climb for bats…
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Nature Notes: Green Time - No Batteries Required at Kankakee Sands
Photo: Butterfly Day at Kankakee Sands by Leigh Littiken We all know that getting out in nature is great for our health, but sometimes our busy schedules make it difficult to find the time to get our “green time”. Fear not, it’s really much easier that you might think – because green time is all around you! Getting you green time is truly as simple as standing outside and noticing the nature around you. No batteries, tools or fancy footwear required…
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