Mystery Picture Saturday---Win Blue Heron Moon Note Cards

The mystery picture from December 18th was taken in LaSalle Fish and Wildlife Area near Shelby, Indiana. This park is right on the Kankakee River with great wildlife viewing.

The park also has some of the best fishing and hunting in Indiana. The wetlands and fields are a great place to view deer, herons, egrets, swans, coyote, wild turkey, and fields flaming full of wildflowers each summer.

Some really good sized smallmouth and largemouth bass can be caught from the river bank in this park.

This weeks picture for a chance to be in the drawing should be easier; leave your guess in the comments to win the note cards on the first day of spring:

        

Breakfast at Coffee Creek

Every morning a man goes through Coffee Creek park with a bag of nuts, corn, and seeds for the wildlife. You must get up early for the breakfast hour but it is worth it. This trio was enjoying nut and corn.

The moocher deer hang out and wait for the handout and sometimes even follow you down the path. All turn into friends in the face of such abundance.

Red Admiral

Have you ever walked through a field of stinging nettles? I have. I consider it part of my naturalist's induction. You aren't truly initiated until your legs are burning so intensely that you wish you could take something and scrape your skin off. I tried everything to get rid of the pain. There isn't much you can do. Vinegar worked somewhat.

Ever since that stinging nettle evening I have wanted to not only avoid the plant but felt that wiping them off of the planet would be a great thing.

Enter the Red Admiral butterfly that calls the nettle home. This butterfly has been flittering through Indiana fields and woods for a couple of weeks.  I've seen it up at the dunes and over by the Kankankee river. They migrate south in the winter. The Red Admiral is one of my favorites because of its friendly ways of  leading the way down the trail.

sources: "National Audubon Society Field Guide to Butterflies"