On Sunday, Steve and I hiked some of the Heron Rookery trail at Indiana Dunes, and folks, the trees were singing.
Creaking, more like, but I’ve never heard trees make noises like this!
The hike was gorgeous. Peak spring: small buds on all the trees catching the sun like little candle flames, tiny blossoms lining the path, white and yellow and purple, and a huge diversity of greenery on the ground in every square foot. The birds were out in force, warblers and flycatchers and cardinals and a territorial blue jay. The birders were out in force, too, identifiable by their binoculars, enthusiasm, and ability to fit the word “pileated” into every 30-second, passing-each-other-on-the-trail conversation. (Thanks to Steve, who has become quite the birder this year, for identifying all the varieties I listed above, and for supplying the word “pileated” into conversation when our passers-by failed to do so.)
We also saw two enormous fish that resembled rainbow trout, but where I come from (i.e., fishing the Taylor River in Colorado), rainbow trout are about a foot long, not two-plus feet. In any case these two were idling under a log, occasionally bobbing up out of the water, and let’s just say…it didn’t look like they were in a hurry? Spring was in the air, and in the water.
Brent Bailey 