Indiana Nature Notes for July

Sound is such an important part of our natural world. Animals use sound to find desirable habitat and mates, avoid predators, protect their young and establish territories.

Sound can also greatly enrich your appreciation of our natural world. Many people visit Kankakee Sands, eager to see the bison, watch the butterflies, and view the ever-changing prairie flowers. As well they should! But as any bird watcher can tell you, the sounds of the prairie can add just as much to a prairie visit.

The birds that you see and hear can tell you about the habitat you are in. If you are seeing and hearing meadowlarks, grasshopper sparrows and dickcissels, you are likely in a dry prairie. If you are hearing sandhill cranes, bitterns and mallards, you are likely near a wetland.

This summer, construction continues at Kankakee Sands to create improved visitor amenities. It’s gonna be great! During construction, several of our favorite locations to experience the prairie, such as the Bison Viewing Area and the Kankakee Sands Nursery, are closed for visitation.

Don’t let that deter you from visiting! You can still walk the loop trail at Conrad Station Savanna at the north end of Kankakee Sands. Red-headed woodpeckers thrive there and believe me, you’ll hear their raucous call and their drumming on the tree trunks well before you see them. What are those woodpeckers communicating to you and the other woodpeckers nearby? Listen hard!

Or you can walk the Grace Teninga Discovery Trail at Kankakee Sands and delight in the wind whipping through the prairie grasses. What does is sound like as the grasses and flowers sway past one another? Lean in and listen near the milkweed in bloom—you can hear the butterflies’ wings softly flapping as they move from blossom to blossom.

In fact, you can listen to the prairie from so many locations around Kankakee Sands. There are many maintained parking areas that you can pull your car or bike into and listen from. While you are listening remember that all those birds and insects are hearing the noises coming from you - your tummy rumbling, your knuckles cracking, the sound you make when you swallow or your quiet breath. You are part of the song of the praires.

This summer, visit Kankakee Sands, avoid the construction, and find a quiet spot to open up a lawn chair and relax. You’ll soon discover it’s not so quiet after all as you listen to the music of the prairie. And remember, you are an important part of that song, too!

Each of the prairie plantings at Kankakee Sands changes significantly from year to year as well. There is a general trajectory that most prairie plantings take—it begins with the sowing of the prairie seed on freshly harvested agricultural ground. The following few years are ones of annual plants and a weedy scraggly appearance. And then at long last, after four or five years, the prairie finally become beautiful and lush, with a multitude of native plants and insects and wildlife, growing better each and every year.

And for our Kankakee Sands project, there are even more changes afoot this 2024 year! Kankakee Sands is still the 8,400-acre prairie that is owned and managed by The Nature Conservancy—free and open to the public ever day of the year. We just entered the construction phase of a project valued at more than two million dollars, which includes the cost of planning, design, signage and construction of visitor improvements and access to the site. The project is funded by generous grants and donors and the goal is to for Kankakee Sands to a welcoming, safe, educational and fun experience for all ages and abilities.