There was a little chigger …

There was a little chigger, that wasn’t any bigger…*
So begins this summertime song, sung by children scratching along in time to the melody. Sad to say, chigger season has returned — and the timing wasn’t so great for our first Sunday afternoon ‘Get-together in Selma’s Garden.’
Our new series of garden programs is a thinly-disguised attempt [...]

Inventorying the Loblolly Marsh

How do you take an inventory of a swamp? Well, it involves a lot of nets. And bug spray. Oh, and sunscreen.
On Friday, I took a road trip to the Limberlost State Historic Site in Geneva, Indiana (Adams County). My mission? To “assist” 24 scientists in taking an inventory of the flora and fauna of [...]

Giant hanging coccolithophore runs amok in museum!

Coccolithophores are marine planktonic organisms that secrete calcareous plates, called coccoliths, around a single cell. They are so tiny they are best viewed with a scanning electron microscope (an SEM). That’s one of the reasons that a large red version hanging from the ceiling in the Great Hall of the Indiana State Museum was so [...]

Hot Chicks at the Indiana State Museum

Marcus Harshaw, museum program specialist and Scales & Tails Fest facilitation extraordinaire, provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse of event programming.
Every year leading up to our Scales and Tails Festival here at the Indiana State Museum, we are fortunate enough to offer our guests a glimpse of the “miracle of agriculture” as two dozen chickens hatch before their very [...]

Whoa. Dogs, Cats, Birds, Ferrets, Snakes & Miniature Horses at the Museum

Remember Joey from Gimme a Break, with his catch phrase, “Whoa”? That pretty much describes my thoughts on Scales & Tails Fest this year. This is the fourth year for the program and it will no doubt be the biggest, best year yet! In fact, I’ve had such a great response that I’ve run out [...]

Show-offs

On my way to work I spotted these Wild Turkeys in a neighbor’s yard. The ‘tom’ seemed oblivious as I pulled in the drive to take a picture. And the hen seemed just as oblivious of the tom. Maybe she hoped if she ignored him he would just go away.

Their breeding season begins in March, [...]

Chasin’ Away the Blues

Today was the third morning I sighted a Great Blue Heron on my drive to work, in the same area as before. About a mile north of T.C. Steele State Historic Site, Salt Creek runs westward on its way to Lake Monroe. The turn-off onto T.C. Steele Road is at the little town of Belmont, [...]

Phosphorescent Fireflies, Luminescent Lightning Bugs

As a favorite sign of spring, hearing peepers barely beats seeing the first fireflies. Last night I returned home after dark and decided to sit out on the porch for awhile and enjoy the breeze. I’m glad I did, because before long I noticed on-and-off flashes of a firefly. Soon I spotted a few more.
Call [...]

Considering a Pet?

Warm weather and spring showers have crept in this year and it’s a good time to think about our pets and the other wild critters that share this great state with us. Since it’s also the time of year when we think of baby animals, we should keep in mind that pet over population can affect [...]

Blowin’ in the wind

You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
It’s finally warm enough for me to leave my windows open at night. This lets me wake to the sounds of Wild Turkeys gobbling and Phoebes scolding, rather than the ring of my alarm clock. I don’t even mind the occasional midnight interruption of [...]