Jennifer Nelson

I am so glad that the Fall weather seems to finally be here!  I love the brisk air... colder air gives me clarity.  It refreshes my mind and I am better able to think clearly.  The colors excite me, and the wind plays with my hair.  Who can beat this?

So, over Fall Break I had the amazing opportunity to go on a short Bird Watching trip with my Dad!  Over the past few years we have gone typically over Spring Break, but since we missed last Spring Break, we made up for it now!  

There sadly were not a lot of migratory waterfowl up at the Indiana Dunes, but we did see 500+ Sandhill Cranes at Jasper Pulaski Park!  Those birds are loud.  It was interesting to hear how each one had a slightly different voice to its trill, and we even saw a few of them dancing together (who knew they did that in the Fall).  
I did add three birds to my life list as well on this trip, but the main event was releasing a Saw-Whet Owl!!!  At the Indiana Dunes State Park they do bird banding, and during the Fall they band Saw-whet Owls as they migrate south for the winter.  That. Was. Amazing!  Those owls are so tiny!  When I "released" one of them, it was placed on my extended arm as a perch.  I honestly was praying that it would stay on my arm for a moment, and it did!  Highlight of my day.  After that my dad and I went in and we adopted that very owl (which means we payed $25 dollars to sponsor the banding program and get updates on that specific owl every time it is recaught.)  

A well seized two days if you ask me! 

If you had to choose between keeping only one of these three senses, hearing, sight, or smelling, which would you choose?  For me, it goes without saying I would choose hearing.  Sounds can touch my soul more than anything else in the world.  Especially birdsong and the wind.   The wind always makes me smile with its playful tugging at my hair or its dancing with the trees.  Something about hearing birds sings lifts my heart and makes it ache with longing that I cannot describe.  All that has to happen to make my day is for a Red-winged Blackbird to sing over my head, a Killdeer to give a warning, or a group of Starlings to be singing in a chorus.