cover art - 2004
Following are images from the front page of bigeastern.com for calendar year 2004 - here's the link to cover art for 2005.
If you're looking for the equivalent archive from the old Kankakee River Log, it starts here. The Kankakee River Log archive covers the time period from July 2001 to December 2003. Starting in January 2004, the same concept moved to our homepage, and became titled simply 'bigeastern'.
December 12, 2004
Above, a heavy blanket of snow shrouds the woodlands at Lena Park, Indiana. Photo © 2004, M. Lucas
November 23, 2004
The Tippecanoe River on a sunny day in November 2004, photographed from Rising Sun Campgrounds near Tippecanoe River State Park. Photo © 2004, M. Lucas.
November 11, 2004
A bit of artistic license bespeaks the bleakness of a black oak woods in late autumn. Photo © 2004 M. Lucas.
November 1, 2004
Autumn waters run clear on Hook Run at Lena Park. Photo © 2004 M. Lucas.
October 27, 2004
Happy Halloween!
October 21, 2004
Dusk seems to come too early as late October color give way to winter's grey and chill.
October 7, 2004
Rainclouds approach a tree-line of oaks at Lena Park, Indiana in mid-October.
September 30, 2004
A close-up look at a Nyssa sylvatica leaf showing small galls caused by insects. Photo © 2003, 2004 M. Lucas.
September 15, 2004
A small creek near Lena Park, in Starke Co.
September 9, 2004
Goldenrods -- genus Solidago -- are among the most prominent of the late summer bloomers and a bewildering array of varieties are available to amuse the amateur botanist. This one was photographed growing on a sandy pond bank at Lena Park Indiana and appears to be Solidago graminifolia.
August 31, 2004
A pair of carp align with the current in the clear, sand bottomed waters of the Mill Creek, a medium sized Kankakee River tributary in southern LaPorte County. [photo © M. Lucas] Here's a link with information about LaPorte County Water Quality hosted by Purdue U
August 15, 2004
A sand prairie and sand barrens at Lena Park, Indiana, in full mid August flowering. The yellow flowers are Helianthus occidentalis, the western sunflower and the lavender spikes are Liatris aspera, rough blazing star. [photo 8.15.2004 © M. Lucas]
August 8, 2004
Above, a tall grass prairie restoration planting fills out an old field among native sand savanna and prairie remnants at Lena Park, Indiana. This year's cool and moist weather has fostered rich growth. This restoration is enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program ('CRP'), the future of which is starting to be discussed. Millions of acres of CRP contracts will begin to expire in 2007.[photo 8.4.2004 © M. Lucas]
The project shown here was planted in the summer of 1987, and we think it was the first large private prairie restoration project in northern Indiana. Thanks to CRP, we've been able to continue to maintain this area in prairie vegetation during the intervening time. Although progress has been slow at times (these things take time), it's been gratifying to see many, many other prairie restorations take root around the area. CRP is an expensive program, but it's difficult to imagine another way to create the widespread results that CRP has fostered. Of course it's not just prairie -- CRP includes many hardwood reforestation projects as well as wetlands and filter strips.
August 5, 2004
August means a basket full of homegrown heirloom tomatoes, fresh from the garden. These are black krims, a type that originated in the Black Sea region before the 1917 revolution. Very interesting, but prone to vine-rot in our humid summers -- if I grow them again next year I'll be sure to allow for more air circulation around the plants. The color is dark red, with characteristic green shoulders. Some will find them a bit too weird looking, but that's the fun part...who wants to bother growing the same tomatoes they have at the super market? [photo 8.5.2004 © M. Lucas]
July 29, 2004
A mature black oak (Quercus velutina) on the Blue Trail near the Cabin at Lena Park. [photo © 2004 M. Lucas].
Black oaks are the most common canopy tree in most woodlands of the Kankakee sand region, and many in the Lake Michigan Dunes region as well. In the case of this woodland, in Starke County, the first surveyors described the area as a 'barrens' and noted the presence of a very similar mix of trees to that found today -- mostly black oaks and white oaks.
Even though the woodlands where this photograph was taken are in a fairly undisturbed condition, it's likely that fire suppression (though incomplete) has resulted in taller trees and a more closed canopy compared to what existed in aboriginal conditions. Therefore it might be more accurate to refer to these current conditions as a black oak sand forest.
July 19, 2004
A boy fishing on a public pier in the Culver Town Park on the shores of Lake Maxinkuckee on a cloudless July afternoon makes for a study in blue. [photo © 2004 M. Lucas]
Upscale Lake Maxinkuckee, with some of the most sought after real estate in northern Indiana, has benefitted from Wetlands Restoration.
July 10, 2004
Under the hot sun of mid July the flowering of plants slows a bit, but a few are sturdy enough to show their blossoms on the hottest days. One of these is the black-eyed susan, Rudbeckia hirta, native of prairies but common on roadsides too. [photo © 2003 M. Lucas]
June 30, 2004
Above, a closeup of the 'eyespot' on the ventral hindwing of a male Polyphemus moth (Antheraea polyphemus), photographed at Lena Park Indiana in July of 2003. Because the moth was alive when photographed, the colors are more vivid than would be the case in a preserved specimen. An encounter with this big moth, with a wingspan sometimes exceeding five inches, is always memorable. The eyespots (often covered by the forewing) account for its name, based on the most famous Cyclop of Greek myth; like their namesake these moths are giants, but unlike the Cyclopes, they aren't short an eye. Look for Polyphemus moths (and other interesting night-flying moths) to be attracted to lights near forested areas, especially in July. [photo © 2003 M. Lucas]
June 22, 2004
The harbor at Trail Creek, on the Lake Michigan waterfront at Michigan City, Indiana on a morning in June. [photo © M. Lucas]
June 9, 2004
A racerunner lizard, photographed from a sand dune blowout at Lena Park, in Starke County Indiana. I'm not sure, but this may be the prairie subspecies of the six-lined racerunner, known as the prairie racerunner - if so this population is one of the most easterly for the species, known to science as Cnemidophorous sexlineatus viridis - they love June's warm sunshine, and can be observed out an about in sandy areas right now. [photo © M. Lucas]
June 1, 2004
The sandy beaches of Lake Michigan, at Mt. Baldy in Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, near Michigan City. [photo © M. Lucas]
May 21, 2004
Dwarf dandelions, unlike their common weedy namesake, are delicate wildflowers common on sunny barren sandy areas, especially in oak savanna openings - perhaps it's best to refer to it by its latin name, krigia virginica. [photo taken at Lena Park, Indiana June 2003 © M. Lucas]
May 12, 2004
Wild blue lupines, one of the signature species of black oak sand savannas, are in bloom now. [photo taken at Lena Park, Indiana May 2001 © M. Lucas]
April 27, 2004
White oak leaves open at Lena Park on a morning in May, 2003. [photo © M. Lucas]
April 16, 2004
Above, an elaborate scaffolding system is currently in place for work to restore the clock tower atop the Marshall County Courthouse in Plymouth, Indiana. The ambition and progressive thinking of Victorian era Indiana left behind a legacy of many fine community buildings; alas, few community or government structures built in northern Indiana during the 20th century showed the same kind of concern for legacy. [photograph 5.11.2004 © M. Lucas]
April 1, 2004
The greenish yellow flowers of the spicebush (Lindera benzoin) are among the first to bloom in midwestern woodlands; in sand country they're restricted to low, moist areas. On the first warm days of spring look for a frenzy of insect activity around flowering spicebushes. Photograph © M. Lucas.
March 22, 2004
Early spring in an oak woodland at Lena Park, Indiana. Photograph © M. Lucas.
March 12, 2004
The interior of Union Station, on Broadway in Gary, Indiana - the 'poster-child' for endangered historic buildings in Northwest Indiana. Architect: M.A. Lang. [photograph © 2002 M. Lucas, all rights reserved] - for more about endangered Gary landmarks see Gary: America's Magic Industrial City - from sand hills to decay.
February 26, 2004
Melting water at Kankakee Fish and Wildlife Area heralds the return of waterfowl. Photograph © M. Lucas.
February 19, 2004
Late winter brings a thaw to the Wizawgan River (a/k/a Yellow River) at Kankakee Fish and Wildlife Area - photograph 2.18.2004 © M. Lucas.
February 3, 2004
An old South Shore passenger car awaits restoration at Hoosier Valley Rail Museum in North Judson. © M. Lucas.
January 16, 2004
The sparkling white of fluffy lake effect snow is a hallmark of winter in northern Indiana. © M. Lucas. © M. Lucas.
January 1, 2004
The Bogus Run, a tributary of the Kankakee River. © M. Lucas.
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