Special thanks to Michael Autin, Steve Kistler and Anna Perry.
We just returned from our trip. Wow! When you said Goose Pond I had envisioned
a small area that attracted birds. So we decided to go there first then on to
Brownstown and then Muscatatuck. But we were so impressed by the area,
especially since the weather created poor conditions, we stayed the night there
and most of the next day. We decided to skip Brownstown for this trip and to
visit Muscatatuck this morning. At GP we saw plenty of Sandhill Cranes,
Speckled Belly geese, snow geese, canada geese. We saw 3 bald eagles, some
hawks which I have yet to ID, some Northern Harriers and some gulls. There had
been a report of a snowy owl Jan 22nd but we did not see it. Nor did we get to
see the Golden Eagle or the Tundra Swans. The lady at the visitor center saw 3
whooping cranes on her way to work yesterday but we were not able to find them.
Goose Pond is a wildlife management area setup by Indiana DNR and funded mostly
by hunters. They have 3 biologists on staff who have done a wonderful job. We
will definitely be making another trip back and hopefully spend a little more
time there and be a little better prepared.
This morning at Muscatatuck we saw 5 otters doing battle with a juvenile Bald
Eagle who was intent on stealing the otters fish. We watched through some brush
and were not able to tell who won the fish. And unfortunately, the brush kept
us from getting any pictures of the ambush. However, I think we got pictures of
the otters and the eagle while separated. A knee injury kept us from walking
back to where the Horned Larks had been spotted and hiking any of the trails,
the screech owl box was in bad repair and unable to house any type of bird. We
are definitely looking forward to another trip to Muscatatuck and possibly
combining it with a trip to Brownstown. I hope to go through my pictures by
next week and send out some of the best ones.
Thank you all for helping us have a very successful trip!
Robin Work
Oldham County
