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 There
will be two walks per Saturday at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. tickets are
available for the walk only or a combination ticket that includes
lunch at the Wild Hare Café in Elkhart. Discounts will be offered to
children. All tours will leave from the Country Bumpkin, 103
Governor Oglesby Street.
On the morning of Saturday April 27,
the Historical Society feature Biology Professor Tony Rothering,
from LLCC who will demonstrate the banding of both migratory and
local songbirds during special tours at 7:30 a.m., 9 a.m. and 10:30
a.m.
Rothering is a federally permitted bander, who last year
successfully recorded and released over 120 birds during his annual
Elkhart Hill banding session. The event is done during the spring
migration on Elkhart Hill because of its significance as an
incredibly biodiverse “island” (oasis) to the birds. The hill’s
forest measures approximately 600 acres of mature hardwoods, which
is surrounded primarily by monocultures of corn and soybeans fields
where very few hedge rows or groves of trees remain. For the many
species of migrating warblers Elkhart Hill offers a much-needed rest
and refueling stop, on their journey north to breeding grounds in
the upper Midwest and Canada.
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It is hoped that some of these travelers banded on
Saturday April 27. Rothering’s work helps to catalog the changes in
migration patterns caused, in part by climate change and loss of
habitat.
The April 27th 2 p.m. tour will feature both flowers and birds with
the help of local birders, Dr. Lara Borgerson, Joe Funk and Rhetta
Jack.
Groups of 10 to 20 people may arrange for private tours of the April
wildflowers by calling 217 947 2238. If group tours are conducted on
Wednesday-Friday lunch can be included at an additional cost.
[Elkhart Historical Society]
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