Legend of the Chupacabra....

Today while exploring the depths of the great dismal swamp. There among the cypress, lying atop the muck and mire deep within this great moor, I found a skull.













Great dark birds flashed overhead, allmost it seemed guarding the resting place of the macabre skull.













I nervously left, barely making it out before darkness fell. Could this have been the lair of the Chupacabra??????

Bridges and Buffalo

First is the Busching Bridge built in 1885 just outside of Versailles at the western edge of Versailles State Park. What a pretty bridge in a lovely quiet setting, just like you picture in your head when someone says covered bridge





Just past the bridge on a hill overlooking the covered bridge is a beautiful little farm that had a herd of buffalo. The lady was nice enough to let me snap a few pictures.









Finally there's the Medora Covered Bridge on State Road 235, the longest covered bridge in the United States. At 458 feet long it's hard just to get in one photo frame and an amazing site! It was built in 1875 by Joesph Daniels who built over 60 covered bridges In Indiana. It took about nine months to build.
The cost was: $18,142. The bridge is a bit run down and could use a bit of restoring. Considering it's amazing size and historic significance hopefully this will happen before the bridge deteriorates too much. You know me I'm allways driving out in the middle of nowhere to take pictures of covered bridges and this is the most incredible one I've ever seen

Otters and Eagles

The cranes

Sandhill cranes from Ewing bottoms and Muscatatuck in southern Indiana. With wingspans of six to eight feet and standing close to five feet tall when they gather in flocks of thousands in the flooded fields in winter it's an awe inspiring sight. Their loud calls can be heard for miles. One of the reasons for this remarkably loud and penetrating call is an unusual windpipe. In most birds the trachea passes directly from the throat to the lungs, but in Sandhills it is elongated by forming a single loop which fills a cavity in the sternum. With their wierd calls and odd appearance it's easier to believe that birds are the descendants of the dinosaurs, Sandhills are omnivorous. Sandhill Cranes are generalists and feed on a wide variety of plant tubers, grains, small vertebrates such as mice and snakes, and invertebrates such as insects or worms. Cranes do a great deal of digging with their bills, often penetrating several inches below the surface in search of a morsel. Animals such as snails, crayfish, worms, mice, birds, frogs, snakes, and many kinds of insects are consumed. They also devour acorns, roots, various seeds and fruits, and browse vegetation. Most of the cranes I saw spend the summer in Canada and will leave in the next couple weeks.Sandhill Cranes mate for life and pairs return to the same nesting locations year after year. Cranes can live up to twenty five years at least in the wild and have lived for fifty in captivity.