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News from the Prairie

The Friends of the Sands blog shares the latest news from prairie, savanna, and marshland. Would you like to contribute a blog post on our page? Please contact us with your idea!

Latest Posts

Nature

The Magic is Back!

By Alyssa Nyberg, Preserve Coordinator & Ecologist at Kankakee Sands Magic has returned to the prairie! For many people, December is the most magical time of the year – holidays, foods, families, long-starry nights and beautiful snow-covered landscapes. How fitting that this is also the point in the year when the merlins return to Kankakee…

Nature

Who’s in Charge?

By Alyssa Nyberg, Preserve Coordinator & Ecologist at Kankakee Sands When you look out over the Kankakee Sands bison pasture and spot a six-foot tall male bull bison weighting more than 1500 pounds, you might think to yourself, “Now there’s a fella that makes decisions!” And that bull bison certainly does make decisions… for himself.…

Nature

A Prairie Workout: Chasing the Autumn Yellow-Winged Grasshopper

By Alyssa Nyberg, Preserve Coordinator & Ecologist at Kankakee Sands “How hard can that be?” That’s what I thought when the Student Conservation Interns and I were asked to join a researcher who was hoping to catch a particular species of grasshopper on the Kankakee Sands prairie. I figured that with several years of netting…

Nature

When the Bzzzzz turns to Zzzzzz

Nighttime Sounds By Alyssa Nyberg, Ecologist at Kankakee Sands Out here in the rural parts of Newton County, the cool temperatures of September nights make for comfortable windows-open sleeping weather. Through those open windows often come a wild variety of animal and insect sounds and buzzes which will either keep you awake all night, or…

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