By Jack Spaulding For more than a century, the tales of frontier teenager Balser Brent and his adventures with bears, guns and Native American treasure along Indiana’s Blue River in the 1800s left generations of young Hoosiers spellbound. But the sad reality for those hoping to track and trap a bear: Black bears had vanished… Continue reading.

By Jack Spaulding A slightly forlorn tone tinged my wife’s voice when she said, “There is something in the garage I want to show you.” As I walked into the garage, I saw, lying on one of my work tables, a wide light maple branch holding a small woven bird’s nest containing three tiny ivory… Continue reading.

By Jack Spaulding Once, on a late afternoon, I was sitting in my upstairs office writing my latest column of outdoors lore when suddenly, I was surprised to hear a tap, as if someone had gently rapped, upon my second story back door. Since even our family and close friends use the front door, the… Continue reading.

BY JACK SPAULDING Summertime brings kayakers and canoeists out to run the rivers and streams here in Indiana. Nothing is more fun than a leisurely trip down a river or stream, floating past the banks covered in wildflowers while bathing in the luxury and warmth of Mother Nature. Among the beauty and tranquility, danger can… Continue reading.

By Jack Spaulding In the course of over 30 years writing about the outdoors, I have had access to a lot of “confidential” facts given me on the QT from the conspiracy theory crowd. There are always eyewitnesses or a staunch, believable individual, who is the source of the confidential information.  It usually goes, “I… Continue reading.

I haven’t had much of a chance to get out and challenge the squirrel population this year. The ones raiding the bird feeder and those making forays across our yard to the neighbor’s butternut trees live under an unspoken umbrella of protection here on the home front. However, their woodland cousins are fair game. On the… Continue reading.

When I first heard about the new “Purple Paint No Trespass” law, I thought it was a joke. But believe it or not, in our label-loving, litigious society, an easy-to-read “No Trespassing” sign is being upstaged by a simple swatch of purple paint strategically placed on a post or tree. This can now legally define… Continue reading.

By Jack Spaulding One of my fond experiences as a child came with the first warming days of spring. Prior to cultivated side ditches, mowed fence rows and the liberal use of herbicides, wild asparagus proliferated in the side ditches along the county roads. And it was free for the picking! The sporadic patches took… Continue reading.

by Jack Spaulding They are at it again … more baby owls! The Indiana barn owl pair — “reality TV” YouTube stars viewed on a live nest cam — are putting on a second act of parenthood. They are raising a second brood of chicks unusually late into the nesting season. The existence of a… Continue reading.

A pair of endangered trumpeter swans have successfully hatched an offspring in Indiana for the first time since modern bird watching records have been kept. The swan family is in northeastern Indiana’s Steuben County. Before 2017, sightings of trumpeter swan families in Indiana were limited to winter, with the birds breeding in other states. Trumpeter swans… Continue reading.

By Jack Spaulding Indiana deer hunters and their families know nothing beats the taste of a hearty venison burger or equals the satisfying flavor of venison chili. Sharing the bounty of the field with others is a Hoosier tradition, and once again, Indiana deer hunters stepped up to the “plate” and delivered!  Deer hunters donated… Continue reading.

By Jack Spaulding The reintroduction of the peregrine falcon is a real success story in Indiana and the nation. Biologists have brought the birds back from the brink of extinction with nesting pairs across the Midwest. Peregrines are now commonly seen in special places in Indiana, but it wasn’t always so. Consider: • Prior to 1940,… Continue reading.