Here you can see a circle cut in the flora up ahead. There are circles dotting the areas. Each one is a research habitat. Different plants are planted to see what grows best and what the butterflies and other native fauna like the most. The soil is only about 5" thick, due to it being a coal mine as recently as the 1980s. Bird boxes can also be spotted throughout the fields. There's a big pond that's home to a bunch of beavers. Several of them relocated themselves and have created an entirely new pond!
See any interesting wild stuff here? The Wilds has a lot of super cool species living wild on the grounds. This look the kind of spot you would get rare prairie bird and butterfly species.
@birdsandbats I'm horrible at bird IDs, as I've said before, but I did hear some that sounded different, lol. Most of the butterflies I saw were monarchs. The beavers were neat, though!
@TinoPup Oh, you actually saw the beavers? They're always cool.
I remember hearing Grasshopper Sparrow, Bobolink and Eastern Meadowlark at The Wilds, are of which are heavily declining and fairly rare in this part of the country. Those are all birds with pretty distinct songs, too. This looks like perfect habitat for Northern Bobwhite, too.
@birdsandbats Yeah, one came up in the water while we were near it and startled the horses. The main water feature is called "Willow Lake" because it was surrounded by willow trees but there's only a few left, the beavers have taken them all down! I did try looking for birds a little bit, but the only thing I can ID for you is a male great blue heron that flew across the lake. I asked a few questions - the boxes are mostly for barn owls, which get caught and banded in the spring - but I had enough to focus on with being an infrequent rider that my limited bird knowledge wasn't exactly forefront in my mind I highly recommend it if you ever visit again, though! It's super cheap and a beautiful ride. You go far enough out that you can't see any sign of human life, other that the mowed strips of grass (and the fact that it was once a coal mine).
