Valentines: Good skiing, free skating, birds and what to love now in the outdoors

Dear Valentine,

I’m trying to make sense of the brown un-snowy ground, the bright blue sky, the flocks of sandhill cranes that I spied over the St. Joseph River on Feb. 4 and the red-winged blackbird I heard this past weekend by the river.

Is it really mid-February?

We could talk about one of the funkiest winters in memory. Instead, let me share several reasons to still love the outdoors and whatever you call this season.

Local snow and skiing? Oh yes.

Swiss Valley Ski & Snowboard Area in Jones is proving to be a scrappy and masterful keeper of snow. Its slopes have stayed vastly covered and quite skiable through the recent “fool’s spring.”

Staff were smart enough to make big loads of snow with their new snow-making equipment during that one week of winter we had in January (remember the snow and single digits?).

Let’s call that insurance. Weather looked favorable at that time, but the resort (and all of us skiers) have seen that quickly slip into warm, rainy, melty nonsense too many times. So, Swiss Valley stockpiled snow.

Conditions there and at other local ski resorts have ranged from slightly icy to mashed potatoes, as it’s commonly known, where you plow through softly frozen stuff. The big and little jumps in the terrain park survive.

Skiers and snowboarders have been pleasantly surprised — given that we’ve also enjoyed a lot of great, ice-free biking on paved trails with our skinny tires.

And as we return to below-freezing nights, Swiss Valley is turning its guns back on to replenish the hills. In recent years, it has managed to stay open one to two weeks into March.

Love for ice skating and Black history

South Bend’s Howard Park ice trail and pond offers skating for just $5 from 3 to 9:20 p.m. on Valentine’s Day. There will be a treat giveaway and deejay starting at 7 p.m.

But, for the first time ever, on Feb. 18 the park will offer two free ice skating sessions — at 3 and 5 p.m. — to celebrate Black History Month. Skating will be free but ticketed, and a limited number of tickets are available. Book them at https://visithowardpark.com/event/black-history-skate-night. This is presented by the city’s MLK Dream Center.

Also, from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Feb. 18, the park will host an all-Black-owned business market indoors at the event center.

Film on Major Taylor's life of cycling

A new documentary about the Black Hoosier cycling legend Marshall Major Taylor will premiere at 8 p.m. Feb. 26 on public TV station WTIU in Bloomington, Ind., but you will be able to stream it at the same time through the PBS app (www.pbs.org/pbs-app/).

June 8, 2022: Indy exhibit celebrates Black bike-racing champ 'Major' Taylor, breaking barriers

"Major Taylor: Champion of the Race” explores the life and legacy of Taylor, born in Indianapolis in 1878, and his bike racing and championing of civil rights. It's narrated by opera mezzo-soprano Marietta Simpson. Jazz musician Branford Marsalis reads and interprets written quotes from Taylor. Athletes, historians, columnists and others provide interviews. Learn more at indianapublicmedia.org/majortaylor.

Great Backyard Bird Count

Citizen science needs you this weekend. Just hang out with bird-watching experts and help to identify and count different species. Go for a walk. Or not. No experience required, but you can find help in the free Merlin Bird ID app that I wrote about in early December — it can suggest species based on your bird photos and sound recordings.

Free app: Goshen College grad tends globally popular Merlin app: Try it at big Christmas Bird Count.

The Great Backyard Bird Count is an international effort from Feb. 16-19 where the results will feed into online bird lists, which help scientists to track the movements and trends among birds.

You can do your own count and file results. The requirements are that you pick a location (doesn’t have to be a backyard), observe birds for 15 minutes or more, identify and count all of the birds you see and report your sightings at eBird.org or at the eBird app or the Merlin Bird ID app. Learn more at www.birdcount.org/participate.

But, more easily, there are at least a couple of local places to hook up and help.

From 9 to 11 a.m. Feb. 17, you can join members of the South Bend-Elkhart Audubon Society at Lydick Bog Nature Preserve, 25898 U.S. 20, South Bend. Here, you have a chance to walk 1.6 miles of dirt trails and an accessible wetland boardwalk. This is free. No registration required.

Or you can stay indoors as you learn about feeding and identifying birds indoors from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 17 at the Sims Education Center at Fernwood Botanical Garden, 13988 Range Line Road in Niles. This is free after you pay for admission, but Fernwood asks that you register to let them know you’re coming. Do that in a link here in the text of this column online. Follow up with story time about birds and instructions on using binoculars from 1 to 2 p.m. Feb. 18.

More birds, more walks

Elkhart County Parks leads a “Bird Walk” at 8 a.m. on the first Wednesday of each month at a different park all year long. A naturalist guides you to look for what birds are appearing, which is a nice way to track the seasons.

The next one, on March 6, will look for waterfowl at Boot Lake Nature Preserve, 51430 County Road 3, Elkhart. (From County Road 6, go north on Edwardsburg Road, pass the Indiana Toll Road, turn right on County Road 3 and then right on Williams Lane.)

On April 3, focus on “mindful birding” at the Feedlot Shelter at Bonneyville Mill County Park in Bristol. On May 1, focus on spring “migration mania” at Benton Spillway in River Preserve County Park in New Paris. (this one starts earlier at 7:30 a.m.). From then on, it’s June 5 on the Pumpkinvine Nature Trail at the County Road 43 trailhead, July 3 at Cobus Creek County Park in Elkhart and Aug. 7 at Boot Lake.

By the way, have you ever seen a bald eagle walk? It’s good for getting around a huge nest, but it’ll make you chuckle (think penguins). Good thing eagles mostly fly.

∎ Winter Luminary Walk: OK, now, set the birds aside. Mishawaka Parks will host its free annual winter walk along luminaries on the city’s Riverwalk from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Feb. 16. Start and finish at the Ball Band Biergarten at Beutter Park with live music, food trucks and Sun King beverages. All ages are welcome.

∎ New Buffalo hike: The Harbor Country Hikers will hike two to three miles at 1 p.m. Feb. 24 to explore the New Buffalo Nature Study Trails at New Buffalo Elementary School, 12291 Lubke Road.

Indiana Dunes Birding Festival

As crisp and leafless as it is now, you’ll want to start thinking about a major celebration of spring known as the Indiana Dunes Birding Festival, which returns May 16-19. It’s the 10th year for this event, which rightfully draws bird enthusiasts from around the Midwest. We’ll be in the height of spring migration. Warblers will pause before surging along Lake Michigan. Registration begins March 3 for more than 180 expert-led field trips across northwest Indiana, plus other programs and workshops.

Paul Labovitz, who retired last summer as superintendent of Indiana Dunes National Park, will give the keynote talk May 18 on the theme "From City Kid to National Park Superintendent: An Accidental Birder Story."

The cost is $65 for four days, with cheaper options for youth and single-day participation. Find the schedule and details at indunesbirdingfestival.com.

Prepare for the solar eclipse

The total solar eclipse on April 8 will make central and southern Indiana a tourist destination because it sits directly on the path of totality. We’ll get a peek in South Bend, though not as dramatically.

So professors at Indiana University South Bend will tune up your understanding of the heavens. The two “Meet The Stars” nights from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Feb. 27 and from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. March 26 each offer the same activities. There will be hands-on activities to build an “intuitive understanding” of the eclipse, a 15-minute overview of the eclipse with Henry Scott, professor of physics and astronomy, and a 15-minute observatory tour with viewing (if the skies are clear) with Jerry Hinnefeld, professor of physics and astronomy.

Come to the north entrance of IU South Bend’s Northside Hall. Student volunteers will lead groups to the program locations. Use the parking lot on 20th Street, which runs between Mishawaka Avenue and Northside Boulevard.

Read more and find a map at https://blogs.iu.edu/iusbphys/2024/01/15/mts_eclipseprogramming.

Meanwhile, local night-sky watching aficionado Chuck Bueter runs a blog where he provides lots of links, tips and explanations for watching the eclipse (www.nightwise.org/blog/tags/solar-eclipse). He recently gave a 46-minute talk about planning for the eclipse and the curious phenomena that it’ll create. It’s recorded in a YouTube video that I link to here in the text of this column online.

Find columnist Joseph Dits on Facebook at SBTOutdoorAdventures or 574-235-6158 or jdits@sbtinfo.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Valentines love for Swiss Valley skiing skating birds and Major Taylor