Songbird Prairie's boutique has hearts for your sweetheart songbirdprairie.com 219-759-4274 Book your weekend getaway today!

Saw a Pileated Woodpecker at Songbird Prairie today. The woodpecker is one of the biggest, most striking forest birds on the continent!  It’s nearly the size of a crow, black with bold white stripes down the neck and a flaming-red crest. Woody Woodpecker in real life! Look (and listen) for Pileated Woodpeckers whacking at dead trees and fallen logs in search of their main prey, carpenter ants, leaving unique rectangular holes in the wood. The nest holes these birds make offer crucial shelter to many species including swifts, owls, ducks, bats, and pine martens. See if you can find them on your walk in the woods here at Songbird Prairie. Make you reservation today 219-759-4274

Romantic Bluebird Suite

Stay in the romantic Bluebird Suite for your next anniversary, birthday, or any celebration! Order a cheese and cracker tray to await you in your room while you prepare for your couples massage in our spa or in summer in our screened area, then fall into bed to relax or slip into the whirlpool before going to dinner. Or why not order dinner right here at Songbird Prairie Bed and Breakfast? You may choose your own selections for a custom tasted dinner. Watch a movie from our extensive collection while enjoying complementary popcorn, Orville's of course. Awaken in the morning to fresh coffee brewing and enjoy your breakfast in the sunroom while you enjoy the antics and operas of our feathered friends. To reserve go to the rooms and rates page on the web site songbirdprairie.com or call 877-766-4273 877SONGBRD

Tall Ships in Chicago stay @ Songbird Prairie just 45 minutes from NavyPier Plan your stay today!

Tall Ships in Chicago

Tall Ships on Parade at Chicago’s Navy Pier
 
Navy Pier is launching their latest exhibit, Tall Ships. The ships are moving in on Thursday, Aug.11-14,2011. They will parade along Chicago’s lakefront with as many as 20 ships will dock at Navy Pier. Once at Navy Pier, the ships can be viewed, boarded and explored. It’s $15 to view, $20 to board and excursions start at $44. The ships are from around the world Canada, Germany, Netherlands, to name a few. Hollywood has dropped its anchor here. The “Bounty” will be there which once hosted such famous people at the helm as Cary Grant. Then it was taken off of the ship and put in a sound stage and used in every nautical movie from 1935-1962. John Wayne stood in front of it in Sea of the Red Witch. Marland Brando used it in Mutiny on the Bounty, Charlton Heston in Treasure Island, Monty Python in Yellowbeard and Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean. And let’s not forget Spongebob Square pants either.

The cost is $15 for a viewing $20 for ship crawl and to board and sail to fulfill a pirates fantasy, a sailaway excursion starts at $44. Exit the hustle and bustle and come to the country to relax and reminisce from your adventure. Guestrooms start at $179.00 whirlpool and 3 course plated breakfast served here: no chance of scurvy! www.songbirdprairie.com 877.766.4274

In addition to the parade there will be a festival lasting six days. Fireworks are planned for each night.

For more information visit www.navypier.com .
Chicago Fireworks, Chicago Lakefront, Chicago Romantic Getaway, Indiana Dunes Hotel, Indianapolis Getaway, Indianapolis Romantic Getaway, Luxury Bed & Breakfast, Metro Indy Girls, Navy Pier, Northern Illinois Getaway, Romantic Bed & Breakfast Songbird Prairie in Northwest Indiana Online Reservations 877-766-4273, Southern Michigan Getaway, Tall Ships, The Bounty

Songbird Prairie received two awards yesterday at the R.O.S.E. Awards Banquet held at the Allure Banquet Center in Laporte. The first was "Hotel of the Year", which is recognition of service excellence. Songbird Prairie has won this prestigious award 3 times in the last 12 years since they first started the yearly R.O.S.E. Awards. We at Songbird Prairie strive to give every guest the personal service they deserve, while respecting their privacy during their stay as guests in our home. Fireplaces, Whirlpools, fine linen, and our three course hot breakfast are sure to please even the most discriminating guest. As on site Innkeepers we offer personal concierge service by providing maps and local information to restaurants and attractions. Our 6 1/2 acres backs up to 450 acres of woodland, meadow and farmland. You can hear the moo of an occasional cow through our microphones in the sunroom. One guest wrote in the journal, I think I heard a cow bird? No that was a real cow!

Porter County offers travelers many unique attractions. The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is on the coast of the fifth largest freshwater lake in the world! Beyond the Beach you will discover sites where the rare Karner blue butterflies floats among wild lupine blossoms to ten thousand sandhill cranes gathered during fall migration. From quaint chef owned restaurants to Arboretums and wildlife sanctuaries, Beyond the beach trail is designed for several days of adventure. Come to visit Nature's Masterpiece at the Indiana Dunes and stay at Songbird Prairie where you will "fall in love with nature"

www.songbirdpraire.com 877-766-4273

The Orioles have returned to Songbird Prairie

http://www.qwiki.com/q/#!/Baltimore_Oriole

Visit Songbird Prairie and have breakfast watching the orioles drink nectar from oranges and eat grape jelly!

© Gerhard Hofmann

The Baltimore oriole is perhaps the most famous neotropical migratory bird. Its brilliant orange and black plumage is reminiscent of the crest of Lord Baltimore, an important figure in Maryland's history, and the bird has become the mascot of the Baltimore Orioles baseball team.

Oroile's journey begins in the tropics, from Mexico to northern South America, where Baltimore orioles spend most of the year. Here they inhabit lush, tropical forests and feed on nectar, pollen, fruit, and insects. They especially favor coffee and cacao (the plant that chocolate comes from) plantations where these crops are grown in the traditional manner, the coffee and cacao shrubs flourishing under a shady canopy of natural forest trees.

Pairs of males and females form flocks of about 10 individuals, although sometimes as many as 30 or 40 are in a single flock.  Baltimore orioles are often the most common migratory bird in these agricultural forests except for maybe the warbler family. The birds favor the tops of trees, especially those in the genus Inga, where they forage among the numerous blossoms for nectar and pollen. Orioles have a special tongue, which resembles a brush, for lapping up nectar.

Shade grown coffee plantation, winter habitat of the Baltimore oriole.

By April, most Baltimore orioles have begun the journey north to their breeding grounds in North America, which span most of the eastern United States and into southern Canada. Here they eschew the dense forests that so many other migratory birds favor, instead preferring open forests such as those along rivers and even in city parks.

Their nests are unmistakeable in that females build an unusual grassy hanging nest that is suspended like a sack from the end of a branch. The shape of the nest may help deter predators from eating the eggs or young because the eggs and young are hidden from view and the entrance to the nest is difficult to access. The nest is often built in an elm, sycamore, or cottonwood tree. In the video clip below you can see a nest.

Because these orioles spend much of their time in the tops of trees, they are often heard before they are seen. The male has a lovely warbling song and both males and females utter a variety of chatters and short call notes.

• The female lays 4 to 5 eggs in late spring or early summer and incubates them alone. Then, both the male and the female feed the young. Pairs make only one nesting attempt per year. And by August or early September, most orioles are on their way back to the neotropics.

Sometimes orioles can be enticed to visit our backyards.

Oriole at hummingbird feeder (left), and halved banana (right)

Orioles sometimes visit feeders put out for hummingbirds, and are also attracted to fruit such as bananas and oranges. Visit Songbird Prairie to view these beauties!

www.songbirdprairie.com 877-766-4273 219-759-4274