Songbird Prairie Bed and Breakfast

Birders Delight at Songbird Prairie Bed and Breakfast 8 May 2012, 7:06 am

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

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.

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!

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

How would you like to see a fireball of citrus orange and black, the Baltimore oriole next to the breathtaking tropical blue of the male Indigo Bunting? Look no further, come to northwest Indiana to Songbird Prairie Bed and Breakfast and as you enjoy your three course hot breakfast, you will see the colorful birds serenade and entertain you.

Appearing all black against the light, the male indigo bunting properly lit is an unforgettable sight. A persistent late-season singer, he sings a jingly song comprised of paired notes that are often described as: Fire! Fire! Where! Where! Here! Here! Put it out! Put it out! Much of what we know about celestial navigation in songbirds derives from work with captive buntings at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, but you don’t have travel far from downtown Chicago to see the Indigo. Just 45 minutes southeast to the country of Valparaiso, IN home of Valparaiso University.

The male indigo bunting is so breathtaking with its tropical blue and silvery bill. The females and immatures are a warm cocoa brown overall. This bunting has a habit of twitching its tail to the side, and its spit note is characteristic. Males change their blue feathers for brown in autumn, which makes for some interestingly mottled specimens. They molt again on the wintering grounds in Central and northern South America and return in spring, blue once more. This species is common on roadsides and disturbed areas there “trashy” vegetation flourishes. Power lines cuts, old fields, landfills, railroads, and hedgerows ring with the songs of indigo buntings, especially as summer reaches its fullest. That is where you will find them right here at Songbird Prairie Bed and Breakfast.

The indigo bunting takes insects when they are available, especially to feed its nestlings. Weed seeds are its mainstay, and thistle from the feeders, supplemented by berries and small fruits. It forages on or near the ground, as well as in low shrubs and trees. Watch for them in autumn, bending grass stems and flickering their tails side to side as they forage in weedy patches here at Songbird Prairie Bed and Breakfast. Indigo buntings have a rather loose definition of monogamy, with extra pair copulations being frequent. Males visit females in neighboring territories, and females visit males. Males vary in their tendency to feed young. Some are attentive parents where as other leave most of the chick rearing to their mates. The nest is bulky but compact, cup-shaped and constructed of bark strips, grasses and weed stems and skeletonized leaves, all bound with spider webs. It’s often low in blackberry, sumac or other brushy vegetation. These birds nest quite late in the season, reflecting their dependence on late maturing weed seeds. Three to four eggs are incubated by the female for about 12 days, and the young leave the nest 8-14 days later. Early in the spring you may see them feasting on dandelion seeds. Later, black oil sunflower seeds and millet mixed prove attractive. They love coneflower, Mexican hat, cosmos, coreopsis and especially foxtail grasses. Come and enjoy the beauty of the indigo bunting here at Songbird Prairie Bed and Breakfast.

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

Mom’s are special! May Special 29 Apr 2012, 2:44 pm

MOTHER’S DAY SPECIAL

IS YOUR MOM A “RED HATTER” OR A “TOOL BELT DIVA?”

Whether she’s a “Red Hatter” or a “Tool  Belt Diva”, Plan a night reminiscing with Mom at Songbird Prairie Bed  and Breakfast. Remember those breakfasts in bed where you served her  burnt toast and cold tea? Let us serve you both our Three Course Hot  Breakfast in our sunroom where songbirds serenade and entertain.
Stay  at Songbird Prairie with your mom  in the Warbler or Purpefinch suite and make her a  bracelet of hand-blown glass beads and silver-plated metal beads which  are topped off with a touch of rhinestone bling. Bracelet is included in  package with beads of your choice up to $50.00 retail value
Starts  @ $249.00. Children 12 and over welcome. Can’t make an overnight? Come  just for Breakfast or Afternoon tea (4 person minimum) Call for  reservations. 877-766-4273  219-759-4274

My favorite sounds at Songbird Prairie 14 Apr 2012, 8:22 am

Sauntering down the path, I listened to some of my favorite songbirds singing passionately to attract mates. Scarlet tanagers belting out their rough, two-syllable “chip-burr” notes, and rose-breasted grosbeaks singing sweetly like robins that had taken voice lessons. Black-throated green warblers sang a melodious five-syllable phrase that Bach or Beethoven would have copied, had he ever had the fortune to walk in an American forest. The chorus of yellow warblers, redstarts, towhees, (my favorite-drink-your-tea!) veeries and the incomparably beautiful and flute-like wood thrushes produced the music fitting an entry to a magical setting. And so I entered into my favorite meadow as a yellow throat flittered out of the bushes to grab a mayfly.

I took the shortcut, an overgrown trail now used only by deer. Along the way, like a royal carpet welcoming me, were star flowers, bluet, gay wings, bird’s-foot violets, jack-in-the-pulpits, bleeding hearts and lilies of the valley. I realized, as I paused to enjoy fully the spectacle of these wild and temporal beauties, that I was no longer in a rush to pass them by as I used to be many years back. Over the last 12 years we have enhanced the woods and left several acres “natural”. Come and stroll or sit for awhile at Songbird Prairie Bed and Breakfast in Northwest Indiana. We are located 45 minutes southeast of Chicago near the Dunes National Lakeshore. www.songbirdprairie.com

Valentine’s Day 1 month away “Cupid’s Arrow” Package 13 Jan 2012, 1:30 pm

“Cupid’s Arrow” Package
Enjoy your stay with a view of nature, while cupid shoots his arrow at your sweetheart. We provide the romantic atmosphere with the flowers, fine chocolates,sparkling beverage, dinner for 2, Fireplace,Jacuzzi, bath salts, oversized Egyptian towels and robes and in room music. You provide the love, laughter and the celebration of your relationship. Starts @ 349.00 Complete
Warbler and Purplefinch suites

Weekday special not for the birds! 21 Sep 2011, 7:24 am

Special BOGO Midweek Stay

Two nights

$25.00 off Dinner@ Bon Femme

One Day Plated Breakfast

½ off Mani Pedi @ Cinnamon Tree

$25.00 off $50.00 at Lifestyles Gifts

$25.00 off Dinner @ don Quijote

One Day Continental Breakfast

Two night Monday-Tuesday or Wednesday-Thursday night stays only. You will be  wise as an owl when you choose this special! Migrate to Songbird Prairie for a  two-night stay for two all just 50 miles southeast of Chicago.

Flutter past the front door and choose among the Robin, Bluebird, Cardinal, and Purplefinch Suites at the property named one of Midwest Living‘s favorite B&Bs and “one of the 20 perfect summer getaways” by Travel + Leisure.

All rooms have warming gas fireplaces and spa tubs for two with the relaxing and soothing benefits of Chromotherapy. You’ll wake up chirping after your first night on plush beds, and then enjoy a breakfast in the sunroom, listening to the sweet songs of the birds through microphones to the outside. Trade in your bird’s-eye view of nature for one that’s up close and personal when you plan a visit to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, where Karner Blue butterflies flit, swallows nest, and waves crash along the shores. Shop at the nearby Lifestyles before dining on duck à l’orange at Bon Femme Café or tapas and paella at Restaurante don Quijote.

Trust us—this Escape is not just for the birds.

• “The lovely Colonial country home with white-trimmed dormers may attract visitors, but it’s the grounds’ prairie grass, roses, and many trees that lure the namesake songbirds on their way to and from the Indiana Dunes.”

– Travel + Leisure

see news and specials page on our web site!

 26 Jul 2011, 11:12 am

 A baby owl was drinking out of the birdbath. He is as wide as he is tall! Having these beautiful birds is really a Hoot! pun intended! We have another one which is larger and we call him big brother. Come to spend some time here at Songbird Prairie Bed and Breakfast, and you may see  a part of nature that you have never witnessed before. 877-766-4273 songbirdprairie.com

Tall Ships in Chicago stay @ Songbird Prairie just 45 minutes from Navy Pier Plan your stay today! 21 Jun 2011, 8:44 am

Tall Ships in Chicago

 12 May 2011, 4:51 pm

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

Indigo Buntings here at Songbird Prairie 6 May 2011, 6:46 am

Posted in Chicago Romantic Getaway | Tagged art and earth trail, Featured in Midwest Living, midwest Living 30 favorite B&Bs, Valparaiso B&B, Valparaiso University, Valparaiso University Hotel, weekend escapes |

The Orioles have returned to Songbird Prairie 4 May 2011, 9:08 am

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

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

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.

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