EXPLORE WITH US

When mighty cattle graze through fields to eat their diet of tall grasses, the Cattle Egret, a stately white bird with long legs and graceful wings, feeds on the insects that emerge from the tousled grass.

Butterflies play an important role in the environment: they help regulate other insect populations, are a food source for many up the food chain, and pollinate plants by spreading their pollen. Here are some interesting facts about these favorite fluttering insects. 

Meet our fluttering native friends that will soon inhabit the Habitat. Each species of butterfly will introduce itself and share some of its special characteristics. If you want to learn more about a species, just click on its name!

If you can’t make it out to the Charlie Miller Butterfly Habitat every day and want to enjoy a group of your own fluttering friends, you might consider creating your own butterfly garden! In this post, we’ll share how to get your butterfly garden started.

Here we go again…just 9 weeks since near-record flooding, we find ourselves underwater again.

Check out what we’ve been up to in the meadow!

Over the past weekend, we received large amounts of rain in the area in a short amount of time. The 5+ inch rainfall across South Central Kentucky shattered the daily rainfall record for February 28 and beat the all-time record for the month of February. This resulted in flash flooding and the highest flood waters seen at Lost River Cave in over a decade. Read on to learn how that 5-inch rainfall turned into about 50 feet of flooding. 

In honor of Black History Month, we’re celebrating and highlighting black figures in conservation and nature! Check out a few of these amazing people who are fighting for the environment or working on making a more inclusive great outdoors.

Snow Flurry Scurry 2021 was a great success! It was our first-ever virtual 5K and we can’t thank our 178 runners and our sponsors enough! Please enjoy some of our runner-submitted photos in this post.

January 21 is National Squirrel Appreciation Day! To celebrate this day we’re sharing an entry from our ‘Community Nature Journal’ from 1/21/21 and a fun fact that makes us appreciate squirrels at the park for more than just being furry and cute. 

We recently caught a photo of this little guy after he enjoyed a walnut snack and it got us thinking: White squirrels are basically local celebrities here in Bowling Green, but does everyone know what makes their fur white?

We spotted a friend that’s common on the park and in this area: the native blue-tailed skink! Do you know what this skink’s special, life-saving ability is?

Tune into this Halloween edition Nature Break so you can learn about bats with Delaney and Paige!

A red fox pup has been peeking out to say hello to all our guests. In this post, you’ll learn a few facts about the red fox and enjoy a short video starring our new furry friend. 

It’s time to take a Nature Break! Our event sales manager Maegan sat down with Delaney to learn about a few majestic owls that live in our area. Learn about the hunting practices, habitat, diet, and more of the Great Horned Owl, Barred Owl, and Barn Owl. 🦉

It’s time for our second Nature Break! Partridge Pea and Prairie Dock are still in bloom in the Prairie, but only for a short while longer. Check out this episode where Kate and Delaney discuss a few very interesting facts about these plants, including how one of them may live 200+ years!

Introducing ‘Nature Breaks’! Our new series where LRC staff share fun and interesting tidbits about nature found at the park. In the inaugural video of the series, you’ll meet Katie and Delaney and learn about one of our prairie’s beautiful and useful wildflowers, the Purple Coneflower.

The Children & Nature Network (C&NN) featured one of our favorites this spring: Richard Louv, co-founder of C&NN and author of Last Child in the Woods. This book’s title may evoke murder mystery novel vibes, but it instead refers to, as Louv coined, Nature Deficit Disorder or the dwindling amount of time today’s children are spending in nature that results in behavioral changes. In this C&NN article, Louv provides ideas to bring nature into your family’s pandemic-era life, whether you’re staying at home or venturing out. In this blog post, we’re listing a few of our favorites. 

It’s World Nature Conservation Day and we’re so excited to celebrate! This day is a reminder that we can learn how to better conserve natural resources and celebrate making small changes! Here are a few things you can easily do to conserve nature. 

 

A global pandemic can really highlight human needs that are often easily neglected. Of course, food and shelter are on the list, but we continue to find that there is more to a healthy human life. One realization that many parents are having during this time of social distancing and quarantine is that nature is necessary. 

Happy Birthday Kentucky! On June 1, 1792, the Commonwealth of Kentucky came into existence. Lost River Cave celebrates with the commonwealth Kentucky’s road to statehood!

Looking for a fun craft to do with the kids? This toilet paper bird feeder will not only keep the kids busy, but it will also provide a tasty snack for the birds (and even squirrels) who come to visit!

The trails are now open! We would just like to remind our visitors that due to restrictions on the park, trash cans are currently unavailable. We ask our guests to please bring a bag to pack out what you pack in.

Don’t be alarmed! This was a controlled burn in our wetland.

You can find friends all over Lost River Cave! Tosha, our Naturalist, found this female box turtle while working on restoration projects around the park. The box turtle was shy at first, but quickly came out of her shell to say hello!

Hard work sure does pay off! This time last year we had just begun the restoration of our meadow. Our naturalists, volunteers and docents removed invasive plants and planted natives in their place.

It’s no surprise that people are spending more hours of the day indoors and online as they practice social distancing. There are many ways to practice safe social distancing outdoors as well! In fact, recent studies have shown that spending time in nature can positively affect our brains, bodies and keep us healthy.

The cold winter months have come to an end and signs of new life stir in the world around us. Plants sprout from their dormant state and animals awaken from hibernation. Spring is finally here!

Thank you WNKY Television for having Annie on SOKY Sunrise in honor of Earth Day. We love native plants, and so does the environment!

Spring has sprung, and we’re using this time to spring into action! We’re working to make Lost River Cave the best nature resource it can be for our community.

Earth Week 2020 has been moved to September! We’re sad we can’t celebrate at the Park with you this week, but there’s good news!

Since you can’t visit the Park right now, we’re bringing the Park to you! Justin, our Property Manager, snapped these pictures of spring Mallard hatchlings hanging out with their mom and dad in our wetlands system.

Tactile activity time! Take a break on this beautiful day to get outside and explore nature.

Pandemic cabin fever have you feeling like hitting your head against a tree? You may not have reached that point just yet, but it can be frustrating when you start feeling stir crazy. In contrast to our motives for wanting to bonk our head against a tree, woodpeckers do it with a purpose!

FINDING YOUR SPOT: Annie’s back with help from Max to give you some good ideas for placement of your gnome homes and fairy huts! Find the perfect spot in your backyard and get ready for build day!

BINDING MATERIALS: Finding binding materials for your Magical Mansion can be tough. Today Annie is going to share some great binding materials that you can use to keep your fairy and gnome homes together. Backyard build day is this Saturday, April 11.

Thank you WBKO Television for having us on today! We’ll be sharing Magical Mansion tips, tricks, and instructions throughout this week! We can’t wait to see all your at-home mansions this Saturday, April 11.

GATHERING SUPPLIES: Ready, set, go…collect natural building elements for your Magical Mansions! Build day is Saturday, April 11 in your own backyard. This week we’ll be posting a few prep videos like this one to help you get ready. 

As the Springtime weather brings more and more rain, you may notice the water is ponding rather than receding, and in some places, it even appears to be coming up out of the ground! But why? The simple answer is Karst!

Don’t want to get outdoors on a rainy day? That’s okay because it’s National Crayon Day! Lost River Cave is bringing a nature craft to you. Grab crayons, leaves, and paper to create these cool leaf rubbings.