The Audubon Museum & Park

This week Nancy and I are spending a few days with the boys in Indiana. Yesterday the other two wives that are here and I went to the Audubon Musuem in Henderson, KY. It is located in the Audubon state park, a very green and beautiful park not too far outside Evansville. The museum is dedicated to the artist and naturalist John James Audubon who illustrated and published one of the largest ornithologies. The museum has a lot of original prints and oil paintings that were pretty interesting to see. It was also interesting to learn that in order to get the most accurate drawings Audubon would shoot the birds and try to draw them as soon as possible after killing them in order to get the most correct coloring in his drawings. (Not the most nature-friendly way I suppose but they did say that inspite of that, he did do a lot to conserve nature and endangered species.) My favorite part of he museum was the observatory, a round room with a bunch of windows with bird feeders hanging outside. Next to all the windows were binoculars and pictures of the birds so you could identify them. It was really fun to watch all of them feeding. I saw some really pretty red-winged black birds and gold finches. We also found out that they have two man-made lakes where you can rent paddle boats and canoes and a lot of nature trails throughout the park. I'm hoping we'll get the chance to go do some of those fun things as well before we leave. If you ever get the chance to go to Henderson, KY, you'll have to squeeze in a camping trip in Audubon park. It's definitely worth a visit.