I Spy on the Trail - May 1-15, 2024

Bishop's cap

Whoa, back to bimonthly phenology observations! So many blooms and bird calls, frog choruses and budding trees in just two weeks. My phenology lists exploded! The warm weather and frequent rain have brought a vibrancy and proliferation of wild things that was muted in the last droughty year. 

The warbler migration has begun in earnest. Every day brought more and different species to my ears and eyes.

Bristly buttercup

Ephemerals are busting out in woodland and wetland walks. Again, every hike brought new wildflower delights popping up. Some are like old friends; others so rare I have to check my identifications to see if I have them right.

I took advantage of some guided hikes during these two weeks. Our surprise guide on Trempealeau Wildlife Refuge’s World Migratory Bird Day birding hike was Stan Tekiela, naturalist and author of many guidebooks to birds around the country. 

Mayapple

I also participated in  BOW (Becoming An Outdoor Woman) hike learning about and then hunting morel mushrooms (success!). Heading into the Drifted area around central WI, friends and I hiked the sand country and eskers of the terminal glacial moraine at Mecan Springs. All those hikes were packed full of interesting details and learning. 

Wetland warbler habitat

I hope you to take advantage of these kinds of guided hikes. They are led by passionate and knowledgeable naturalists who love the land and all it holds. 

And you will hone your own natural naturalist skills!

Plant Life

 

• False rue anemone
• Trout lily
• Bellwort
• Ramps
• Dryad's saddle
• Morel mushrooms
• Virginia bluebells
• Jacob’s ladder
• Two leaf miterwort (Bishop’s cap)
• Cutleaf toothhwort
• Dutchman’s breeches
• Canadian ginger
• Bloodroot
• Littleleaf buttercup
• Bristly buttercup
• Spring beauty
• Wintercress
• Early meadow rue
• Sharplobe hepatica
• Wild geranium
• Pussytoes
• Wood anemone

  

  Virginia bluebells

  
  
• Bladder fern
• Maidenhair fern
• Rattlesnake fern
• Lady fern
• Bulblet fern
• Lowland blader fern
• Sharp-lobed hepatica
• Mugwort
• Rattlesnake plantain
• Fan clubmoss
• Bracken
• Pennsylvania sedge
• Prairie blue-eyed grass
• Starry false Solomon’s seal
• Hoary puccoon
• Jack-in-the-pulpit
• Downy yellow violet
• Violet woodsorrel
• White rattlesnakeroot (unbloomed)
• Dryad’s saddle
• Trillium
•  Nodding wakerobin trillium
• Sweet cecily

Wildlife (seen, heard, detected)

• Osprey

  

  Can you spot the eagle on kin's* nest?

  
  
• Eagle
• Yellow warbler
• Nashville warbler
• Blue-winged warbler 
• Yellow-rumped warbler
• Chestnut-sided warbler
• Prothonotary warbler
• Tennessee warbler
• Palm warbler
• Blackpoll warbler
• Blue-winged warbler
• Cape May warbler
• Blackburnian warbler
• Bay-breasted warbler
• Magnolia warbler
• Wilson’s warbler
• Northern Parula
• Common yellowthroat
• American redstart
• Scarlet tanager
• Summer tanager
• Indigo bunting
• Tufted titmouse
• Field sparrow
• Song sparrow
• White-throated sparrow
• Swamp sparrow
• Rose-breasted grosbeak
• Red-winged blackbird
• Eastern kingbird
• Eastern bluebird
• Goldfinch
• Blue-gray gnatcatcher
• Downy woodpecker
• Red-bellied woodpecker
• Hairy woodpecker
• Pileated woodpecker
• Yellow-bellied sapsucker
• Eastern phoebe
• Northern flicker
• Tree swallow
• Brown thrasher
• Northern waterthrush
• Louisiana waterthrush
• American redstart
• Baltimore oriole
• Orchard oriole 
• Ovenbird
• Chimney swift
• Brown-headed cowbird
• Yellow-throated vireo
• Warbling vireo
• Red-eyed vireo
• Black -capped chickadee
• Eastern towhee
• Northern mockingbird
• American eagle
• Sandhill crane
• Blue heron
• Bluejay
• Wood thrush
• Yellow-bellied flycatcher
• Great crested flycatcher
• Red cardinal butterfly

  

  Meadow Fritillary

  
  
• Monarch butterfly
• Meadow Fritillary
• Swallowtail butterfly
• Spring peepers
• Chorus frog
• Wood fog
• Garter snake
• Painted turtle

What are YOU noticing on your hikes?

Two weeks of hikes:

Duck Egg Trail Loop, Duck Egg County Forest Vernon County, WI; Duck Egg Lower Trail, Duck Egg County Forest, Vernon County WI (2); Mecan Springs Ice Age trail segment, Coloma WI; Whitewater SNA, Altura, MN; Trout Run Creek trail, Whitewater State Park, Altura MN; Reno Quarry, Reno MN; Lytle’s Landing, Brice Prairie WI; Kiep’s Landing, Trempealeau Wildlife Refuge, Trempealeau, WI; Beaver Creek Valley Trail, Bearver Creek Valley State Park, Caledonia MN.

On the hunt (successfully) for warblers
Image - Lloyd Lorenz

                                         All images, unless noted - Marge Loch-Wouters

*Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass (among many books) and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, suggested in a recent talk that rather than referring to plants, wildlife and other beings found in nature as "it", we use a work like "kin." The word gives agency to the life all around us in nature. It resonates with me.

Duck Egg County Forest (WI) Hike

I was recently introduced to some beautiful trails at a gem of a forest tucked away among the hills and streams in the heart of the Driftless area of Vernon County. Located between Coon Valley and Viroqua, the forest has ten miles of trails for hikers, horses and recreational use for hunters and fishers.

I spent a couple of pleasant mornings exploring one of the main trails - the Duck Egg Trail. The loop part of the trail can be accessed off of Irish Ridge Road from either the Upper or Lower parking lots (map). 

Upper Parking Lot Trailhead

Begin your hike in a large grassy prairie area at the top of the bluff. After a short .25 stroll, you come to a T. We took the loop going right and proceeded through fields and grasses into a woods along an old logging trail on the bluff top.

There is a wonderful overlook atop dramatic rocks in another .3 miles that gives you an excellent view of the valley below. You get your first glimpse of the Springville Branch of the Bad Axe River and of a dam that was built in 1990 to help control the frequent flooding of the Bad Axe. You also start to note concrete front steps (and soon wooden steps) at intervals along the trail; these are used to mount and dismount from horses.

The old logging trail after the overlook begins to descend about 450 feet on a series of switchbacks. The trail winds through a beautiful hardwood forest that is dense with spring ephemerals, ferns and flowers. Once at the bottom, the trails flattens out  for a mile or so as you hike near two large ponds and the Bad Axe among lush bottomlands. During the week I visited in early May, the profusion of bluebells along the river and ponds rivaled anything you can see at Minnesota's justly famous Carley Park.

A view of the overlook
from the valley floor

To complete the loop, we continued on the trail to the left into the wider valley and a close-up view of the dam. The valley was alive with the sound of spring peepers. We crossed a wooden bridge over the river and headed into our final climb to regain the bluff top in two long, steadily upward portions of the trail (got to regain that 450 feet!).We ended our hike of 3.3 miles back at the upper parking lot.

Lower Parking Lot Trailhead
If you continue driving on Irish Ridge Road another 2 miles or so you come to the lower parking trailhead which is well-marked with a Duck Egg Forest sign and ample parking. This is also part of the Duck Egg Trail - but on much flatter trails perfect for those looking for a less challenging out-and-back hike with beautiful scenery.

The hike follows logging roads and narrower dirt trails along the Bad Axe River branch. There are often trout fishers along this section. There are flowers in abundance along with frogs calling in spring and abundant bird life. You cross two bridges and come out in the valley and follow along the two large ponds. You reach a junction that continues along the main Duck Egg trail to the dam.

At this point, after about 1.2 miles, you can turn around and head back the way you came. There is an option to take a side trail after the ponds on your left called the Logger's Loop, which gives you a bit more elevation and mileage of the side of the bluff - or stay on the flatter Duck Egg Trail back to the parking lot.

THE HIKE

Choose the upper tailhead for a challenging 3.5 mile loop hike with overlooks, steep switchbacks, great hardwoods and river valley hiking with birds, flowers and ferns aplenty. The loop starts and ends in a grassy, prairie area atop the bluff. Choose the lower trailhead for a flatter hike beside the river and valley floor for an out-and-back hike of about 2.5 miles. Both hikes give a great view of forests, bottomlands and a profusion of wildlife and plants.

The Location 

Approximately 8 miles west of Viroqua, along Irish Ridge Road off of County Trunk Hwy. Y (43.59154, -91.00192). Both parking lots are large. There is a pit toilet at the Upper Parking Lot trailhead.  

Where's my horse?!? 
Image - Nola Larson

All images (unless noted) - Marge Loch-Wouters

Naturalist’s Corner - For the Birds

May is an amazing time to hike not just for the riot of flowers and plant life but also for the returning songbirds. Whether they stay or are just migrating through, the calls of these birds break the relative silence of our winter woods and prairies. 

Every night brings millions of migrating birds north to their nesting grounds. Birdcast, a website sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Colorado State University, and University of Massachusetts Amherst provides real time reports of migrations as well as 3 day forecasts. It’s pretty mind blowing to realize how large these migrations are.

We can help birds in these nightly migrations by being aware of how excess lighting at night makes it more difficult for our migratory bird populations. Birdcast recommends actions any of us can do to help the migrating birds at their website:

Turn off non-essential lights from 11 PM until 6 AM during critical migration periods.

• Turn off or dim lobby and atrium lights.
• Turn off or dim interior home lighting, or draw blinds to prevent light escaping.
• Turn off decorative landscape lighting.
• Turn off lights before leaving the home or office.
• Be sure outside lights are aimed down and well shielded.
• Install motion sensors on outside lights to minimize use.

While we love our over-wintering birds like bluejays, cardinals, chickadees and nuthatches, seeing the woods fill again with our migratory birds is delightful. It’s great to welcome back to the woods the eastern towhee, northern water thrush, Baltimore oriole, yellow-throated vireo and other familiar birds who will mate, nest and raise their young here

Right now the warbler migration is just beginning. These sprightly small birds migrate quickly through the Driftless area, primarily in May. Already I’ve seen and heard Nashville, blue-winged, palm and yellow warblers while birding friends have reported the rare prothonotary warblers in wetlands. There are many more warbler species that will be traveling through.

World Migratory Bird Day is coming up on Saturday May 11. It is held annually on the second Saturday in May. Take advantage of guided bird walks to discover and learn more about our migratory birds passing through (check this recent blog post for free birding events  in the Driftless this weekend).

And if you haven’t, please consider downloading and using  the Cornell Lab’s Merlin app as you hike. It helps even amateurs like me more easily identify and learn the songs and calls of birds in woods, prairies and wetlands. And to spot these sometimes elusive birds!

Minnesota Driftless Hiking Trail (MDHT) Development News

I have blogged about the Minnesota Driftless Hiking Trail before. I wanted to update you with some very brief tidbits from their most recent newsletter. There is no doubt in my mind about the hard work that all the MDHT volunteers have been doing to make the following happen. 

I encourage you to access the newsletter by subscribing. It will keep you informed on the MDHT happenings. Just stop by their webpage and sign up for the free email newsletter or check their Facebook page for updates.

Here's some tidbits:

Funding!

Thanks to MN's Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF), MDHT will soon be receiving over $400,000 to hire a full-time director, trailbuilding equipment and access to a trail design and building consultant. 

Pilot Project Selection!

MDHT was selected this spring as a pilot project for a U of M's grant that provides technical support to community. The team will help with developing digital and print mapping standards; develop trail standards; and create plans to integrate the trail with existing communities that mutually benefit each other.

Mapping Exploration!

A group of hikers have been hiking possible routes and recording GPS data to be used in planning the routes with partners and designers.

501(c) Status Achieved!

Ongoing Fundraising!

Through donations and merchandise sales and partnerships. This remains vital since the MN ENRTF funding is reimbursement-based.

Community Outreach!

Doing presentations throughout SE MN to inform people of the plans and encourage people to volunteer and support the project. Plans are afoot to host the MDHT folks at the La Crescent Public Library in the coming months. Details will follow.

Landowner Outreach!

Ongoing meetings with landowners along possible routes to gage interest and answer questions.

To read all the deets, the spring newsletter is here. Check it out to get the real scoop. It's a great time for hiking!