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

The weather was truly hike-worthy again these past two weeks. Mostly sunny, 70-80s with just a few hot days at the end of these two weeks. We had some rain early in July (hello, 4th of July) but then cooler nights and sporadic showers for the rest of the time. We finished the two weeks with a day or two of heavy pop-up storms.

But all in all, plenty of opportunities to be out in nature. Happy Marge! 

Sadly, all that fine rain brought on hordes of mosquitoes and gnats. So it's been headnet, DEET and lots of Afterbite in my backpack and on me on the trails. The woods and wetlands have been particularly pesty. So it's challenging when seeing all the fungi and ferns to pause long enough to admire and identify them.

Prairie at the end of 
King' Bluff Trail

What does that leave? The previous two posts on prairies (Naturalist's Corner - Driftless Prairies and Driftless Prairie Hikes of Summer) telegraphed where my friends and I were hiking during this time. Yup, the prairies.

While I love all types of habitats in my hiking, summer is really reserved for the prairies. Every week or two the native prairie plants move on in a succession of beautiful and surprising ways. 

For instance, of the many flowering plants I saw last Friday, I spotted my first poppy mallow and spotted bee balm of the season at Holland Sand Prairie. In another two weeks, more flowers will be up while older ones fade. It is a constant carousel of new sights. Plus, the winds on the prairies often mean fewer mosquitoes and gnats. Yes!

I have once again split the plants I observed these past weeks into their individual hikes. There is such a difference between wetland and forest, sand prairie and blufftop remnant.

Plants 

La Crosse River Marsh Trail - wetlands

• Spiderwort
• Hairy vervain
• Salsify
• Yellow sweet clover
• White sweet clover
• Indian hemp
• American germander
• Hoary allyssum
• Yarrow
• Phlox
• Oxeye Daisy
• Common milkweed
• Cattails
• Mullein

Maglessen Bluff - hardwood forest/goat prairie

• Harebell

  

  Leadplant bloom
  Maglessen Bluff

• Common milkweed
• Butterfly weed
• Leadplant
• Oxeye Daisy
• Prairie coreopsis
• Black-eyed Susan
• Feverwort
• Mullein 
• White sweet clover
• Purple clover
• Phlox

Winona East Lake, MN - wetlands/park 

• Great St. John's wort

  

  Yellow Toadflax
  Lake Park, Winona

  
  
• Yellow toadflax
• Purple  coneflower
• Black-eyed Susan
• Spiderwort
• Bergamot
• Cup plant, unbloomed
• Common milkweed
• Butterfly weed
• Flowering spurge
• Sunflower, unbloomed
• Tall goldenrod
• Motherwort

Great River Bluff's State Park - forest/prairie

• Tall cinquefoil

  

  Burtterfly weed
  Great River Bluff State Park prairie

  
  
• Bergamot
• Gray-headed coneflower
• Compass plant
• Flowering spurge
• Lance-leafed coreopsis
• Ninebark
• Common milkweed
• Early goldenrod
• Purple prairie clover
• Lady fern
• Butterfly weed
• Leadplant
• Harebell
• Prairie coreopsis
• Yellow salsify
• Bloodroot, past bloom
• Rough blazing star, pre-bloom
• Tall thimbleweed
• Tick trefoil
• Yarrow
• Giant ragweed, pre-bloom

Mathy Quarry -bluff top prairie

• Grey-headed coneflower
• Chicory
• Tall goldenrod
• Canada goldenrod
• Giant goldenrod 
• Oxeye daisy
• False sunflower
• Spiderwort
• Black-eyed Susan
• Common milkweed

Whitewater State Park -hardwood forest/goat prairie/wetland

• Broadleaf enchanter’s nightshade

  

  Pinewood gingertails
  Whitewater State Park
  
  

  
  
• Pointed leaf tick trefoil
• Tall hairy agrimony
• White snakeroot
• Tall bellflower
• Wild bergamot
• Virgin’s bower
• Harebells
• Tall boneset
• Butterfly weed
• White prairie clover
• Prairie coreopsis
• Leadplant
• Purple prairie clover
• Hairy sweet cecily, unbloomed
• Bulblet fern
• Lady fern
• Hay-scented fern
• Interrupted fern
• Rockcap fern
• Maidenhair fern
• Pinewood gingertail mushroom
• Bloodroot, past bloom
• Nettles
• Jack in pulpit, past bloom 
• Bottlebrush grass
• Water chickweed
• Giant chickweed
• White avens
• Grey-headed coneflower 
• Black-eyed Susan
• Flowering spurge
• False sunflower
• Bellflower
• Fringed loosestrife
• Prairie blazing star, pre-bloom
• Self-heal
• Showy tick trefoil
• Starry campion

South Park - hardwood forest/goat prairie 

• Pinewood ginger tail mushroom

  

  Purple prairie clover
  South Park

  
  
• Scarlet elf cup mushroom
• Grooved flax 
• Tick trefoil
• Lady fern
• Maidenhair fern
• Interrupted fern 
• Whorled milkweed
• Tall thimbleweed
• Harebell
• Leadplant
• Yarrow
• Flowering spurge
• White prairie clover
• Purple prairie clover
• Salsify
• False boneset
• Few-leaf sunflower
• Prairie coreopsis
• Fleabane
• Rough blazing star, unbloomed
• Cylindrical blazing star, unbloomed
• False Solomon’s seal, past bloom
• Jack-in-the-pulpit, past bloom
• Eastern enchanter’s nightshade
• White rattlesnake root

Holland Sand Prairie - sand prairie

• Spotted bee balm

  

  Spotted bee balm's spots!
  Holland Sand Prairie

  
  
• Poppy mallow
• Tall cinquefoil
• Spiderworts
• Flowering spurge
• Leafy spurge
• Deptford pink
• White prairie clover
• Purple prairie clover
• Bergamot
• Black eyed Susan
• Sheep sorrel past bloom
• Yarrow
• Grey-headed coneflower
• Tall thimbleweed
• Hoary puccoon
• Grooved yellow flax
• White heath aster
• Salsify
• Stiff sunflower
• Butterfly weed
• Purple coneflower 

  

  Deptford pink - more spots
  on this tiny flower
  
  

  
  
• American germander
• Prairie rose
• Hoary alyssum
• White four-o’clock 
• Fewanther obscuregrass
• Narrowleaf hawksbeard
• Little starwort
• Rough blazing star
• False sunflower
• Stiff goldenrod
• White sagebrush
• Hoary verbena
• Stiff goldenrod
• Large beardstongue
• Fleabane
• Oxeye Daisy
• Prairie coreopsis
• 
  

Yellow River Forest, Luster Heights, hardwood forests

• Hairy Pagoda plant
• leadplant
• Prairie coreopsis
• Woodland sunflower
• Bluebell bellflower
• Dwarf chinquapin oak
• Flowering spurge
• Giant ironweed
• Canadian lousewort
• Sweet Joe-Pye weed
• Bulblet bladderfern
• Lady fern
• Interrupted fern
• Bracken fern

Wildlife

• Snowy egrets
• Barred owl
• Great horned owl
• Red-winged blackbirds
• American robin
• Great blue herons
• Hairy woodpecker
• Downy woodpecker
• Red-bellied woodpecker
• Indigo bunting
• Eastern wood-pewee
• Eastern Towhee
• Black-capped chickadee
• American goldfinch
• Bluejay
• Gray catbird
• Red-eyed vireo
• Cedar waxwing
• Rose-breasted grosbeak

  

  Ebony jewelwing damselfly

• Tufted titmouse
• Wood thrush
• Field sparrow
• Song sparrow
• Chipping sparrow
• Swamp sparrow
• Common yellowthroat
• American redstart
• Ovenbird
• Brown-headed cowbird
• Northern flicker
• White-breasted nuthatch
• Hermit thrush
• Purple martin
• Western meadowlark
• Deer
• Monarch butterfly
• Orange sulpher butterfly
• Ebony jewelwing damselfly 
• Cherry millipede
• Garter snake

What are YOU noticing on your hikes?

Two weeks of hikes:

Hikes below in bold color or underlined have links to previous posts with descriptions/location of the trails

La Crosse River Marsh trails, La Crosse WI; Maglessen Bluff, Rushford MN; Great River Bluffs State Park, King's Bluff Trail, Winona MN; Lake Park Trail, Winona MN; Mathy Quarry, La Crosse WI; Riverside Park, La Crosse WI; Whitewater State Park*, Altura, MN; South Park, Houston, MN; Holland Sand Prairie, Holmen WI; Yellow River Forest, Harper’s Ferry, IA

Prairie overlooking Mississippi River
Great River Bluffs State Park

* Enjoy this marvelous description of ALL the trails at Whitewater State Park from the Nature Impacts Us blog and website

All images, unless noted - Marge Loch-Wouters