The weather was mostly dry 80s and pleasant with only a few days of high humidity 90s near the end. A final set of strong storms dumping inches of rain in just a few hours ushered in cooler weather for the holiday weekend. Whew.
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| MN Master Naturalist class Image - Sara Holger |
During the past two weeks, it was fun to do a presentation to a MN Master Naturalist class out of Winona on post-certification volunteer work and lead them on an interpretive hike. It was great to see so many new faces and to re-connect with their instructor, Sara Holger. I hope if you have the opportunity, you consider this certification in your area.
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| Monarch on blazing star |
Now that we are hitting cooler and less buggy weather, I’ll be hiking back up to bluff tops to get bird's eye views of changing forest colors and wider vistas as foliage dies back. It's also a great time to start hiking some less-traveled trails that are very brushy in summer. They are lots easier - though burr-filled - in fall as the foliage dies back.
As we get to September, it's good to start taking precautions on trails as fall hunting seasons kick in. I shared some tips on this recently along with 2024 hunting season information for MN, WI and IA.
I will be going back to monthly “I Spy” phenology posts in September through the winter. I’ll also be off on some much anticipated fall adventures - canoeing up in Canada’s Quetico Provincial Park wilderness followed by a trip out west to explore trails in Utah and Colorado.
See you on the trails!
Plant Life- Bee balm
Stiff goldenrod - Woodland sunflower
- Ghost pipes
- White snakeroot
- Turkey tail shelf mushrooms
- Spotted bee balm
- Poppy mallow
- Bergamot
- Hoary verbena
- Partridge pea
- Swamp milkweed
- Common milkweed
- Whorled milkweed
- False sunflower
- Few-leaf sunflower
- Stiff sunflower
- Black-eyed Susan
- Brown-eyed Susan
- Cup plant
- Compass plant
- Sensitive fern
- Marsh fern
- Lady fern
- Eggs-and-butter (yellow toadflax)
- American wild mint
- White sagebrush
- Purple prairie clover
- American white water lily
- Common evening primrose
Wild perennial lupine - Common prickly ash
- Wild perennial lupine
- Guelder-rose bush
- Gray dogwood
- Arrowhead viburnum
- Great blue lobelia
- Tall thimbleweed, past bloom
- Roundleaf bittersweet
- Canada goldenrod
- Stiff goldenrod
- Showy goldenrod
- Gray goldenrod
- Purple loosestrife
- Swamp loosestrife
- Flowering spurge
- Leafy spurge
- White meadowsweet
- Tall boneset
- Water smartweed
White heath aster - Giant chickweed
- Prairie ironweed
- American wild mint
- Mullein
- Western silver aster
- White heath aster
- Calico aster, pre-bloom
- Hairy aster, pre-bloom
- Jewelweed
- Leadplant
- Wild rye grass
- Big bluestem grass
- Yellow Indiangrass
- Prairie cordgrass
- Spiderwort,
- Sagebrush lavender
- Grooved flax
- Prairie rose hips
- Roundleaf bushclover
Wildlife (seen, heard, detected)
- American Eagle
Monarch butterfly caterpillar - Sandhill cranes
- Pileated woodpecker
- Downy woodpecker
- Hairy woodpecker
- Red-bellied woodpecker
- American crow
- Blue Jay
- Black-capped chickadee
- American pelican
- Eastern wood-pewee
- American goldfinch
- Canada warbler
- Indigo bunting
- Barn swallow
- Field sparrow
- Northern cardinal
Milkweed bug - House finch
- House wren
- Baltimore oriole
- Grey catbird
- White-breasted nuthatch
- Monarch butterfly
- Swallowtail butterfly
- Clouded yellow butterfly
- Pearl crescent butterfly
- Milkweed bug
- Monarch butterfly caterpillar
- Milkweed tussock moth caterpillar
- Leopard frog
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
Upper Hixon Forest Prairies trail, La Crosse WI; Mt. Hosmer, Lansing IA; Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge, Trempealeau WI(2); Upper Mississippi National Fish and Wildlife Visitor's Center, Brice Prairie WI; Holland Sand Prairie, Holmen WI (2)
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| In a sea of rough blazing stars - Holland Sand Prairie Image -Lloyd Lorenz |
All images, unless noted - Marge Loch-Wouters
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