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| Wild lupine after rain |
The two most prominent notes to the past two weeks are diminished air quality due to smoke from Canadian wildfires and plenty of rain coming through. I mask up on the trails when the air quality is poor. Predictions are that we will be facing these wildfire air quality alerts throughout the summer.
The rain has kept me in my waterproof hiking boots more often than not when I am on the prairies and grassy trails. It has also brought a Goldberry-washed freshness to many of the flowers and greenery along the trail.
Mosquitoes and a mayfly or two have also popped up. Dragonflies, damselflies and bees are becoming a prominent part of the hiking scene along with other flying pollinators. It's fun trying to catch a picture to identify those swiftly flying insects, but I'll admit to limited success.
As mentioned in a previous post, it was a big year for black locust blooms. Last year was a huge year for wild lupines. The year before, oak trees went…ahem…nuts in a mast year for acorns. It's interesting to track conditions and speculate which environmental factors favor super-bloom years for plant - and animal - life.
Our temps stayed relatively cool through the first part of June - mostly in the 60s-70s with one or two 80-90s day before storms. Also some 50s…brrr! The tomato plants are longing for some warm days and nights.
In the woods, the rain has been especially kind to fungi growth - mushrooms and fungi are popping up everywhere along the trails. Ferns are also much in evidence in the wet understory. There are far fewer flowers along these forest trails. Nettles and poison ivy are also rambunctious on forest trail sides. So I continue spending the majority of my hiking time in the prairies that show off their rare and wonderful flowers.
June also has been a busy time with the return of many guided learning hikes for kids and adults. I’ll be writing about some of my favorites from this month in upcoming posts.
See you on the trails!
Plant Observations
Flowering/Mature plants:
Plant Observations
Flowering/Mature plants:
- alyssum, hoary
Longleaf summer bluet - anemone, Canadian
- anemone, candle
- beardtongue, foxglove
- beardtongue, large
- blacksnakeroot, clustered
- bluet, longleaf summer
- buttercup, littleleaf
- camus, mountain death
- carrionflower, smooth
- cinquefoil, tall
- cliffbrake
- columbine
- false indigo bush
- fern, brittle bladder
- fern, bracken
- fern, interrupted
- fern, lady
- fern, maidenhair
- fern, rockcap
Canadian frostweed - fern, sensitive
- fleabane, prairie
- fleabane, Philadelphia
- four o’clock
- frostweed, Canada
- golden Alexander
- ground cherry, Virginia
- harebell
- hawkweed
- honewort, Canadian
- horsetail, field
- horsetail, smooth
- indigo, wild white
- Jack-in-the-pulpit
- figwort, lanceleaf
- goat’sbeard, yellow
- hemp, Indian
- indigo, wild white
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| False Solomon's seal |
- lily of the valley, feathery
- lobelia, pale-spiked
- lupine, wild
- milkwort, racemed
- miterwort, figleaf
- nightshade, bitter
- plantain, woolly
- prairie smoke
- puccoon, fringed
- puccoon, hairy (Carolina)
- puccoon, hoary
- rockcress, lyreleaf
- rose, multiflora
- rose, prairie
- rose, smooth
- rose, wood
- salsify, yellow (goatsbeard)
- skullcap, Leonard
- smartweed, water
- starwort, longstalk
- Solomon's seal, false
Ohio spiderwort - spiderwort, Ohio
- spurge, flowering
- starwort, grass-like
- thimbleweed, tall
- Virginia waterleaf
- wild geranium
- wild strawberry
- yarrow
- yellowcress, creeping
Sprouts/unbloomed/past bloom:
- alumroot, Richard's
- bergamot, wild
- blazing star, rough
- black-eyed susan
- clover, purple prairie
- clover, round-headed bush
- coneflower, grey-headed
Emerging purple coneflower
Holland Sand Prairie - coneflower, purple
- coreopsis, prairie
- cup plant
- dwarf-dandelion, two-flowered
- fleabane, daisy
- garlic, wild
- goldenrod, Canada
- goldenrod, showy
- goldenrod, stiff
- greenbrier, bristly
- hemp, dogbane
- hyssop, anise
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| Wood betony's complex leaves Eagles Bluff Park |
- ironweed, prairie
- Joe-Pyeweed
- leadplant
- milkweed clasping
- milkweed, common
- milkweed, whorled
- motherwort
- ox-eye daisy
- sagebrush, white
- sagewort, field
- Solomon’s seal, smooth
- toadflax, bastard
- verbena, hoary
- wood betony
Grasses/Sedges:
- brome, downy
Fewanther obscuregrass
Holland Sand Prairie - brome, smooth
- junegrass, prairie
- needlegrass, porcupine
- obscuregrass, fewanther
- panicgrass, Scribner’s
- sedge, eastern star
- sedge, eastern woodland
- sedge, troublesome
- wedgescale, prairie
Fungi/Moss/Lichen:
- fungi, crown-tipped coral
Orange mycena fungi
Hixon Forest - fungi, orange mycena
- mushroom, buttercup
- mushroom, golden oyster
- mushroom, hexagonal polypore
- mushroom, pheasantback (dryad's saddle)
- mushroom, pinwheel
- mushroom, scaly inkcap
- mushroom, scarlet elfen cup
- mushroom, stalked scarlet cup
Wildlife Observations (seen, heard, detected)
Birds:- blackbird, red-winged
- blue jay
- bluebird, eastern
- cardinal, northern
- catbird, gray
- cedar waxwing
- chickadee, black-capped
- cowbird, brown-headed
- eastern towhee
- finch, house
- finch house
- finch, purple
- flicker, northern
- flycatcher, alder
- flycatcher, Arcadian
- flycatcher, great crested
- flycatcher, willow
- gnatcatcher, blue-gray
Indigo bunting - Hixon Forest - goldfinch, American
- grosbeak, rose-breasted
- hawk, broad-winged
- indigo bunting
- junco, dark-eyed
- killdeer
- kingbird, eastern
- kinglet, ruby-crowned
- martin, purple
- meadowlark, eastern
- mockingbird, northern
- oriole, Baltimore
- oriole, orchard
- osprey
- redstart, American
- robin, American
- sapsucker, yellow-bellied
- sparrow, chipping
- sparrow, clay-colored
Prothonotary warbler
Wagon Wheel Trail - sparrow, field
- sparrow, Henslow’s
- sparrow, house
- sparrow, song
- sparrow, swamp
- swallow, tree
- thrasher, brown
- thrush, wood
- titmouse, tufted
- towhee, eastern
- vireo, Bell's
- vireo, red-eyed
- vireo, warbling
- vireo, yellow-throated
- warbler, black-and-white
- warbler, Nashville
- warbler, pine
- warbler, prothonotary
- warbler, yellow
- woodpecker, downy
- woodpecker, hairy
- woodpecker, red-bellied
- wood-pewee, eastern
- wren, Carolina
- wren, house
- yellowthroat, common
Waterfowl:
- egret, snowy
- heron, great blue
- swan, trumpeter
- tern, black
Mammals:
- coyote
- deer and her fawn
- squirrel, red
Reptiles/Amphibians:
- turtle, Blandings
- turtle, snapping
- turtle painted
Insects:
- bee, sweat
- butterfly, little wood satyr
Little wood satyr butterfly
Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge - butterfly, pearl crescent
- butterfly, eastern swallowtail
- butterfly, swallowtail
- butterfly, monarch
- damselfly, bluet
- dragonfly, blue dasher
- dragonfly, twelve spotted skimmer
- mayfly
- mosquito
- moth, eight-spotted forester
What are YOU seeing on your hikes?
Two weeks of hikes
Hikes below in colored, bold type or underlined have links to previous posts OR descriptions/location of the trails found online
Vetsch/Stoney Point Park, La Crescent, MN; Apple Blossom Overlook Park, Winona County MN; Holland Sand Prairie, Holmen WI (2); Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge, Trempealeau WI; Hixon Forest, La Crosse, WI (2); Wagon Wheel Trail, La Crescent MN; Eagle's Bluff Park, La Crescent MN; Bluffside Park, Winona MN
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| Narrowing trails after early June rains Eagles Bluff Park |
The "I Spy on the Trails" column is a phenology (the study of seasonal changes in plants and animals) journal to chronicle year-round the weather, plant life and wildlife I observe while hiking. It is very useful in helping me compare observations from year-to-year. The column is published monthly from September through April and then twice-a-month from May through August when warm weather brings the natural world back to vibrant life.
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| In my favorite monster fern forest Bluffside Park, Winona MN |
Images, unless noted - Marge Loch-Wouters
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