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| Yellow lady-slipper Bass Hollow (WI) SNA |
...but I get stuck on the weather! In these unusual climate-change-fueled times, it's hard not to be aware of how far off the norm we get each month.
After a warm start to May, our second half swung cooler - and downright cold some days. We had an average of 50-60s for daytime temps most days, all redeemed by gorgeous weather in the 70s Memorial Day weekend (now THAT's unusual!).
We also had four days of good rain. How do I know? Those are my days to catch up on volunteer work, blogging, reading, cooking, cleaning and other home-ly inside tasks and fun. I welcome them because, if it's nice, I'm on the trails, pursuing fleeting ephemerals, migrating birds and anything else nature has to offer.
The two weeks ended with an air quality alert because of smoke from Canadian wildfires affecting southeast MN along with other northern tier states. If you see haze from fire far off, that same air surrounds you as well. If you do go outdoors on the trails, wear a mask to protect your lungs. You can read about hiking and wildfires here.
Now, what have I been spying as I hike….
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| Nothing but green! South Park, Houston MN |
The prairies are beginning to put on a real show. I'll be sharing some of my favorite prairie hikes next week.
I've especially appreciated spending time the last two weeks on two spring-burned prairies to revel in the vigorous growth popping up so quickly after the burns. Holland Sand Prairie has wild lupine, hoary puccoons, prairie smoke and groundsel galore in the newly burned areas.
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| Leonard's skullcap Brownsville Bluff (MN) |
Finally, I spent a fair amount of time during these two weeks doing our own tame-gardening work around the house - putting in herb and veggie gardens, cleaning up weeds, trimming overambitious native plants in the gardens and laying down 8 yards of mulch. I always consider these tasks my Ent-wife work and, though it needs doing, it's hard to give up my Entish trail days in the wild.
I hope you can head out before the real heat hits and fades the last of woody ephemerals. See you on the trails!
Plant ObservationsFlowering/Mature plants:
- alyssum, hoary
- anemone, Canadian
- anemone, candle (tall)
- anemone, rue
- anemone, wood
Bear corn fungi - bear corn
- bittercress, Pennsylvania
- bladderfern, bulblet
- bladderfern, lowland
- bluebells, Virginia
- buttercup, bristly
- buttercup, hooked
- buttercup, little leaf
- cecily, sweet
- cinquefoil common
- cheatgrass
- cliffbrake
- cohosh, blue
- columbine
- cutleaf sawtooth
- dewberry, northern
- fern, bracken
Silvery glade fern
Parfrey’s Glen SNA - fern, goldie's wood
- fern, intermediate wood
- fern, interrupted
- fern, lady
- fern, maidenhair
- fern, marginal wood
- fern, marsh
- fern ostrich
- fern, rattlesnake
- fern, rockcap
- fern, sensitive
- fern, silvery glade
- fern, Spinulose wood
- fleabane Philadelphia
- fleabane, prairie
- geranium, wild
- golden Alexander
- grass, prairie blue-eyed
Yellow star-grass
Brownsville Bluff - grass, yellow star
- ground cherry
- groundsel, prairie
- harebell
- horsetail
- Jack-in-the-pulpit
- indigo, wild cream
- lady-slipper, yellow
- lupine, wild
- mayapple
- mayflower, Canada
- miterwort, two-leaf (bishop's cap)
- orchid, rattlesnake plaintain
Showy orchis
Frontenac State Park - orchid, showy
- panicgrass, Scribner's
- phlox
- plantain, Robin's
- prairie smoke
- puccoon, fringed
- puccoon, hoary
- pussytoes, field
- pussytoes, Parlin's
- ramps
- raspberrry, dwarf
- rockcress, lyreleaf
- rockcress, smooth
- rose, multiflora
- rue, early meadow
- rue, woodland
- saxifrage, swamp
Lyreleaf rockcress and harebells
Image - Kris Lawson - sedge, eastern rough
- sedge, eastern star
- sedge, Pennsylvania
- sedge, seersucker
- skullcap, Leonard's
- skunk cabbage
- rattlesnake root, clustered black
- Solomen's seal
- Solomen's seal, false
- sorrel, sheep
- sorrel, violet, wood
- spurge, flowering
- spurge, leafy
- spiderwort
- spring beauty
- squirrel corn
- starflower
- sweet cecily
- thimbleweed, tall
- toadflax, bastard
- toothwort, cutleaf
- trillium, nodding (wake-robin)
Bloody butcher trillium
Eagles Bluff Park - trillium, prairie (bloody butcher)
- trillium, white
- trout lily, white
- violet, American dog
- violet, birdfoot
- violet, wood
- violet, yellow forest
- waterleaf, Virginia
- wild geranium
- wild ginger
- wild sasparilla
- strawberry, wild
- wintercress, common
- wood betony
Sprouts/unbloomed/past bloom:
- alumroot, American
- aster, large-leaf
- aster, silky
- beardtongue (penstmon)
- bloodroot
- carrionflower, greenbrier
- camus, death
- cinquefoil, sulphuric
- cinquefoil, tall
- coneflower, purple
- coreopsis, prairie (stiff tickseeed)
- Dutchman's breeches
- four o’clock, wild
Frog orchid
Brownsville Bluff - goldenrod, Canada
- goldenrod, showy
- goldenrod, stiff
- goldenrod, zigzag
- hepatica, sharp-lobed
- jewelweed
- leadplant
- lily, wood,
- milkweed, common
- milkweek, green
- milkweed, whorled
- monkshood, northern blue
- orchid, frog
- rattlesnakeroot, white
- sagebrush, white
- sunflower, few-leaf
- verbena, hoary
- wormwood, field
- yarrow
Fungi/Moss/Lichen:
- fungi, bear's corn
- fungi, witch’s butter
- liverwort, great scented
Witch's butter fungi
Bass Hollow SNA - moss, delicate fern
- moss, hair
- moss, haircap
- moss, juniper haircap
- spleenwort, ebony
- thyme-moss, woodsy
- mushroom, hexagonal polypore
- mushroom, oyster
- mushroom, pheasantback (dryad's saddle)
- mushroom, scarlet elfin cap
- mushroom, spring polypore
- mushroom, violet-toothed polypore
- bluejay
- cardinal, northern
- cedar waxwing
- chickadee, black-capped
- cowbird, brown-headed
- cuckoo, yellow-billed
- flycatcher, Arcadian
- flycatcher, blue-gray
- flycatcher, great crested
- flycatcher, least
- goldfinch, American
- grosbeak, rose-breasted
- Indigo bunting
- mockingbird, northern
- nuthatch, white-breasted
- oriole, Baltimore
- oriole, orchard
- ovenbird
- pewee, eastern wood
- redstart, American
- robin, American
- sparrow, chipping
- sparrow, clay-colored
Baltimore oriole
Frontenac State Park - sparrow, field
- sparrow, song
- swallow, barn
- tanager, scarlet
- thrasher, brown
- thrush, wood
- titmouse, tufted
- towhee, eastern
- vireo, Bell’s
- vireo, blue-headed
- vireo, red-eyed
- vireo, warbling
- vireo, yellow-throated
- warbler, black-and-white
- warbler, blackpoll
- warbler, blue-winged
- warbler, Tennessee
- warbler, yellow
- wild turkey
- woodpecker, downy
- woodpecker, hairy
- woodpecker, red-bellied
- wren, Carolina
- wren, house
- yellow-bellied sapsucker
- yellow- billed cuckoo
- Vireo, Bell’s
- vireo, blue-headed
- vireo, red-eyed
- vireo, yellow-throated
- yellowthroat, common
Waterfowl:
- Canada goose
- egret, snowy
- heron, great blue
- mallard
- pelican
- swan, trumpeter on her nest
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| Wood frog Image- Kevin Gilmartin |
- timber rattlesnake
- wood frog
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| Honeybees |
- bee, honey
- butterfly, blue azure
- butterfly, eastern swallowtail
- butterfly, monarch
- butterfly, mourning cloak
- grasshopper, green-legged spur-throated
What are YOU seeing on your hikes?
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| Bass Hollow SNA |
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
Bass Hollow State Natural Area, Mauston WI; Frontenac State Park, Frontenac MN; Eagle's Bluff Park, La Crescent MN; Holland Sand Prairie, Holmen WI (2); Duck Egg County Forest, Vernon Co (WI), Brownsville Bluff, Brownsville MN; South Park, Houston, MN, Devil's Lake Park, Baraboo WI; Parfrey's Glen SNA, Baraboo WI; Abelman's Gorge, Rock Spring, WI
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| Parfrey’s Glen Image - a sister hiker |
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| Ancient sand ripples in quartzite Abelman’s Gorge SNA |
Images, unless noted -Marge Loch-Wouters
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