I Spy on the Trails - August 1-15, 2025

On a sunny day, Canadian wildfire smoke dims Queens Bluff
and obscures the WI bluffs across the Mississippi River

Interesting summer. This is the third time in the last six weeks high temps, humidity, pounding rains and poor quality air due to Canadian wildfires (red and orange levels of particulate) have haunted us. Blufftop views were seriously affected by the smoke on many days. If the air quality and rain permitted - which has been iffy and kept me inside working on the blog almost non-stop - early bird hiking was my jam. And I admit, masked hiking when the air quality is this poor is not fun for me. My eyes especially object and hot sweaty hiking under a mask is...moist.

There is still a definite August look to fields and forests. The leaves on the trees have lost their deep greens of early summer and sport a slight grey-green tone. The shorter days (closing in on 1.5 hours less daylight since the summer solstice) are beginning the first signals to the leaves to slow down their chlorophyll production. While we haven't had the usual slow dip in nighttime temps, I am hoping that is not too far away now.

Yellow Indian grass and little bluestem
at Holland Sand Prairie

The fields of prairie forbs are transitioning from the riotous colors of coneflowers, bee balm, and sunflowers to the more subdued shades of flowering spurge and the prairie grasses of big and little bluestem, Canada wildrye and yellow indiangrass. But more color is waiting in the wings - goldenrods are just coming into bloom and I look forward to the pops of color the blazing stars will bring out shortly. 

Outside my office-window - a hummingbird and monarch

Bumblebees, butterflies and hummingbirds have been nectaring and gathering pollen at a frantic pace. I look outside my office window into our front yard pollinator garden and am dazzled by the action. Crickets are making their songs heard at night and firefly breeding time is winding down so less twinkling lights in the dark.*

I am starting to plan more ambitious bluff hikes in anticipation of late August's slightly cooler days. Adventures ahead.

See you on the trails!

*and, no, fireflies aren’t disappearing off the face of the earth. While some species are threatened, they remain robust. We can up their chances of delighting us for generations to come by planting native pollinator plants, avoiding chemicals on our lawn and pulling shades down and drapes shut when lights inside are on at night.

Plant Observations

Flowering/mature plants:

• agrimony, tall hairy
• alyssum, hoary
• bee balm, spotted
• bellflower, tall
• bergamot, wild
• black-eyed Susan
• blazing star, cylindrical (Ontario)
• blazing star, prairie

  

  Rattlesnake master

• blazing star, rough
• boneset, false
• brown-eyed Susan
• bushclover, roundhead
• cinquefoil, tall
• clover, purple prairie
• clover, while prairie
• cohoah, blue
• coneflower, cutleaf
• coneflower, grey-headed
• Culver's root
• cup plant
• evening-primrose, common
• evening-primrose, lesser four-point
• fern, bracken

  

  Rockcap fern

• fern, bitter bladder-
• fern, interrupted
• fern, lady
• fern, maidenhair
• fern, ostrich
• fern, rockcap
• fern, sensitive
• flax, grooved
• fleabane, daisy
• fleabane, prairie
• germander, American
• goldenrod, Canada
• goldenrod, early
• goldenrod, elmleaf
• goldenrod, giant
• goldenrod, gray
• goldenrod, prairie (white flat-topped)
• goldenrod, showy

  

  Just blooming purple poppy mallow
  Image - Kris Lawson

• goldenrod, stiff
• goldenrod, tall
• harebell
• jewelweed
• mallow, purple poppy
• milkweed, butterfly
• milkweed, whorled
• mountain mint, Virginia
• mullein, common
• onion, prairie
• pagoda plant, hairy
• partridge pea
• poppy mallow, purple
• rattlesnake master
• self-heal
• snakeroot, white
• spiderwort, Ohio
• spiderwort, Virginia
• spurge, flowering
• sunflower, few-leaf
• sunflower, false
• sunflower, stiff
• sunflower, thinleaf
• sunflower, woodland
• toadflax, yellow (butter-and-eggs)
• verbena, hoary
• yarrow

Sprouts/unbloomed/past bloom:

• anemone, candle

  

  False Solomon’s seal fruit

• aster, aromatic
• aster, white heath
• blazing star, rough
• goldenrod, showy
• goldenrod, stiff
• indigo, white cream
• leadplant
• milkvetch, Canadain
• milkweed, common
• sagebrush, white
• Solomon's seal, false
• thimbleweed, tall

Fruited

• false Solomon's seal
• mayapple
• Solomon's seal seal

Grasses/Sedges:

• grass, big bluestem
• grass, little bluestem
• grass, bottle-brush
• grass, eastern bottle-brush
• grass, Canada wildrye
• grass, side-oats grama
• grass, smooth brome
• grass, switchgrass
• indiangrass, yellow

Fungi/Moss/Lichen:

• mushroom, American slippery jack

  

  American slippery jack - it’s slimy!

  
  
• mushroom, brown bitter bolete
• mushroom, conifer sulpur
• mushroom, crown-tippedcoral
• mushroom, inky
• mushroom, lumpy bracket
• mushroom, lung oyster
• mushroom, milk cap (lactarius)
• mushroom, ruby bolete
• mushroom, scarlet elfen cup
• mushroom, turkeytail
• mushroom, veiled oyster
• mushroom, weeping bolete
• mushroom, wrinkled peach

Wildlife Observations (seen, heard, detected)
Birds:

• blackbird, red-winged
• bluebird, eastern
• blue jay
• cardinal, northern
• catbird, gray
• cedar waxwing
• chickadee, black-capped

  

  Eastern kingbird

• crow, American
• finch, house
• flycatcher, great-crested
• goldfinch, American
• hawk, red-tailed
• indigo bunting
• killdeer
• kingbird, eastern
• nuthatch, white-breasted
• oriole, Baltimore
• oriole, orchard
• purple martin
• robin, American
• sparrow, field
• sparrow, song
• swallow, barn
• swallow, cliff
• titmouse, tufted
• towhee, eastern
• warbler, yellow
• woodpecker, downy
• woodpecker, pileated
• wood-pewee, eastern
• wren, house
• wren, sedge
• yellow-bellied sapsucker
• yellowthroat, common

Waterfowl:

• crane, sandhill

Insects/arachnids:

• bumblebee, American

  

  Common eastern bumblebee

• bumblebee, common eastern
• bumblebee, brown-belted
• bumblebee, black-and-gold
• bumblebee, lemon cuckoo
• bumblebee, two-spotted
• butterfly, monarch
• butterfly, great spangled fritillary
• caterpillar, pale tiger moth
• damselfly, citrine forktail
• damselfly, stream bluet
• damselfly, tule bluet
• damselfly, white-legged
• dragonfly, eastern amberwing
• dragonfly, autumn meadowhawk
• dragonfly, white-faced meadowhawk
• dragonfly, 12-spotted skimmer
• spider, yellow garden

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

Holland Sand Prairie, Holmen WI (2); Great River Bluffs State Park, Nodine MN; Apple Blossom Overlook Park, Winona County, MN; Wildcat Mountain State Park, Ontario WI

Walking into the storm on the weekly
Holland Sand Prairie phenology hike
Image -Kris Lawson

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.

Prairie goldenrod (white flat-topped)

Images, unless noted - Marge Loch-Wouters