I Spy on the Trails - April 2026

April wildflowers along the trail
Beaver Creek Valley (MN) State Park

Some weather we’ve been having. Not as much warmth and sun during the first half of the month and succeeding days of horrific storms with high winds, sporadic tornadoes and hail from pea-sized to baseball-sized swirling around the Driftless. A brief cold snap in the second half of the month was followed by welcome warmer temps before a plunge into the 30’s followed by 70s followed by 50s followed by…is your head spinning yet? April showers raised river and creek levels, and jumpstarted leaf, grass and dandelion growth. I went though my full annual panoply of hiking clothes and gear on April hiking adventures!

Meanwhile the woods are waking up throughout the region. There is a colorful palette of early ephemeral risers - bloodroot, ramps, Dutchman's breeches, shooting star, Pasque flower, bishop's cap (twoleaf miterwort), springbeauty, trout lily, hepatica, bellwort as well as hardier plants like pussytoes and rockcress lyreleaf. Every day in woods, wetlands and prairies, there are delights to be found.

My favorite find this month was a small patch of snow trillium, growing a short way up an algific talus slope. These small, very rare, long-lived trillium are most often found on limestone soil in late winter/early spring. Unlike most trillium, they are not found in leaf litter. To actually see this endangered plant blooming is amazing. It was my first-ever sighting and made me feel like my sheroes, the Flower Chasers!

GranstaffCanyon, Moab UT
Image - Kris Lawson

In mid-April, I joined some of my local hiking buddies for a week-long spring hiking trip to Utah. I usually head there in late fall. Going in spring, with so many blooming desert wildflowers, was a revelation - and a real delight for the eyes and senses.

I hope you can get into any nearby woods in the next few weeks to spot/listen for warblers migrating through and the ephemerals poking up into the sun before they are shaded out by leaves. It is truly a glorious time to be hiking!

Plant Observations
Flowering:

• anemone, false rue

  

  Bishop's cap

• anemone, rue
• anemone, wood
• bellwort, large-flowered
• bishop's cap (two-leaf miterwort)
• bittercress
• bluebell, Virginia
• bloodroot
• buttercup, bristly
• buttercup, little-leaf
• buttercup, prairie
• dutchman's breeches
• fern brittle bladderwort
• fern, lady
• fern, bulblet bladderfern
• fern, lowland bladder fern
• fern, ostrich
• fern, rockcap

  

  Brittle bladderfern

  
  
• fern, spinulose wood
• fern, walking
• hepatica, roundlobe
• hepatica, sharplobe
• Jack-in-the-pulpit
• lyreleaf rockcress
• moonseed, common
• orchid, showy
• Pasque flower
• phlox, wild blue
• pussytoes, field 
• ramps
• sedge, longbeak
• sedge, Pennsylvania
• shooting star

  

  Birdfoot violet

  
  
• springbeauty
  
• toothwort , cutleaf 
• trillium, white
• trout lily
• wakerobin, nodding
• waterleaf, Virginia
• violet, birdfoot
• violet common blue
• violet, downy yellow
• wild ginger

Sprouting:

• anemone, candle
• avens, white
• bastard toadflax
• beardtongue, large
• beebalm, spotted
• carrionflower, upright
• cecily, sweet
• chervil
• cohosh, blue
• columbine
• fern, northern maidenhair
• geranium, wild
• golden alexander
• goldenrods
• Jacob's ladder
• jewelweed
• leafcup, small flowered

  

  Rattlesnake plantain

  
  
• mayapple
• orchis, showy (orchid)
• plantain, rattlesnake
• prairie smoke
• puccoon, hairy
• rattlesnakeroot, white
• sedge, white bear
• snakeroot, black
• Solomon's seal, false
• Solomon’s seal, smooth
• spleenwort, ebony
• wakerobin, nodding
• wintercress
• yarrow

Fungi/Moss/Lichen

• lichen, great scented liverwort

  

  Pig's Ear fungi

  
  
• moss, American tree
• moss, delicate fern
• moss, haircap
• moss, silvery thread
• moss, woodsy-thyme
• mushroom, Dryad’s saddle
• mushroom, oyster
• mushroom, golden oyster
• mushroom, pig’s ear (gyomitra perlata)

Wildlife observations (seen, heard, detected)
Birds

• blackbird, red-winged
• blackbird, rusty
• bluebird
• blue jay
• cardinal, northern
• chickadee, black-capped
• cowbird, brown-headed
• crow, American
• eagle, bald
• finch, house
• flicker, northern
• gnatcatcher, blue-gray
• goldfinch
• grosbeak, rose-breasred
• hawk, Cooper’s
• hawk, red-tailed

  

  Getting a hawks-eye view
  Wyalusing (WI) State Park

  
  
• killdeer
• kinglet, gold-crowned
• kinglet, ruby-crowned
• kingfisher, belted
• meadowlark, eastern
• nuthatch, white-breasted
• owl, barred
• phoebe, eastern
• robin, American
• sparrow, clay-colored
• sparrow, field
• sparrow, house
• sparrow, song
• sparrow, swamp
• sparrow, white-throated
• swallow, northern rough-winged, 
• swallow, bank
• swallow, tree
• titmouse, tufted
• towhee, eastern
• turkey, wild
• warbler, black-and-white
• warbler, cerulean
• warbler, golden-winged
• warbler, palm
• warbler, yellow
• warbler, yellow-rumped
• waterthrush, northern
• woodpecker, downy
• woodpecker, hairy
• woodpecker, pileated
• woodpecker, red-belllied
• wren, Carolina
• wren, northern house

Waterfowl:

• cormorant, double crested
• crane, sandhill
• egret
• duck, bufflehead
• duck, mallard
• duck, northern shoveler
• goose, Canada
• grebe, pied-billed
• heron, blue
• pelican
• tern, Caspian
• wood duck

Mammals

• Little brown bat

Insects/Arachnids

• beetle, red-necked false blister

  

  Juvenal duskywiing butterfly

• bumblebee, common, queen
• butterfly, blue azure
• butterfly, comma
• butterfly, duskywing, Juvenal
• butterfly, tiger swallowtail

Utah Hiking Observations

Plants

• bitterbrush
• blackbrush
• bristly fiddleneck

  

  Claretcup cactus
  Canyonlands Needles district, UT

  
  
• broom snakeweed
• claret cup cactus
• desert biscuitroot
• desert globe mallow
• desert princesplume
• evening primrose, birdcage
• evening primrose, tufted 
• firecracker penstemon
• globmallow, gray
• London rocket
• mat rock spirea
• Mormon tea (ephedra)
• narrowleaf yucca
• northwestern indian paintbrush
• redstem stork's bill
• rose-heath
• scorpionweed
• scrub oak
• shadscale saltbush
• silky lupine
• southern maidenhair fern
• spreading fleabane
• stemmy four-nerve daisy
• sweet alyssum
• tamarisk
• Utah juniper
• western tansy mustard
• western wallflower
• wooly bluestar

What are YOU seeing on your hikes?

A month 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, Holman WI (4); Great River Bluff State Park, Nodine MN; Yellow River State Forest, Harper’s Ferry, IA (2); Riverside Park, La Crosse, WI; Fish Farm Mounds SNA, New Albin, IA, Trollkor’s Trail, Decorah IA; Norwegian Ridge, Spring Grove, MN; Wyalusing State Park, Bridgeport, WI; Beaver Creek Valley State Park, Caledonia MN; Chicago urban hiking, Chicago IL; La Crosse Marsh Trail, La Crosse WI; Duck Egg County Forest, Vernon County WI; 

Utah hikes: Arches National Park, Moab UT; Canyonlands National Park, Moab UT (2); Granstaff Canyon, Moab UT; Goblin Valley State Park, Hanksville UT (2); Fisher Towers, Moab UT

Images, unless noted - Marge Loch-Wouters

Trout Run Trail, Decorah IA

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.

Checking out the desert blooms
Fisher Towers, UT