Nature Sneak Peek - October 2026

October really marks the end of most of our wild plant growth and the transitory migration period of much of our summer birds. We use different eyes on the trails this month. Eyes that look to the treetops and skies and eyes that scour the ground and trees to spot elusive fungi. 

What will we see on the trails this month?

Trees

Fall Leaf Color

Tamaracks
Image - EEK! Environmental Education for Kids

The leaves in the Driftless will spend most of the month finishing their life cycle. The stem end is sealing and getting ready to loose the leaves from the trees and bushes. And of course before that happens, spectacular color is in store followed by the more muted umbers of later fall. By Halloween, save for oaks and a few other late tree species, most leaves of deciduous trees will be down.

Tamarack Gold

These trees are a deciduous conifer. In mid- to late October, the needles of these woods and wetlands trees turn a golden yellow. Then they shed their needles 

Plants

October is the swan song for the very last flowering plants. Mostly we see seedheads with their feathery tops ready for October and November to blow their seeds far and wide. You will still see a few blooming flowers but once frost hits, blooms and insects alike are tough to find.

Asters 

These forbs still linger. These small-petaled beauties have a surprising large family of white, pink, blue and purple forms. They are especially prominent on woods walks and lend a bright pop of color alongside fading ferns.

Gentians
A few gentian species may hang on as well. If you are lucky, you may spot bottle gentian, stiff gentian or yellow gentian tucked away near sunnier wetlands and wild prairies.

Grasses

The towering grasses, in full seed, dominate prairies.

Hardy Bloomers

Keep an eye out for very late-blooming coneflower species, brown-eyed Susan, evening primrose, yarrow, and goldenrods. These bloomers are often smaller and tucked in among taller grasses and plants.

Birds

Migratory Songbirds
Songbirds have been heading to their wintering grounds since late August. The woods and filelds have quieted with only the sounds of bluejays, woodpeckers, owls and other over-wintering birds to pierce the soundscape. With leaves off the trees it is easier to spot sparrows in their late migration passing through. Watch Cornell University's Birdcast for forecasts of large nightly migrations like we had overnight on Thursday, October 1. Sunday's night's forecast is predicted to be huge for bird migration in the Driftless again. Be sure to turn off your lights at night to help these migrators.

Migratory Waterfowl

The diving ducks join the dabblers in migration. Geese and swans (trumpeters and tundras) are more numerous. Their migration is far from done but you will spot these water birds more often in open water, ponds and sloughs.

Grouse

Listen for the drumming of grouse on woods walks. Older males often drum when this year's now-grown chicks enter their territory.

Insects

Autumn meadowhawk - 
Note the reddish color

Crickets and Grasshoppers 

These hardy insects continue their busy lives and are, until frost, a sound most often heard on the prairie.

Autumn Meadowhawk Dragonflies

These are some of the last dragonflies active in the fall season. Their distinct red abdomen make them easy to spot. Watch for any sunny spot in wetlands and near water this month and you will see them warming before they continue their hunting activity.

Fungi

Wood ear fungi

Keep your eyes on trailsides, stumps, deadwood - and grass! Fall is a most excellent time to spot mushrooms, ghost pipe, and fungi of every kind and description. From edible maitake mushroom to dog nose fungus to lobster mushroom to wood ear and coral fungi to fairy fingers to dryads saddle to crowded parchment mushroom, there is a fungus or non-plant feast in the woods each fall.

No matter where you go this month, be curious. Take some extra time to look and see what you can see along the trail. You’ll be delighted!

Fairy fingers fungi

Images, unless noted - Marge Loch-Wouters

Rough blazing star seedhead displays remarkable beauty

You can read my quarterly column on seasonal observations and hiking suggestions in Inspire(d) Driftless magazine available online or pick up a free copy at businesses and organizations around the Driftless areas of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa.

A bee caught in October frost
Local Image - origin unknown (sorry)

I Spy On the Trails - September 2026

September full moonrise
Badlands National Park

If it’s September, I must be traveling! 

I spent time with my longtime paddling buddies in Upper Michigan’s Sylvania Wilderness during the first part of the month. This small canoe wilderness near and in the Ottawa National Forest has old growth forest, hiking trails and quiet enough to paddle, hike and relax in. 

After a week back home to gather my wits and repack, I was off with these same friends on a road trip to meet up with three of our Colorado Slickrocker hiking group gang for Badlands National Park exploring. Lots of laughs, good conversations and trail time.

Based on the above, I can’t say much about September’s Driftless climate other than what I’ve read! Suffice it to say, we had moderate and slightly warmer temperatures, some real gullywasher rain and a pleasant Autumn Equinox. Frost wasn’t yet in the picture.

Ghost pipes everywhere

We are well into the slowdown and final seed production of plants and forbs. Mushrooms are heavily evident in Driftless areas that have received rainfall this past month. Ghost pipes are in their glory. Asters and tall grasses are also at their peak.

Songbird migration has been heavy this month, often increasing ahead of dropping cold fronts. The first swans are just starting to appear along the Mississippi Flyway. Canada geese continue their flights as well. Observant eyes have spotted migrating egrets, cranes and herons in the area. Monarch butterflies are also  migrating through. Migrations of birds and insects will continue through fall.

I hope you enjoyed this mild September on the trails and are looking forward to the colorful time ahead.

Plant Observations
Bloomed:

• aster, aromatic

  

  Panicled aster

  
  
• aster, blue-wood
• aster, calico
• aster, Drummond's
• aster, hairy
• aster, large-leaved
• aster, New England
• aster, panicled
• aster, sky-blue
• aster, western silver
• bellflower
• brown-eyed Susan
• fern, braken
• fern bulblet bladder
• fern, interrupted
• fern, interripted wood
• fern, lady
• fern, maidenhair
• fern, New York

  

  Stiff gentian (agueweed)

  
  
• fern, sensitive
• fern, spinulose wood
• gentian, stiff (agueweed)
• goldenrod, Canada
• goldenrod, elm-leaf
• goldenrod, gray
• goldenrod, showy
• goldenrod, tall
• goldenrod, zigzag
• grooved flax
• lobelia, great blue
• self-heal
• sunflower, false
• sweetfern
• thistle, field
• white rattlesnakeroot
• white snakeroot

Past Bloom/Fruited:

• American spikenard

  

  Blue cohosh

  
  
• blue cohosh
• bluebead lily
• false Solomon's seal
• hairy Solomon's seal
• Jack-in-the-pulpit
• leadplant
• white baneberry

Grasses/Sedges:

• grass, bluestem, big and little
• grass, eastern bottlebrush
• grass, yellow indiangrass

Moss/Fungi/Lichen:

• fungi, coral

  

  Well-named snakewort lichen
  Image - Laurie Arzaga

  
  
• ghost pipe
• lichen, snakewort
• moss, broom forkmoss
• moss, delicate fern
• moss, interrupted club 
• moss, red-stemmed feather
• moss, treelike clubmoss
• mushroom, brittlegill russula
• mushroom, crowded parchment
• mushroom, dryad's saddle
• mushroom, honey
• mushroom, lobster
• mushroom, northern tooth

  

  Crowded parchment mushroom

  
  
• mushroom, pearly webcap
• mushroom, puffball
• mushroom, red-gilled cort
• mushroom, rosy russula
• mushroom, turkey tail
• mushroom, two-colored bolete
• mushroom, white grissette amanita

Wildlife (seen, heard, detected):

Birds:

• belted kingfisher
• blue jay
• cardinal, northern
• cedar waxwing
• chickadee, black-capped

  

  Ruby-throated hummingbird

  
  
• crow, American
• egret
• flicker, northern
• goldfinch, American
• goose, Canada
• great blue heron
• grosbeak, rose-breasted
• hummingbird, ruby-throated
• junco, dark-eyed
• loon, common
• nuthatch, red-breasted
• nuthatch, white-breasted
• owl, barred
• pelican, American
• raven
• robin, American
• swan, trumpeter
• veery
• vireo, red-eyed
• vireo, yellow-throated
• warbler, yellow-rumped
• wild turkey
• wood-pewee, eastern
• woodpecker, downy
• woodpecker, hairy
• woodpecker, pileated
• woodpecker, red-bellied
• yellowthroat

Insects/Arachnids:

• bumblebee, common eastern

  

  Unexpected cycnia moth caterpiller
  - yes, that's it's actual name!

  
  
• bumblebee, tricolored
• butterfly, monarch
• caterpillar, banded tussock moth
• caterpillar, turbulent phosphila moth
• caterpillar, unexpected cycnia moth
• dragonfly, autumn meadowhawk

Reptiles/Amphibians:

• snail, western dusky
• toad, American

Badlands Observations

Plant Life:

• aster, aromatic

  

  Curlycup gumweed
  Gummy and fun curls on the seed head

  
  
• aster, false hairy 
• aster, white heath
• coneflower, prairie
• fleabane, prairie
• goldenrod, Missouri 
• gumweed, curlycup
• grass, blue grama
• grass, crested wheatgrass
• grass, green needlegrass
• grass, Indian ricegrass
• grass, little bluestem
• grass, thread leaf sedge
• milkweed, whorled
• mullein, common
• prickly pear, twist spine
• rabbitbrush, rubber
• sagewort, prairie
• saltlover
• snake weed, broom
• sunflower, common
• verbena, hoary
• yucca, great plains

Wildlife

• beetle , reticulated net-winged

  

  Western meadowlark
  Image - Linda Pohle

  
  
• bison
• bumblebee, gyne, southern plains 
• eagle, golden
• meadowlark, western
• mule deer
• prairie dog
• pronghorn
• spider, jumping cardinal

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 and/or location of the trails found online.

Hixon Forest, La Crosse WI (2); Holland Sand Prairie, Holman WI; Sylvania Wilderness, Watersmeet MI; Reno Quarry, Reno MN;  Castle Trail, Door Trail, Window Trail, Cliff Shelf Trail - Badlands National Park, Wall, South Dakota 

See you on the trails!

Checking out a waterfall near Sylvania
Wilderness Area in Upper Michigan
Image - Sue Knorr

The "I Spy on the Trails" column is a phenology (the study of seasonal changes in plants and animals) journal to chronicle the weather, plant life and wildlife I observe while hiking year-round. 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.

Images, unless noted - Marge Loch-Wouters

Roadside encounter in the Badlands
Image - Sue Knorr

You can read my quarterly column on seasonal hiking suggestions in Inspire(d) Driftless magazine available online or pick up a free copy at businesses and organizations around the Driftless areas of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa.

Naturalist's Corner - Fungi Fun

A wreath of turkey tails around a stump

Wow! The late summer and early fall woods have been a wonderland of interesting fungi. While the flowers of the prairies and forests are fading, the mushrooms are still popping.

We often hunt for mushrooms for tasty eating. Who can resist a morel, chicken of the woods, chanterelle or lobster mushroom? But there is much to be said for simply delighting in and learning to identify the mycelium network's endless parade of interesting fungal fruit.  

Fruit? Yes, fruit.

Mushrooms and fungi are the fruiting bodies of the vast, intricate mycelium network that stretches underground, often for miles. Mushrooms use enzymes to break down organic material rather than photosynthesis. They are the great decomposers of the earth. The material that is broken down eventually becomes soil. We see that decomposition work in every branch or tree trunk covered in fungi that we pass along the trail. And, if we stay alert on the sides of the trails we hike, there are many delightful fungi to catch the eye.

Looking at the inside stem of
a chanterelle mushroom
on a guided hike

If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend going on a guided hike or two with mushroom experts. They provide great tips on finding and identifying both edible and non-edible fungi. As someone new to mushroom identification, I found these learning experiences really helpful as my eyes got more attuned to fungi finding. Plus I'm lucky to have lots of hiking buddies who share my delight - and much sharper eyes than mine!

As a newbie, I often see a mushroom on the trails that I can't identify. I take photos from different angles and then head home to work on more accurately identifying the fungi. Apps like Picture Mushroom, Shroom ID, Shroomify can help to get a first general ID but can be pricey.  Seek can sometimes come in handy but often can only do a generalized identification.

So I start my real study with Teresa Marrone and Kathy Yerich's field guide, Mushrooms of the Upper Midwest. This guide is small enough to carry in a back pack but I am often hiking at pace and don't have the time to linger. At home, I can take my time to compare my photos and their descriptions to come up with an identification. 

Below are a few of my favorite fungi pictures from the last several months. I hope you keep your eye out for the next few weeks while you're leaf-peeping and see what you can find!

The common but always beautiful 
dryad's saddle or pheasant back mushroom

Jelly tree ear fungus

A herd of orange mycena mushrooms

Fluted elfin saddle mushroom

An intricate wrinkled peach mushroom

Very tiny purple fairy finger mushrooms

Not cheetos, but delicate golden club mushrooms

Chicken of the woods

Dog's nose fungus

Snow jelly fungus

An "old" old-man-of-the-woods

Scarlet waxy cap mushroom

Lung oyster mushroom

Indigo milkcap mushroom

Shaggy mane mushroom going to ink

Purple-gilled laccaria

See you on the trails!

Images - Marge Loch-Wouters

I Spy on the Trails - September 2025

Foggy morning start on the bluffside
Image - Kris Lawson

September is always a month of transitions. The trees continue to shut down their  chlorophyll production and "gray" out more. Their full color change in the Driftless has just begun to hint at the coming colors. 

Mornings and evenings are dewy and often foggy.  It's not unusual to hear coyotes barking and baying and barred owl calls are more prominent.  

Crickets and grasshoppers dominate the sound scape. Songbirds continue their migration in massive numbers through our area which leaves the mornings to our more permanent resident winter birds. 

Big bluestem seeds

The flowers that brightened our hikes have been slowly exhausting their blooms throughout the month. Many forbs that filled the trails at the beginning of the month are now done flowering.  A few late asters and the late goldenrods remain. Grasses have set seed as well. The pollinators are few and far between as the forbs go to seed.

Purple fairy fingers
Burntside Lake, Ely MN

Mushrooms and other fungi love the cool damp of September and the mycelium network is fruiting everywhere. They have fascinated me throughout the month and given me plenty of time to learn them a little better. A trip up to Minnesota's Arrowhead to the North Shore and Ely introduced me to a number of new-to-me mushrooms and fungi. I love their variety. Many are toxic so I just admire them unless I know what I'm doing - and then, num, chicken of the woods!

Guide Nancy introduced me to
Kellogg Weaver Dunes

Weatherwise, our month began with a bit of a nip and then settled into some beautiful 70's weather which then morphed into some sticky humid mid-80s. The second half of the month saw temperatures moderate into a more normal September pattern before turning up the heat to usher the month out. We had a bit of rain here and there during the month before a giant dump of 2-3" in the last full week. Climate change makes for whiplash weather.

Sagittarius reflected in
Burntside Lake, Ely

With the autumn equinox now here, our skies darken earlier and on dry, haze-free nights, the star-gazing has been awesome. Orion and Sagittarius are rising, a sure sign of advancing fall and coming winter.  The dark skies up in Ely revealed the Milky Way as a bright slash across the sky - a view I miss, living so close to city lights.

It was a slow hiking month after I pulled something in my knee and my doctor suggested I give it a three week rest to see if it would bounce back. I chose gentle, flatter ambling walks and wandered along the edges of woods and prairies while we traveled to catch sight of what I could. Amazingly enough, there was plenty to see even though the hikes were short.

I was very excited to have this blog featured in an article in the Mississippi Valley Conservancy newsletter and website. Big thanks go out to Karen Solverson and Kelly Sultzbach for sharing the story of the blog!

At Frontenac State Park
Nature School

I had the opportunity to go on a couple of Nature School Classrooms guided hikes before my knee conked out on me. The hikes were incredibly inspiring and rich in information. These Nature School opportunities contribute to my annual training hours to maintain my MN Master Naturalist volunteer certification but anyone would benefit. 

They included: 

Prairie Walk/Talk - Sea of Grass authors Dave Hagar and Josephine Marcotty hiking prairie trails and sharing their research and writing on prairies and their importance. Frontenac (MN) State Park

Damsel and Dragonflies - Jeff Fischer of the MN Dragonfly Society presented on damsel and dragonflies, delving into the different types of this fascinating onodata insects and their lifecycle before we went into the field to try to capture some (sorry too cold for them!). Frontenac (MN) State Park

There are still plenty of great guided hikes and learning and volunteer opportunities coming up in October. I hope I see you on one.

See you on the trails!

Plant Observations

Flowering/mature plants:

• alyssum, hoary

  

  Dewy white heath aster

  
  
• aster, blue wood
• aster, calico
• aster, Drummond’s
• aster, hairy 
• aster, large-leaved
• aster, silky
• aster, smooth blue
• aster, white heath
• aster, white panicle
• black-eyed Susan
• blazing star, rough
• boneset, false
• buttercup, prairie
• cardinal flower
• cliffbrake, western dwarf

  

  Drug eyebright
  Ely MN

• compassplant
• coneflower, grey-headed
• everlasting, pearly
• eyebright, drug
• fern, brittle bladder-
• fern, bulblet bladder-
• fern, interrupted 
• fern, lady
• fern, northern maidenhair
• fern, sensitive
• fern, spinulose wood 
• fern, sweet
• fleabane, prairie
• hawkweed, narrowleaf
• hawkweed, orange
• hawkweed, smooth
• Jerusalem, artichoke
• jewelweed, orange
• jewelweed, yellow 
• goldenrod, Canada
• goldenrod, elmleaf
• goldenrod, field
• goldenrod, giant
• goldenrod, gray
• goldenrod, Missouri

  

  Whorled milkweed flower

• goldenrod, showy
• goldenrod, stiff
• goldenrod, tall
• goldenrod, zigzag
• milkweed, whorled
• primrose, evening
• snakeroot, white
• spurge, flowering
• sunflower, fewleaf
• sunflower, false
• sunflower, stiff
• tansy, common
• thistle, field
• vervain, blue
• vervain, hoary
• violet, bird’sfoot
• wild bergamot
• wormwood, field
• woundwort, marsh
• yarrow

Sprouts/past bloom:

• bushclover, roundhead
• cinquefoil, tall
• coreopsis, prairie

  

  Goat’s rue, Ely MN

• fameflower
• goat's rue
• goldenrod, showy
• Jack-in-the pulpit
• leadplant
• loosestrife, fringed
• milkweed, common
• partridge pea
• Pasqueflower, eastern
• puccoon, hairy (Carolina)
• sagebrush, white
• sweet cecily
• tarragon,
• thimbleweed, cylindrical

Fruited:

• bittersweet, American
• carrionflower, midwestern
• cucumber, wild
  

  

  Midwestern carrionflower fruit

• prairie rose
• Solomon's seal, false
• spikenard, American 

Grasses/sedges:

• cattail
• flatsedge, tall
• grass, bluestem big
• grass, bluestem little
• grass, eyelash
• grass, beardless wildrye
• grass, Canada wildrye
• grass, prairie dropseed
• grass, smooth brome
• indiangrass, yellow
• lovegrass, purple
• panicgrass, Scribner’s
• switchgrass

Fungi/moss/lichen:

• cryptobiotic soil crust (cyanobacteria, mosses, lichen, algae, microfungi)
• feathermoss, red-stemmed
• forkmoss, broom
• lichen, eastern specked shield

  

  Chicken of the woods

• lichen, hooded sunburst
• lichen, mortar dot
• lichen, orange firedot
• mushroom, amanita, false death cap
• mushroom, artist's conk
• mushroom, blew it
• mushroom, bolete, slippery jack
• mushroom, chicken of the woods
• mushroom, deceiver, purple-gilled
• mushroom, dryad's saddle
• mushroom, fairy fingers, purple
• mushroom, flat oysterling
• mushroom, funnel cup
• mushroom, golden trumpet (fuzzy foot)
• mushroom, honey
• mushroom, inky
• mushroom, lactarius (milkcap)

  

  Stocking webcap mushroom

• mushroom, lobster
• mushroom, mycena, orange
• mushroom, oyster
• mushroom, puffball
• mushroom, rosy russula
• mushroom, shaggy mane inky cap
• mushroom, stocking webcap
• mushroom, russula, rosy (bloody brittle gill)
• mushroom, turkey tail
• mushroom, yellow club

Wildlife Observations (seen, heard, detected)
Birds:

• blackbird, red-winged
• blue jay
• bluebird, eastern
• cardinal, northern
• cedar waxwing
• chickadee, black-capped
• crow, American
• eagle bald
• finch, house
• goldfinch, American
• grosbeak, rose-breasted
• grouse, ruffed
• hawk, red-tailed
• killdeer
• kingfisher, belted
• lark, horned
• nuthatch, red-breasted
• nuthatch, white-breasted

  

  Palm warbler
  Image - Merlin Bird ID

• ovenbird
• owl, barred
• pheasant, ring-necked
• raven
• robin, American
• sparrow, house
• sparrow, Lincoln's
• sparrow, savanna
• sparrow, swamp
• sparrow, vesper
• sparrow, white-throated
• thrush, hermit
• thrush, gray-cheeked
• thrush, water
• vireo, red-eyed
• vireo, yellow-throated
• warbler, palm
• warbler, yellow-rumped
• wood pewee, eastern
• woodpecker, hairy
• woodpecker, pileated
• woodpecker, red-bellied
• woodpecker, red-headed

Waterfowl:

• crane, sandhill
• goose, Canada
• heron, great blue
• loon, common
• pelican, American
• teal, blue-winged
• wood duck

Insects/arachnids:

• beetle, end band net-winged
• beetle, goldenrod soldier

  

  Leonard’s skipper butterfly
  Image - Kris Lawson

• bumblebee, brown-belted
• bumblebee, common eastern
• bumblebee, half-black
• bumblebee, two-spotted
• bumblebee, yellow
• butterfly, clouded yellow
• butterfly, Leonard’s skipper
• butterfly, pearl copper
• butterfly, pearl crescent
• butterfly, regal fritillary 
• butterfly, Monarch
• butterfly, mourning cloak
• caterpillar, milkweed tussock moth
• damselfly, tule bluet
• dragonfly, autumn meadowhawk
• dragonfly, green darner
• dragonfly, black saddlebags

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.

Bluffside Park, Winona MN (2); Holland Sand Prairie, Holmen WI (2), Frontenac State Park, Old Frontenac MN (2); Weaver Sand Dunes, Kellogg, MN (2); Wagon Wheel Trail, La Crescent MN; Hubbard Hills, Viroqua WI; Riverside Park/Marsh Trails, La Crosse WI (2); Amnicon Falls State Park, Superior WI; Echo Trail Road, Ely, MN; Gunflint Trail Road, Grand Marais, MN; Lytle's Landing, Brice Prairie WI, La Crosse River State Trail, La Crosse WI

Undulating sand dunes at Kellogg Weaver Dunes
Image -Nola Larson

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.

Images, unless noted - Marge Loch-Wouters

What bee is that?
Image - Kris Lawson