May 2018 – Forest Wandering

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Posted on May 24, 2018June 3, 2018

## The Wild Side

To begin, I tried to publish this post two days ago, but I’ve been having some technical difficulties with the site. Please excuse the delay!

Well, the 7 Day Challenge ended yesterday, and I can honestly say that I spent at least a half hour out of every one of those days outside. Due to work and other commitments, I wasn’t able to wander every day, but just getting out in nature was the primary goal. Since getting out in nature is my primary goal as well, it wasn’t too difficult to meet and exceed the half hour a day minimum requirement!

Mark and I spent several days in our own yard, taking care of some overdue spring chores: raking, trimming, weeding, planting, and pond maintenance. In the 26 years I’ve lived in our house, I’ve been diligent about avoiding adding any harmful chemicals to my yard. When Mark and I married, he was just as adamant that we continue that practice, which has extended to the
maintenance of the pond we built in the backyard almost seven years ago. So garden weeds are dealt with strictly by hand pulling and digging. The pond receives beneficial bacteria to help maintain the small ecosystem, and occasional barley in the spring to help keep algae blooms from taking over – nothing else is ever added. The pond community seems happy – these two Green Frog friends are two of eleven we have living there this summer. We turned the bottom of the front yard into a rain garden the same year we put in the pond, and it is thriving now, with little help from us other than some weeding. The annual event that, to me, proves choosing a natural yard was the right decision (not that I really need proof, to be honest), is the June arrival of fireflies. When I bought this house, in the early 1990’s, there were no fireflies (lightning bugs) in the neighborhood. A few years later I noticed a few, maybe a half dozen or so at the edge of the woods. From that point on, every year I’ve counted more and more of these fascinating tiny creatures, and today we have hundreds! They glitter among the trees in the woods, give the rain garden an almost Christmassy look, and seem to play hide and seek among the plants surrounding the pond. Watching them is mesmerizing and magical – and I don’t believe they would be here at all if we hadn’t provided a safe environment for them.

One day during the Challenge week, I did have to work all day. But that didn’t pose too much of a problem, as the day was spent outdoors with groups of young children, teaching them about lake and lakeshore habitats. It was such fun, and I’m quite sure I learned just as much as the children did. Before they arrived, I found a water scorpion in the shallows of the lake, and the kids had a great time looking for it – and were all so excited when they finally spotted it!
Two of the Challenge days I joined with a group of songbird banders I’m associated with, assisting with public banding programs. We don’t ever know for sure what we’ll end up with when banding songbirds, but we were kept very busy during both of these programs. In total we banded 64 birds, including a Black-billed Cuckoo (pictured here), which is a bird many of us had never seen before, and the banders hadn’t encountered at that location in almost 20 years! Quite exciting!

Even though it was a busy week, I did get out to do a little wandering. Mark and I took a walk along the Lake Trail at Carver Park, and spent a bit of time listening to this little House Wren singing away just before we left the park. It was a lovely ending to a wonderful week spent in the wild outdoors!

Posted on May 14, 2018May 14, 2018

## Warblers, Warblers everywhere!

I haven’t had a chance to post lately, but I have been walking. Today I want to write about some wandering Mark and I did at Minnewashta Regional Park on Friday. It was an overcast day, and a bit cool, but that made for great walking weather! We took the Woodland Trail, which winds along the lakeshore for a good portion of the way and, as advertised, it’s all woodland. The path is primarily grassy, which made a nice change from all the paved trails we’ve been walking lately…although there were one or two areas that we had to navigate due to a little mud (see photo)…

Actually, the muddy bits were few and the navigating was pretty easy – even the ruts in the photo weren’t as bad as they look – so don’t let a little mud deter you if you’d like to visit this park!

Birdlife has been abundant over the past week as migrants move through, and that includes Minnewashta Park. Warblers made up many of the species we spotted, such as Black and White Warblers, Chestnut-sided Warblers, a Mourning Warbler, American Redstarts, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Common Yellowthroats, Blackpoll Warblers, and especially Yellow Warblers, such as the one pictured here.

For those interested in birds, we did see other species as well… several species of sparrow, Red-winged Blackbirds, a Caspian Tern soaring and diving over the lake, a Great-crested Flycatcher, and this handsome Gray-cheeked Thrush.

The woods were quiet (aside from the section which borders Highway 41), and we only saw a couple of other people along the way. Of course, we were there on a weekday, which might explain some of the quiet!

This ramble was largely focused on birds, since there were so many around us. But the trail is beautiful even without so much birdsong and bird activity, and the woods serene. It wasn’t a long walk, but we spent a couple of hours lingering along the lakeshore and all through the forest. I certainly recommend this park to anyone who would like a short, peaceful break.

I’d also like to mention that tomorrow begins an initiative called the Rewild Your Life 7 Day Challenge. The challenge is to spend at least 30 minutes out in nature every day for seven days, and the idea is to help you relax, begin to improve your health, and to connect with nature. I will be taking the challenge, and encourage you to do the same. If you’re interested, you can check it out in more detail on the inspiring We Are Wildness Facebook page. There you will find a guidebook that can be downloaded at no charge. The book contains recommendations for your time in nature, inspirational content, space to write your own thoughts or sketch what you find on your walks, and even a nature scavenger hunt. If you take the challenge, I’d love to hear about your adventures and insights – and I will certainly be sharing mine with you!

Until then… a little Common Blue Violet from me to you…

Posted on May 4, 2018June 3, 2018

## The Paul Bunyan Trail

The legend of lumberjack Paul Bunyan is shared by many states, but the Paul Bunyan Trail in central Minnesota is where we headed this week, and where I learned more of the legend than I ever remember learning before. I won’t go very far into the folk tale here, other than to mention that it is, apparently, due to Paul’s companion, Babe the Blue Ox, that we owe the 10,000 lakes of Minnesota: Babe’s huge, deep footprints filled with water, giving us the many lakes we enjoy today. By the way… for the record, there are actually 11,842 lakes in Minnesota (bodies of water encompassing 10 acres or more), so evidently Babe really got around! The trail stretches from Baxter/Brainerd to Bemidji, and has rich historical significance as well as a wealth of natural scenery, including boreal forests and over 20 of Babe’s lakes. The trail itself follows an old railroad corridor originally built in 1893, and is currently the longest rail-trail in the country. The town of Nisswa, where we walked, has an old pioneer town and rail cars that are open to those who are interested in visiting and learning more.

However, although my husband is an avid railway buff, on this blog we are more interested in the surrounding countryside.

The entire 123 miles of the Paul Bunyan Trail is paved, so it is easy going. Most of the three miles we walked were bordered by conifers, making the path shady and relatively quiet. Our walk was an early evening amble, and although we met a few local human residents along the trail, we didn’t encounter many other species, at least on the way north. At the point where we decided to turn around to head back, we were greeted by an Eastern Phoebe, pictured here, but it was a short greeting and we were left alone again quite quickly. The point we chose to turn back was at the channel between Nisswa Lake and Lower Cullen Lake, and from this spot there is a view of both lakes. Lower Cullen Lake is close by and the perspective from the trail is serene, one can see much of the lakeshore through the trees. Nisswa Lake is on the opposite side of Highway 371, so there is some traffic noise, but the many trees do a good job of muffling those sounds, and the lake can be glimpsed beyond the highway. We lingered here, enjoying the sounds of the rushing water in the channel, as well as the warmth of the sun as it neared the western horizon. It’s a lovely spot, along a very beautiful trail.

The way back was almost as quiet, but as we neared the town of Nisswa we were serenaded by a cacophony of Sparrows. We identified White-throated, Clay-colored, and Chipping Sparrows, with a couple of American Robins joining in. They were all busily foraging for their last meals of the day, as the sun was beginning to set by then. We wandered slowly past them. It had been a busy day and Mark and I were both tired, but it was such a peaceful walk we didn’t want it to end. I would like to take in more of the Paul Bunyan Trail at some point – my guess is that most of the trail is just as lovely as the small portion we experienced this week!

Posted on May 1, 2018

## I can’t get enough…

This gorgeous warm spring weather has been so long in coming…I just can’t get enough of it! Between the sun’s pleasant rays, 81 degree temps, and a light breeze to keep us from getting overly hot, how could we possibly stay indoors? So yesterday Mark and I took another walk in Carver Park Reserve. This time we tried Maple Trail, which is a trail we took once before in late winter. I was hoping to see some Sandhill Cranes, as they’ve been seen flying that direction fairly frequently lately, but no luck there.

Most of Maple Trail winds through deciduous woodland, but one section cuts through a marshy area adjacent to the west end of Lake Zumbra, utilizing floating boardwalks to cross the wetland area. While in the woods, we spent most of our time peering up into the treetops, as Barred Owls are known to spend time in that area. Luckily Mark was looking at the trail ahead at one point, and spotted what looked like a brilliant spark of flame in the branches of a fallen tree. It turned out to be a male Baltimore Oriole, the first we’d seen so far this year. He was very intent on foraging among the branches of the tree, and paid no attention to us whatsoever. His vivid breast blazed alternately a deep orange and a radiant gold. Quite a striking bird, wouldn’t you agree?

As far as birds went, we didn’t see too much overall, but what we did see was memorable. Besides the Oriole, we watched a Bald Eagle soaring overhead while we were crossing the boardwalk, and heard the cackling call of another eagle to the west of us at the same time. Just as we were about to step onto the boardwalk, though, we realized that the way ahead of us was blocked by a Canada Goose, standing right in the middle of the walkway, preening. We moved slowly toward the goose, trying our best to appear non-threatening. Although it glanced our direction now and then, it largely paid us no heed. We spent some time watching dragonflies darting about, but finally, after a good 10 minutes, we got close enough and the goose slipped into the water so we could pass. Once we were out of the way, it immediately popped back up onto the same spot on the boardwalk and continued preening. What a courteous goose!

A bit further down the trail, we met two Hairy Woodpeckers (pictured here) having a rambunctious disagreement as we passed by. It was very interesting to watch.

Aside from bird song, and the occasional bird sighting, we were serenaded along much of the trail by frogs, mostly Chorus Frogs, I believe (although I’m not very good at identifying frog and toad calls yet). Even though we looked for them, most remained invisible to us, which was pretty much expected. However, I did get some glimpses of a couple of Green Frogs, such as the one I photographed here.

As exciting as all these encounters were, this walk was largely uneventful and very relaxing. We walked slowly and took our time, just enjoying the weather and the serenity of the woods. It’s amazing to me how many interesting and wonderful patterns and textures you can find, just by looking at trees. I thought these two trees in particular were fascinating… one looks to me like a group of dancers, all pointing slipper-clad toes in a close, graceful group. The other is a scar, with an arresting design where the tree healed.

If it weren’t for the fact that we were starting to get hungry, we didn’t want this walk to end! But we eventually did make our way back to the parking area. The last thing to catch our eyes before we left the trail was the upheaval pictured below – the signs of a fresh, barely underground tunnel left by an industrious mole!

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