Hello! Well, we completed the last of our avian prairie point counts on Tuesday morning. The last survey took place in a meadow, the acreage of which is fairly close to that of our Sunday, existing prairie survey. Most of the birds we counted were more of the same species we’d found in the other two sites. But we were thrilled to find several individuals (three confirmed, and possibly four) of a state endangered species, the Henslow’s Sparrow. I did get a few photos, but they were from a distance that proved a challenge for my little camera, so I won’t post them here. It was a fun amble, and discovering those Sparrows was quite exciting!
Mark and I also did a little wandering today in a new area, the Wolsfeld Woods SNA (Scientific and Natural Area). It’s not a long trail, at 2.8 miles, comprised of several intersecting loops of primarily old-growth northern hardwood forest. The forest contains Red Oak, Sugar Maple, Basswood, and American Elms; there is also a lovely lake about 34 acres in size, and some prairie and marshland areas. 
The trail is not really maintained (we actually lost it once), and you are likely to encounter some muddy ruts here and there. But even though the trail undulates consistently, the way is not challenging. Be prepared for mosquitoes and ticks. While we didn’t pick up any hitchhikers, I’m happy to say, it was a muggy day and as we built up a sweat the mosquitoes became progressively troublesome. Aside from that, the forest was delightfully shadowy and cool, with a slight breeze. The SNA borders County Road 6 in Medina/Orono, and we could hear traffic sounds most of the time, but once you get into the forest those noises do soften a bit, and it’s easy to let them fall into the background and focus on birdsong.
With such a thick canopy overhead, there isn’t a lot of undergrowth in much of these woods, but every so often we’d find a nice carpet of green – such as this expanse of maple saplings (above). There were also a wealth of insects here, including many species of dragonflies and damselflies. At one point along the trail we seem to have disrupted a rather large family of long-legged spiders, and watched them scatter in all directions. We quickly moved to the side of the trail and left them in peace – hopefully we didn’t step on many, or any! We also found these tiny butterflies, happily and peacefully feeding away alongside a beetle. Inclusivity is a good thing!
Among the shadows and downed trees it was easy to find various species of lichen and fungi, and I took a few pics of several. This one is my favorite, though…
I did a little Google search on this SNA after our wanderings, and read that many folks seem to feel that this is not a good place to “get away from it all” as it is heavily used. We only encountered two people (and three dogs) on our walk, so our peaceful experience might have been an anomaly. But we certainly enjoyed it, and regardless of how well used it might be, it is quite a beautiful forest. We definitely recommend it. I’ve included a couple of guided walks in Wolsfeld Woods on the Walking Events page, under the Trail Markers tab, that might interest you as well!
Until next time… happy wandering!