Weaver Dunes

Today I volunteered to collect seeds at Weaver Dunes Scientific and Nature Area which is run by the Nature Conservancy. The location is near the town of Kellogg. I was the first  person to arrive. On the driveway I spotted this mature Blandings turtle. I stopped the car and approached the turtle. I waited a few minutes. I talked to it. I explained the danger of waiting in the road. I touched it with my foot. The turtle wouldn't move. Another car approached. A man got out. Together we went to see the turtle which had decided at that point to move off the road. We followed the trail of it's tail and found it waiting in the tall grass on the way to a pond. The female Blandings turtle are sexually mature at age 14 so seeing one this size was very satisfying. This is turtle nesting time.

This is a hairy puccoon.

Our goal was to collect porcupine grass. I put a bungee cord around some belt loops and ran the handle of a milk jug through the cord. I think I gather a little more than half a cup of seed. Porcupine grass has sharp seeds. Seriously sharp seeds. You could remove a splinter from your skin with one of these seeds. One seed even punctured the plastic of the milk jug. The seed tips are heavy and have a long attachment called an awn. We removed the awns so the seeds wouldn't get all twisted together.

The prairie was very pretty. I have never seen so much healthy and lush poison ivy in my life. I washed my clothes and took a shower when I got home. This delicate beauty was all over the hills. This is called a larkspur which is in the delphinium family.

Besides our leader from the Nature Conservancy, four other men made up our group.

This is called goat's rue.

Our leader said they found a new species of milkweed on an east facing hill. She spent an hour looking for it. Last week it was knee high and had a flower bud on it. She found it but most of the plant had been eaten. This is a clasping milkweed. The leaves attach to the stem in a different way that other milkweed.

I always thought of this as goat's beard but the actual name is salsafy. Salsafy sounds much like satisfy. Salsafy is how you feel after you eat a tasty taco.

Our three hours were almost up when we found this fawn lying next to the roadway. I thought one older man in our group would really enjoy seeing this fawn since he seemed to love nature so much. I point out the fawn and wait for his reaction. He pretends to shoot it with a gun. You can never tell with some people.

 

Bats

 Tonight the Winona bird club had a meeting. Our speaker is a member of the Wisconsin Bat Ambassadors program. She gave an interesting and enthusiastic talk about the bats in Wisconsin which are the same eight species that we have in Minnesota. Four of our bats dwell in caves in the winter and they migrate. Living communally like that makes them more susceptible to disease. The other four species dwell in trees or rock walls. They like to get under the bark or between the stones. She showed us videos of bats using echolocation to find moths at night. The closer they get to the moth the faster they make the echolocation noise. This noise is undetectable to the human ear but it can be heard with an echolocation detection device. Also, the bats don't put the food directly into their mouths. They have a flap of skin between their feet called a uropatagian. Bats use this skin to catch moths or mosquitoes and put them into their mouth. The uropatagian is also used to hold baby bats while they nurse. Bats are very important to our ecosystems.

 

 

Unlucky Seppman

I have made 3 visits to Minneopa State Park. On my second visit I didn't see any bison but a fellow hiker told me they were opening up the road through the bison prairie probably the next day. So today was warm weather so I went out there again. I drove over the cattle grate to get in. I saw the bison near the Seppman Mill. Louis Seppman decided a mill was necessary. He was a stone mason. He started building the mill in 1862. Construction was finished in 1864. On a favorable windy day he could mill 150 bushels of wheat into flour. In 1872 lightening struck the mill and broke off 2  the arms of the 4 armed wind mill. He repaired the mill. In 1880 a tornado came and tore off 2 arms. In 1890 another storm came and damaged the mill beyond repair. 1890 was the last time the mill ever produced flour. The mill was repaired in 1970 but no wind mill arms were ever attached. The doors on the mill were all locked but there were gaps to look inside. The inside is empty but I could smell the dank, musty air that flowed coolly out of the gaps in the wood. After a quick lunch I drove out of the bison prairie, parked my car, and walked around the perimeter again. Lots of people had the same idea today. The picture below shows the bison on the prairie and in the background you can see a truck driving down the gravel prairie road.

Minneopa

I am staying in Mankato for a couple weeks. Today I visited Minneopa State Park. First I walked to the waterfalls.

Then I drove to the day use area and decided to take a long (5 mile) walk around the bison pen. I didn't see any bison for the longest time. A half hour before I got back to my car I saw the bison. Despite what the song "Home On The Range" says, we do not have buffalo in Minnesota. Buffalo are native to Asia and Africa. Bison are native to the Americas and Europe.

I watched the bison eat for ten minutes or so. They are digging down below the dried grass to get the new green shoots that are coming up. This prairie had 24 bison. I didn't see any bison calves. March must be too early for them to give birth.

 

Hot & Humid

Today I decided was a good day to take my exercise to a place that is good for my skin and my health.

A yellow warbler takes a bath.

A myloplus fish swims by.

The sloth eats some dry Caesar salad.

The ball python can stay in the aquarium, thank you very much.

A Galapagos tortoise parks next to a light pole.

A side necked turtle goes by. This turtle can be either left necked or right necked. They can withdraw their heads completely into their shell for safety.

 

An Otter As Tall As Me?

I was reading an article in the Conservation Minnesota about river otters. I was astounded to read they are between four and five and a half feet long. I am not even five and a half feet long or tall. That blew my mind.

 

Over-achiever Beaver

This morning I drove to West Duluth and parked behind the Willard Munger Inn which is across the street from the Duluth Zoo. I walked along the path towards downtown when I saw evidence of some busy beavers at work.

That is a pretty big tree! Why don't they cut down the saplings?

Wow, we got some over-achiever beavers around here.

Cripe on a cracker!

This is getting ridiculous.

I walked for an hour and then had lunch in my car. After lunch I walked down to the Boy Scout campground to look around. This would be a nice spot to camp in the summer. I picked out a few of my favorite spots (with electricity, next to the water, separate from the other campsites). Then I walked 1.5 miles back to my car. I saw Canadian Geese, a pileated woodpecker (male-he had a red mustache), crows, ravens, Mallards, Coots, Gulls, and Blue Jays. I heard but did not see a Northern Shrike. I would have liked to have seen it too. The landowners along here have pulled in their docks for the season. Boats, paddle boats, canoes, and kayaks are settled on top of the docks.

 

Chimney Rock

 I was super excited to come back to Winona because a lady had a 1 bedroom house available for rent for only $800 and it was RIGHT ON THE RIVER! Turns out she listed it as available before the current tenant decided to move. And he's not moving now. I should be glad I didn't get it because I would not like her as a landlord. Shucks. Maybe I'll return in May and look again. In the paper I read about a Festival of Trees at the Winona Hospital. I got there about 9:30. Fifteen older women were just setting up. The festival starts tomorrow. I looked around anyway. Since I was parked next to the lake I decided to go for a walk around it. I always like to carry a leaf or a stick or a pine cone in my hand when I walk. I walked into the grassy area next to the lake where the lotus flowers grew. I was real happy to get a lotus seed pod to hold. It rained some but I had a rain coat on. I thought about all the cool animals or birds I have seen this year. I saw manatee in Crystal River. I saw a black bear in Tamarack Park. I saw a weasel right on this path in Winona. I saw a golden winged warbler at Maplewood State Park. I saw a green anole in Little Rock. In a couple weeks I need to go to Duluth to get my teeth cleaned. Maybe I will take Highway 1 into Ely and hopefully see a moose. By the time I got back to my car I needed to use the restroom so I went back to the hospital and saw the festival of trees. Then I drove over to Levee park to see the Mississippi. Both the Winona University research boat and the tour boats were out in the water out of sight. I did see one tug boat. I drove over near the library to read the Winona paper and the Saint Paul Pioneer Press. Tomorrow I will scoot over to Minneapolis to vote with Offspring #2.

You can see chimney rock across the lake. The yellow tree on the left in a gingko which is one of my favorite trees. My former friend, Monica, had gold earrings shaped like gingko leaves and I always admired them.

Tamarack National Wildlife Refuge

My friend and I drove 30 minutes to the Tamarack National Wildlife Refuge which I have heard about but never visited. We stopped by the ranger station and we found out where the best spots were to see a golden winged warbler. We didn't find any golden winged warblers.

After driving to Tamarack Lake where the natives harvest wild rice, we hiked an old Indian trail. We were told to look for maples with swollen tree trunk bases which meant they were tapped for syrup in the past. We hiked with her 9 pound dog and had a great old time. As we were coming back to the car, about 3/4ths of the way back, a black bear ambled onto the path. The bear looked at us with wide eyes. We looked at the bear with wide eyes. The dog  wisely decided that maybe now is not the time to bark. The bear took off running lickety split away. Wow, this is my 3rd sighting of a MN black bear in the wild. Awesome!

 

Two Nature Walks

 T

Today I went on two walks today because the weather was so beautiful. First I went to Bass Ponds trail in Bloomington which is part of the Minnesota River Valley National Wildlife Refuge. Walking along the paths next to the bass ponds I came across my favorite prairie grass which is side oats gramma (see picture below). I love the name side oats gramma. And I like how descriptive it is.

After lunch I went to Wood Lake Nature Center. The nature center was closed but the trails were open. In Wood Lake I stood on a y shaped dock, looked into the water, and saw some painted turtle action going on. I saw 2 six inch sized painted turtles going around in circles. One turtle was pulling the other. It has it's mouth on the other turtles right front paw. The puller turtle had it's head under water and was swimming in circles. The pullee turtle had it's head above water probably wondering what the heck was going on and how long is this going to last? As I left they were still circling. Later I came upon this white tailed deer that must be used to people walking the paths.

Weasel

 Today I was walking around Lake Winona for some exercise on a nice day. As I walked on the paved path I noticed the water was high. Some tree trunks were under water. Soon a black bird was calling from my left ahead of me. As the bird flew over the path ahead of me at about 2 feet off the ground, I saw it was chasing a brown weasel. The weasel came out of the vegetation, stood on the path, looked at me and proceeded across the path and entered the weeds nearest the lake. I saw a fisher once at Zippel Bay State Park but this is the first time I have ever seen a wild weasel. The moment was over before I could move my hand to reach for my phone.

My Apologies

 I apologize for not blogging for 4 days. I have been on another road trip with the grand girls and we were camping without benefit of electricity of WIFI. We traveled from Minneapolis toward the Saint Croix National Park Office in Saint Croix Falls. We walked around the visitor center and the girls earned three new Junior Ranger badges. We also found the skeleton of a Dobson Fly on the sidewalk outside. After that visit we drove north to Jay Cooke State Park where they was camping available. This is a very nice state park, fully staffed and complete with a dishwashing station outside of the shower building. We set up Offspring #2's tent which is larger in size and very comfortable. White throated sparrows called from the trees. An audacious young red squirrel was very persistent in searching for food. It sat on the picnic table next to me within reach. Coyotes were howling from various parts of the campground during the night. A barred owl called 3 times.

Ocanaluftee

I traveled in the Smokey Mountains National Park to the Ocanaluftee Visitor Center. Inside they had exhibits about the people who lived here. About 5% was dedicated to the Cherokee people and 95% to the white settlers here. Outside they had a settler's farm.

This is the sorghum processor.

The corn crib.

I had a nice hike along a stream.

Elk were grazing in a couple places along the road.

 

Dolphin Cruise

We went on a dolphin bruise out of Brunswick, Georgia which is one of the largest ports in the country. We motored right by Driftwood beach where we were walking the day before.

We saw 3 dolphins many times. Unfortunately the tour guide was a condescending, full-of-himself guy who just loves to hog a microphone and blabber on and on dropping names and mentioning prices. He was a boorish man.

 

Moochers At Our Campsite

We had some moochers at our campsite. Mooching ducks.

The armadillo wasn't mooching. The armadillo was happily digging bugs out of the soil.

Besides 8 mooching ducks there were a dozen domestic rabbits mooching.

A mooching rabbit and a non-mooching armadillo.

I had looked for armadillos in Texas and never found any.

I was happy to find this one.

 

Jewel Beach

We signed up for a kayak trip to 10,000 islands on the west coast of Florida. We were assigned to Jewel Beach which is six miles out and the closest campsite available. Alex was our guide. The group includes him, us, and a dad with two teenaged boys. At first Alex had us in separate kayaks. We requested a tandem kayak which was a GOOD CHOICE. We took off after 11. We stopped at a dock at 12:30 for lunch on Sandfly Island. The others walked around Sandfly Island. I ran into a wall of mosquitoes and noseeums and wisely decided to wait in the breeze on the dock. They came back full of bites. Then we proceeded to Jewel Beach. We had to pass a wide body of water. Whitecaps were coming at us. Waves poured into our kayak at my waist. The tide was with us but the winds were against us and the winds were tougher. We were way behind in our kayak. If we had tipped Alex probably wouldn't even know about it for awhile and then it would take him ten minutes to travel to our aid. After many hours of slogging through the waves we finally arrived a Jewel Beach. If it wasn't for the sight of six dolphins swimming with us the paddle would have been a diseaster. For some reason people put conch shells on a dead tree on Jewel Beach.

The sand on the beach was fine white sand which stuck to all exposed skin. We set up our tents which were already full of sand. We rolled out our sleeping bags. He served us pasta with cherry tomatoes and avocado and Gatorade. Later, after I was in bed, he served s'mores with peanut butter cups instead of chocolate. For breakfast we had bagels with egg, cheese and sausage. I didn't take the sausage. He said the wind is usually against him both ways. I wondered why we chose to go with this guy. Sure enough, the wind was against us all the way back. I had put my sleeping bag behind my seat this time for added back support and was much more comfortable. We were glad to be done kayaking.