Red Wing Nature Notes

It’s almost six am on Sunday morning. Two owls have been conversing outside our window for hours now. One of them hoots several times and another with a lower voice hoots back several times in reply. I haven’t heard anything like this all summer, but last fall I heard the same thing.

I’ve had a similar experience with coyotes. Last fall we had several extended play “concerts” from the local coyotes. This spring I decided I would try to record one for the blog. I’ve been trying all summer to get a recording without success. We do occasionally here coyotes in summer, but its usually a brief “locating” howl that doesn’t repeat after the first line. A few nights ago I heard a coyote and didn’t bother, at first, to grab my voice recorder. As the sound continued I realized it must be our first fall concert.

I located the recording device and placed it on the window sill of our open bedroom window. The resulting recordings of both the owls and the coyotes is not as good as I had hoped, but they are still worth a listen. ?The constant noise in both recordings is one that I unconsiously filter out. Crickets.

In a blog from this spring I mention the overwehlming silence of early spring nights. I don’t remember when they started, but eventually the crickets filled the night silence and have continued to sing all summer. They provide the background in ? my recordings. My human ears hear the coyotes and the owls loud and clear as if they are the only sounds in the night. My cheap recorder reminds me there is more.

Coyotes Howling

Owls Hooting

Last weekend I went up north to help my sister remove her dock from Fishtrap Lake as we do each fall. The leaves were not full color, but obviously starting to turn. Upon my return home Sunday night I looked out the window as I sat down to dinner and saw a Bald eagle in a dead oak tree surveying the surrounding farm fields. Jean managed to snap a picture before he spooked and flew away.

In southeastern Minnesota the big woods of the eastern united states meet plains of the West. Red Wing has rivers, swamps, lakes, bluffs, forests and prairies. As a kid I figured everything was just there, the way it always had been. The reality is that rivers change course, swamps and lakes silt in and the woods constantly try to invade the prairie. Deer are a significant force. In fall young sapplings need to have their trunks protected or white tail bucks will scrape them bare killing them. ?

I have planted white pines before and noticed that the deer destroy them as well, especially the top , most tender buds. Sometimes they leave the lower branches alone. If left alone for several years the lower branches grow making the tree squat and wide. Eventually wide enough that the deer can no longer reach the center to browse on tender new growth. Finally the tree is able to grow and gain some height.

My home is where the Richard Dorher Hardwood forest meets farm fields in the Hay Creek area. We have a small field that we consider to be our own personal prairie, though not native. In a native prairie, fire keeps the prairie healthy and free of trees that would invade.

For us fire is not an option in maintaining our field. We would burn our house down if we tried that. We resort to mowing the area at least once a year to keep the forest at bay. I will start mowing today.

A red kubota tractor with a “Brush Hog” on the back ? serves as our personalized, controlled prairie fire. When I mow the swallows recognize my progress as a moving feast, they follow me swooping around eating the bugs disturbed by the mower. Mice and voles scurry for cover as the grass and weeds come down. There is a type of mouse that hops for cover which I would think is a knagaroo mouse. It hops through the stubble of grass on just its hind legs looking like a minature kangaroo.

When I first mowed a field like this I imagined it had been left for several years without mowing, I was running down small trees and patches of sumac. Now I know that in a single season sumac, locust, prickley ash and boxelder can grow tall. White oaks stubbornly re-grow each year after being mowed down many times.

The margin between forest and feild is a battleground. The open field relies on fire to keep the balance, without it there is only man and machine. Left to nature the forest would swallow all open ground.

With the change of the seasons comes some remarkable colors presenting themselves. My observations took place in our backyard in Wacouta and in Frontenac State Park the last few days.

No doubt the most noticeable color on the local landscape is the bright red of the sumac both smooth and staghorn. This is the only shrub or tree that is native to all 48 contiguous states. The seeds are consumed by many different birds and small mammals. As I reported earlier in the summer, the sticky sap emitted from these berries can be made into a refreshing lemonade.

As you drive along the country roads, you might notice streaks of bright red climbing up the trunks of trees. These five leaflet vines are known as Virginia Creeper or Woodbine. The dark blue berries are sometimes mistaken for wild grape. These vines will also travel on the ground as is demonstrated in the photo of the edible fall mushroom Shaggy Mane. This is a delicious mushroom provided it is harvested in the very early stages before it turns inky black.

Another bright red color that was observed on my Saturday hike on September 20 were the ripe berries of Jack in the Pulpit. Also known as Indian Turnip, the Native Americans would chop up the corm or root of this plant and pound it into meat and leave for their enemies to find. The taste would not be detectable, but consuming the meat would cause severe pain and even death. ? In our backyard the berries of the Mountain Ash are at the peak color. This tree is very common in northern Minnesota and especially along the shore of Lake Superior. These berries are very sour and are eaten by birds such as ruffed grouse, cedar waxwings and robins only after all other berries are gone.

Of course the most popular berries in our yard are our late bearing raspberries. With recent rains, the patch is yielding a gallon of tasty fruit every other day. What a treat now and in the winter thanks to the freezer.

Life would be so much easier if I could always plan ahead. The grade of the ground ?by my garage was in need of adjustment before the freeze comes. Unfortunately a wood pile grew over the summer ?in the exact spot where dirt had to be removed.

I noticed our dog lingering near the woodpile every time we went out, so I left her inside while I went about the task of moving the logs. I like the drama of nature, but every creature ?deserves a chance.

The pile was two pickup truck loads of logs. I was down to the last three logs when I remembered the dogs behavior and prepared myself for a burst of activity from some creature as ?I removed the last logs. There was no place left to go and what ever was in there was about to be exposed.

A young rabbit lay quivering between the last two logs. He did not run. He had made his decision to freeze long ago and he was determined to stay the course whatever the cost. ?I walked into the house and got the camera, came back and he was still there. Not wanting to crush him when I moved the log I nudged him with my boot. He took a couple of hops. I nudged him again and he urinated where he lay crouched.

I finally succeeded in getting him to run for the long grass.

I should confirm that the monarch butterflies still occupy the clover field in larger than normal numbers. They move more slowly than I think is normal.

The day after I noticed that the acorns on the red oaks had not fallen yet I recognized two small deer in our yard that still had spots just a few weeks ago. They were ?feeding under a red oak. They were so busy eating I had to whistle to get them to raise their heads for a photo. ?Later in the evening two larger adults arrived and joined them. I have not gone to check, but its a good bet the next bunch of acorns has begun to fall.

Box elder bugs are just beginning to gather in numbers on our garage, something I don’t look forward to. Large numbers of other bugs are flying around and the blue birds are hunting them. The bluebirds in our yard are a pretty scruffy looking bunch.

I am amazed at the food choices for animals around here. ? One thing gets eaten up and another course appears. I just noticed the buckthorn is loaded with berries. When did that happen? Undigested buckthorn seeds will be spread along every fence line and around every bush from here to the end of the earth as the birds gorge themselves.

Earlier in the year I steered clear of the bright yellow wild parsnip in our field and wondered at the aggressiveness of purple vetch. The parsnip is now a dried skeleton of a stem holding lots of seeds and the vetch is dried and brown with small dry pods. I look at all of the dry seeds around and I think “mice”.

Maybe this is why mice have moved into our mailbox and our front porch in the last few weeks. The economic boom has caused a housing shortage. I’m sure like the deer, mice are gorging themselves and multiplying the way mice do. This is good for the predators who will face slim times soon enough.

The moon is full now. According to my weather calendar, this is the “Harvest Moon”. We are getting about the same amount of sunlight today as we were getting in mid March.

In the middle of March I was chipping ice from around my garage and mentioning that red dogwood stems where the only color in the landscape.

This morning, just before sunrise, I went for a ?run. As is common this time of year, a hunter’s car was parked along the road. As I passed I looked into the woods only because I knew he was up there someplace. I could not see him in the woods, but I smelled the unmistakable oder of a hot handwarmer.

I mentioned in an earlier post that acorns were falling from oaks in our yard. I should clarify those were burr oaks. The red oaks still hold a bumper crop of plump acorns in their branches. I also noticed that between some of the red oaks the acorns look different. Some are much larger and plumper.

On September 8th I saw noisy flocks of black birds gathering in the trees near our house for the first time this year. I haven’t seen them since, but soon they will be filling the trees with noise mornings and ?evenings as they flock getting ready to head south.

Around the same time I noticed a large number of monarch butterflies in the clover near our house. I haven’t seen ? any since. I wonder if they’ve all left for Mexico.

I notice the tops of some hard maples are starting to turn red, amur maples are definitely turning red, many milkweeds have turned yellow. Vines of woodbine that were camouflaged amongst other greenery stick out now because they are bright red or purple. ? This is without a doubt my favorite time of year.

I’ll add some photos this evening.

Even though we are still 16 days from the autumnal equinox and the official start to fall, this past week yielded several signs of the next season. My observations took place during two separate experiences the past few days.

Tuesday morning in the midst of a beautiful sunny morning, Kathy dropped me, my canoe and camping gear off at the public access on the Cannon river in Cannon Falls for the start of a two day 35 mile paddling trip home to Wacouta. Despite the very low water levels, I encountered no difficulties as I travelled along. The slower moving low water actually created more opportunities to observe a host of interesting sights. Along this stretch of the Cannon, I observed many (dozens) great blue herons* and belted kingfishers. Ten days ago just a few would have been observed. Herons and kingfishers are definitely beginning to move to their wintering grounds.

Resident mature bald eagles and immature birds lacking the white plumage were commonly observed. Evidently the nesting success in local nests was quite good this spring. One often wonders if these birds will stay throughout the winter or join other eagles and head south.
As I canoed the lower part of my trip passing through the backwaters of the Mississippi river at the Head of Lake Pepin, I observed a fairly common late summer wildflower called New York Ironweed ( Vernonia noveboracensis). This purple flowered native plant looks somewhat like Joe-Pye-Weed and thrives along wooded stream banks.

By far the most common bird life in this area were hundreds if not thousands of white pelicans. Almost as numerous were the double-crested cormorants. These black colored birds frequently fly in a v formation and are mistaken for geese. Finally, small flocks of six or seven white great egrets were spotted in this area.

My other experience I would like to share was observations on my hike leading a group Saturday at Frontenac State Park. By far the most colorful wildflower in bloom in the prairies of the park are the yellow colored goldenrod. These plants get a bad rap as the cause of fall hay fever. Actually the plant causing the most problem is the ragweed. The pollen from ? goldenrod is very heavy and sticky and can be moved primarily by insects such as bees. Interestingly enough, Thomas Edison experimented with making rubber from the goldenrod plant. He was successful enough that Henry Ford gave Edison a Model T Ford with tires made from goldenrod rubber.

The other definite sign of fall in the park was the appearance of Late Purple Asters (Aster patons) a beautiful addition to the fall landscape.

*Thank you to Dud and Marty Smith for the photos of Great Blue Herons at the beginning of this post.