Terrestrial Animals of Minnesota

I'm taking another Minnesota Master Naturalist class this spring. We are studying the "Prairies & Potholes" biome of Minnesota this year. Our class session last week was about terrestrial animals of the Minnesota Prairie and we were fortunate to be able to take a field trip to Oxbow Park and see some of these terrestrial animals up close and personal.

Our first visit was to the White-Tailed Deer enclosure. The park currently has 4 deer: 1 buck, 1 doe, and a couple of yearling fawns. In the photo below are the yearlings and the buck (if you click to enlarge this picture, you will see that the antlers are just starting to grow on this buck -- he's on the left.)

The doe was quite tame and came right up to the fence for her favorite treat: apples! (My classmate Emma got the honors of breaking up an apple to feed this doe.)

Even when they're in smaller pieces, apples are still difficult for a deer to munch on!

Elk were once a part of the Minnesota prairie landscape too, although I believe they're long gone now except for a small population in the far northwest corner of the state. Oxbow Park also maintains a small herd of elk in their zoo. Three cows......

......and 1 bull elk (who is also just starting his new set of antlers for this year).

Oxbow Park is also the home to a small herd of American Bison. Here's what Stan Tekiela says about them in his Field Guide to Mammals of Minnesota, "A massive animal, hard to confuse with any other." In the photo below is the bull and 1 cow, and from this picture it's difficult to appreciate how huge and majestic these animals really are. Just standing next to the enclosure and listening to them breathe reminded me of standing next to a steam locomotive that's waiting to accelerate down the railroad track. Fortunately these animals seemed really docile. The park naturalist leading our group was quick to point out to our class that the large metal cable and fence seperating us from the bison would "only slow them down" if they actually did decide to charge.

As I was standing there looking at these animals and seeing them losing their winter coat, I was wishing I was a spinner so I could collect that fleece and spin it into some yarn. I've only knitted with buffalo yarn once -- it's quite expensive and I'm sure the logistics of collecting that fleece is one of the reasons why!

There was also one yearling buffalo calf with this herd. What a cutie, don't you think?

Another mammal still present in the rural Minnesota landscape is the American Badger. Oxbow Park's Zollman Zoo also had a badger for us to observe. I think these are really neat animals, but I know a lot of farmers don't like them because of the huge holes and mounds of dirt they leave in the fields. This one wasn't the least bit happy to see all of us humans standing around and staring at it. I think they're quite beautiful, but would definitely want to keep my distance if I ever encountered one in the wild.

Summer Volunteer Project

To retain my Master Naturalist certification, I'm required to complete a minimum of 40 volunteer service hours. The Monarch Larva Monitoring Project is one of the ways I've been obtaining my volunteer hours. Every Wednesday evening, a small number of dedicated volunteers head over to the Payne Field near Rochester's Quarry Hill Nature Center to look for monarch eggs and caterpillars. In the photo below, my buddy Dave begins his search. Dave is also a fellow Master Naturalist volunteer and bluebird enthusiast. We met years ago when he first moved to Rochester and I was working at Wild Birds Unlimited. It's been fun spending time with him again on volunteer projects at Quarry Hill and Master Naturalist events.

Here's Lucille and her two children on the monarch quest. They ride over on their bikes every week, but Lucille admitted to me last week that she's enjoying this project much more than the kids are.

Every week, we fill out a checklist indicating what we find in the field. We tally each plant that's inspected and if eggs or caterpillars are found, that's also tallied. The caterpillars are also categorized by size: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th instar. Here on my clipboard is a lovely 5th instar I found during the monitoring. (This caterpillar went home with me, turned into a chrysalis the next day and I'm now waiting for it to emerge as a monarch butterfly.)

The first few weeks of monitoring in June were great -- the milkweed plants were taller than the surrounding grass and it was easy to get through the field. Now look at it! Some of the grasses and weeds are almost up to my chin! I have to be pretty careful bending over to inspect the milkweed plants lest I get poked in the eye or ear by some foxtails or wild parsnip.

As I've mentioned before, the low numbers of monarch eggs, larva and even butterflies has been disappointing. But there are plenty of other insect sightings in this field to keep things interesting. Lately I've been seeing lots of milkweed beetles doin' the "wild thing," but this is the only time I've ever seen this particular position........and I just couldn't resist taking a picture!

Looks pretty precarious to me, but I guess even beetles like a little variety!

I'm happy to report that my monarch butterfly tagging kit finally arrived in today's mail. My monarch ranch has at least one butterfly scheduled to emerge from its chrysalis early next week, and I hope to share a "how to tag a monarch butterfly" post with you then, so stay tuned!

Master Naturalist Capstone Project Completed

Today's post is going to be the story and pictures of the completion of my Master Naturalist Capstone Project, which if you remember was adding flower and fruiting plants to the Bird and Bee Study Area as a memorial tribute to a gentleman who passed away last year. Some friends and members of his family were going to help with the planting which took place last Saturday (Father's Day weekend).

So I started digging some woodland wildflowers at the residence of another Master Naturalist alumni who volunteered some of his native plants. On June 4th, we dug up wild ginger, wild columbine, white violets, and some Canada mayflowers. (They also gave me a small hackberry seedling that I still need to find a spot for in my backyard.) Because it was still weeks till the planting day, I had to keep these plants somewhere at my place that was cool, reasonably shady and close by (so I wouldn't forget to water them!) The perfect staging area turned out on the sidewalk right outside our front door.
As you can see, it got a little bit crowded once the entire collection of dug-up and purchased plants was complete!

I also was able to dig up and divide two huge hostas from my gardens. This is Hosta "Krossa Regal." It has lovely pale lavender-colored flowers on an almost 5 foot stalk.

That sucker weighed a ton! I was wishing I had a bigger wheelbarrow.

Here's the other hosta that went: Hosta "Royal Standard." This one has the most fragrant and beautiful white flowers -- again on a really tall stem.

The planting party was set to take place from 9:00-11:00 on Saturday morning, so I got up early and started loading everything into Mr. Johnson's Tahoe. Holy Cow! It didn't look like that much stuff outside! And there's no more room for the hostas!

Well, hopefully the hosta tubs will fit in the second seat.......

......and they did. It's a good thing we have this enclosed truck for transporting plants; I think they would have gotten pretty beat-up in the back of a pick-up.


I wrote the names of the plants on orange flag markers so I could stick them in the ground and people would know which plants went where. These are the main viewing windows from the nature center out towards the little pond and bird feeders. The hostas were going here. It's my hope that once they start producing those tall flowers, the flowers should come right up to the bottom of the windows and visitors will be able to get some really close looks at the hummingbirds and butterflies that come to those flowers.

This is another area that was going to get a couple of hostas, plus the jack-in-the-pulpits that I had dug up from under my deck. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you will see a little green square on the center frame of the window down towards the bottom. This is the entrance/exit for an indoor beehive (look at the left side of the window and those big dark squares you see inside are the actual beehive--encased in clear plexiglass so people can watch the bee activity).

Fortunately, the morning was still pretty cool so I went ahead and planted these flowers early so as not to disturb the bees too much.

Under this sign, there were a couple of wild asters to be planted (this area gets a little bit of afternoon sun). There's also a yew in the background to provide cover for the birds and a bit of color in the wintertime.

Along the backside of this little pond, we planted the wild columbines. They will grow pretty tall but won't interfere with any views of the pond. In the background is another yew to be planted and in the foreground are a couple more jack-in-the-pulpits that didn't fit in the other spot.

In the front of the pond, there was a box full of wild ginger to be planted. Wild ginger is nice and low-growing and this was a perfect spot for it because it wouldn't obscure any views of the pond from the inside viewing area.

Underneath this tree, the white violets would find a new home.

Under this window and receiving a bit of afternoon sun, were two lobelia plants: one red (cardinal flower) and one blue (Great Blue Lobelia). I hope these make it as their tall flower stems will be quite attractive to the hummingbirds, bees and butterflies here.

This is the main sign at the front of the garden. I purchased a bee balm ("Petite Delight") and two Violet Dusk Bearded Tongue (penstemon) to be planted by the sign.

And lastly, there was this sunny, south-facing part of the garden where all of the flowering/fruiting shrubs were to be planted. For this area, I purchased: 2 each of Cardinal Red Osier Dogwood, an Autumn Magic Black Chokeberry, and 2 viburnums--Blue Muffin and Emerald Triumph.

So once everything was marked, I was ready for the family to arrive and get to work. Fortunately, my teacher Kirk was the liaison with the family and he did a great job of remembering everyone's names and making sure all the equipment they needed for digging, watering, etc. was available. I was more worried about getting everything done in the allotted time and usually am more comfortable staying in the background being a "worker bee" anyway.

Once everything was planted, it was time to start watering. Here are a couple of the grandkids with their water buckets watering one of the yews.

The kids did a lot of planting of the smaller plants in the pots, but the novelty of that chore wore off as they discovered the wonders inside the nature center and also the chance to play in the pond. Here, one of the dads takes over to finish planting the wild ginger.

This little girl was so cute! She and her mom got these plants by the sign into the ground. There was a lot of fascination with the worms discovered while planting; I think that's what the little girl standing up has in her hand.

I sent the big guys up to the front to dig the big holes for the shrubs. As you can see, there were plenty of 'supervisors' out there to help them!

And here are a couple of looks at where my hostas will be enjoying their new home. I think these spots will be perfect for them!

This was a fun project for me. I created a little hand-out for the family that thanked them for allowing me the opportunity to work on this project on their behalf and for giving me the chance to improve some habitat for the birds, wildlife and insects. I included a listing of the flowers and shrubs we planted that day and also invited them to come back in the future and visit this garden planted in memory of their loved one.

The grandchildren had created stepping stones and we added them to this garden.

I had a great time planning and choosing plants for this garden and was really happy with how well the project went. I can't wait to see how beautiful it will be next spring when all of the flowers are blooming. I will be keeping an eye on this garden and will be sure to get some pictures to share with you as everything continues to grow.

Master Naturalist Graduation

Wednesday, June 3rd was our final Master Naturalist class and graduation. Because this was a special evening and most likely the last time our entire group would be getting together, we decided to have a potluck supper. There was an abundance of delicious food items. My contribution was hot barbecue venison sandwiches which were a big success (I brought home only enough leftovers to make one more sandwich!)


One of our classmates even had a special graduation cake made for our class! Pretty neat, eh?

Here's the official "diploma" presentation!

And here's a closer look at my certificate (suitable for framing!) and the "official" name tag and a little Minnesota pin indicating my successful completion of the Big Woods, Big River Biome Master Naturalist course.

This was a great class and I'm glad I had the chance to take it. I plan to have one more post with some pictures and other class highlights not previously posted, plus some information on how to find Master Naturalist classes in other states in case any of you might be interested in pursuing this opportunity also.

2009 Minnesota Master Naturalist State Conference

There are going to be lots of photos in this post, so my apologies to those of you who are still dial-up users.

This past weekend the 2009 Minnesota Master Naturalist State Conference was held at the Audubon Center of the North Woods near Sandstone, MN, and I was in attendance from Friday afternoon until Saturday evening.

I had hoped to arrive by the 3:00 PM Friday afternoon birding trip, but I ended up leaving about an hour later than I had planned. Fortunately, for me, the birding trip was delayed until 4 PM. Unfortunately, it started raining (hard!) around 3:45 PM, so we birded from the front porch of the Audubon center. They had this HUGE hopper feeder right outside the front door and we were able to see quite a few cooperative birds right at this feeder (I didn't get shots of the red-breasted nuthatch and pine warbler that also visited the feeder this afternoon).

Rose-Breasted Grosbeak & White-Breasted Nuthatch

Under the eaves of the front porch a Cliff Swallow had crafted this fine gourd-shaped mud nest. In spite of all of us standing on the front porch, she did finally fly into her nest. The pale spot on her forehead was quite noticeable as she peeked out at us from the nest entrance.

"Please go away now, large human......you've taken enough pictures!"

Here are some of my Master Naturalist classmates who also attended the conference (L to R): Kate, Linda, Joel and Barbara. Joel was in a previous class, but I already knew him from my Mayo days (plus he's one of Minnesota's "Top Gun Birders" -- to borrow one of Troutbirder's definitions).

This is the main conference room at the Audubon Center. As you can see, our group had it pretty much filled up. I loved all the windows around this room and especially the six stained-glass windows up towards the top of the wall (click to enlarge the picture).

I was excited when I first got the conference schedule to see that Ann Bancroft was going to be a keynote speaker on Friday night at our conference.

Ann told us stories of growing up in Minnesota and being inspired by her mom, of her polar expeditions, and most importantly of her never-ending goal to educate and inspire all people (and especially girls and women) to pursue their dreams in life--no matter how big or small. Talk about female superpowers!! If you ever get the chance to hear Ann speak, please do so, I guarantee you won't be disappointed. And the really neat thing is that she's not full of herself at all--just a genuinely nice and gracious person!

After our rainy Friday, Saturday morning dawned windy and cold. However, that didn't stop us hardy Minnesotans from getting outside before breakfast for the 7 AM bird hike.

There wasn't much bird activity this chilly morning, but I did get my first Ovenbird and Chestnut-Sided Warbler of the year. (When I was heading back to my next class session after breakfast, I did actually spot a few snow flurries in the air! I was really thankful I hadn't forgotten to pack my wool long johns!)

My morning classes were "Rain Barrels and Rain Gardens" and "Aquatic Plant Survey." Deb (Sand Creek Almanac) was one of presenters of the aquatic plant survey class. Here'a an "action shot" of Deb showing some of the participants what types of aquatic vegetation can be found during a lake survey (the plants are on the edge of the boat behind the person in the blue jacket).

I was happy to see Deb again and after class we were able to spend a little bit of time together enjoying lunch and catching up on some things going on outside the "blog world."

The Audubon Center of the North Woods provides quite a bit of its own power. They have a geothermal heating system, their own wind turbine, and these solar array panels (that move to follow the direction of the sun). We were happy that the sun did decide to come out late Saturday morning and even though it was still chilly, the sun made it much more bearable.

Our Saturday afternoon consisted of a field trip to Moose Lake, Minnesota (about 20 miles north of Sandstone. There we visited the Moose Lake Historical Society and 1918 Fire Museum (located in the old railroad depot).

We learned a little bit about the 1918 fire in our Master Naturalist class. More people lost their lives as a result of this fire than the famous Hinckly fire and when someone asked the gentleman at the museum why we never heard much about the Moose Lake fire, he told us that it was overshadowed by the WWI headlines of that time period.

This map in the museum shows the areas affected by that huge 1918 fire--all the way to the shore of Lake Superior north of Duluth!

After the museum, we also visited the Blacklock Galleries in downtown Moose Lake (no photos) and then headed out to the Moose Lake Agate and Geological Center at Moose Lake State Park.

I thought this Minnesota state map created of native stone and embedded in the floor of the Moose Lake State Park headquarters building was pretty neat.

After learning more about agates and agate hunting, we boarded the bus one more time to head out to a nearby quarry to search for our own agate treasures.

As you can see, it really turned out to be a pretty nice afternoon and everyone was pretty excited to get out into the quarry and become "rock hounds" for an hour or so.

I'm not much of a rock hound, so I used my time to enjoy the scenery and watch for birds. I always like seeing the birch trees of the north woods--we have very few of these lovely trees in southern Minnesota.

While I was wandering the woods at the edge of the quarry, I heard some frogs singing, so I decided to follow a little trail into the woods and see if I could find where the frogs were singing from. I came upon this pretty little pond (a vernal pool?) and was happy to see quite a bit of bird activity.

A shy Yellow Warbler

Palm Warbler (there were several of these guys around the pond)

On the way back to bus, I even managed to find myself a nice-sized little agate!

We were all loaded back on the bus and ready to head back for supper, but not before Amy (our trip leader) got the DNR van stuck in some loose gravel at the quarry. All of her passengers climbed out of the van and some of the guys from our bus headed over to Amy's rescue.

Success!!

The conference did have sessions schedule for Sunday morning also, but I opted to depart on Saturday night after supper. This is just such a busy time of year for me and even though I'm only working part-time, I wanted to be able to have Sunday to catch up on some of my chores at home before the work week started again (I even managed to find time to give myself a much-needed haircut on Sunday morning!)

Have a good week everyone!