Fall Day at Frontenac State Park

Yesterday we spent a wonderful day outdoors in Frontenac State Park, located along the Mississippi south of Red Wing. We'd arranged to meet fellow nature blogger Bruce Ause of Red Wing Nature Notes, a blog I admire and am inspired by. He was leading an interpretive hike in the park, which we joined, after which we'd planned to have Bruce show us other favorite spots in the park.

As always, click on any of the photos to see them much larger. It's definitely worth doing!

One of the many scenic overlooks from the park's bluffs

Cottonwood tree in prairie succession area

Woodlands on a perfect fall day

Oak branches against the sky

Bench and overlook where we stopped to eat our lunch

Goldenrod gone to seed

This is our new friend and guide on the hike, Bruce Ause, who in 1970 became the founding director of the Red Wing Environmental Learning Center. We felt lucky to benefit from the knowledge and experience he's gained from 30-plus years conducting outdoor education programs in the area and leading interpretive hikes like this one as a DNR volunteer.

In the uplands area of the park, we saw quite a few bluebirds, a ruby-crowned kinglet, a meadowlark, some dark-eyed juncos, a red-breasted nuthatch, several types of sparrows, plenty of chickadees, one or more yellow-rumped warblers (we had a nice view of the warblers in the treetops from our lunch bench at the top of a steep drop-off), a turkey vulture, and a sharp-shinned hawk (no eagles today, that we noticed -- they will be gathering more along the river as other fishing sources start to freeze over). We also saw three deer quite close to us as we walked through open, grassy areas.

Another view of the river and the Wisconsin-side bluffs, with puffs of smoke in the Old Frontenac area below, perhaps from leaf- or brush-burning

After finishing the uplands part of our our hike, Bruce suggested that Dave and I might enjoy heading down to river level to follow the trail that crosses Wells Creek out to Sand Point -- so we did. Down here the trees were far bigger and older than most we had seen up above. There was a definite "forest primeval" sense to the place.

A lengthy boardwalk traverses some of the wetter areas along this .7-mile trail. It appeared that at least part of the boardwalk had been underwater during the recent flooding. Here, a tree had fallen across the boardwalk, knocking one section down. There was a fetid, swampy smell to these wetter areas.

Wells Creek, seen from trail bridge

The trail ended at the edge of the water, where usually there is a good area of mudflats attractive to shorebirds. Right now it is all underwater, and all we saw were gulls, grackles and (more excitingly) two belted kingfishers.

Thanks, Bruce, for a marvelous outing. We couldn't have picked a better day for it.

Another Section of the Tree Falls

Last week I posted a photo of a large section of a honey locust tree that fell from our neighbor's property into our circle. Last night the second of the three main sections fell in the overnight storms, landing just a few feet short of our house.

Here's the view from inside the house:

Once again, we didn't hear a thing -- this time not only because we were inside with the AC running, but because we were asleep except when awoken by thunder, lashing rain, and nearly hourly severe thunderstorm and flash flooding alerts on our emergency weather radio.

What If a Tree Falls and No One Hears It?

I got home at about 6:30 last night. We sat around in the living room for a while listening to my son play all his upcoming band concert songs on his new French horn. We wandered into the kitchen, made a dinner salad, and ate it. Needless to say, like every other household blessed with air conditioning, we were running it with the windows closed during yesterday's sauna-like conditions (low 90s and dew point close to 70, which is more Gulf-state than Minnesota).

Anyway, after dinner we sat in the kitchen for a while, and then I thought I'd go back into the living room where there's an overhead fan. And there, filling the view from our large picture window, was a massive section of our neighbor's honey locust tree, which on this windless day of all days had cracked and fallen right into the circle we live on, without our hearing a thing.

Cottonwood Snow, Part II

After the cold spell over the weekend - three days where the thermometer didn't crack 60 degrees, the longest June cold snap in the Twin Cities area since 1951, according to news media - the cottonwoods went back into production with a vengeance the last few days. Above is a birdbath sitting on my deck; below is part of my backyard, all bespeckled with cottonwood seed tufts. One bunch of fluff collected in front of my garage, and when I walked past it it swirled up like a tornado. Quite remarkable!

Cottonwood Snow

It's early June, so 'tis the season when the cottonwood trees release their seeds in cottony tufts that waft around in the air, befuzz your dog's water dish, and in some areas accumulate like an early snowfall on the green grass. This scene is on 9th Street, between Water and Division, earlier today.

The cottonwood (Populus deltoides var. occidentalis) is a large tree of the poplar family that likes sun but also likes moist soil. A cluster of them out in the countryside often signifies a water source nearby.

You can clearly see the individual seeds in the layer of fine white fluff above and, closer-up, below. (Click on the photos for much more detail.)

Spring Green

After a day in the 80s a week ago followed by several rainy days this week, trees and shrubs have started greening up in earnest. Yesterday's gray skies cast subtle light on a copse of trees east of the hospital. The rising ground at the left suggests an intriguing reversal of the earth's curvature.

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Trees, Clouds, Wind & Sky

The first thunderstorm of the year rolled in somewhat unexpectedly this morning, bearing strong winds that persisted all day while the temperatures rose into the lower 80s. After the rain had stopped I battled the relentless wind to take several photos from the corner on which my office building stands in downtown Northfield. In the third week of April in southern Minnesota, the trees have not yet leafed out, though some are just starting to show signs of it. I am fascinated by both of the bare trees shown here against the scudding clouds. I encourage you to click on the photos to step more deeply into these scenes; the full-size versions are quite large.

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Breathtaking Colors

It's been a stunning autumn in Minnesota...

My Favorite Tree

Christopher Tassava picked up on another blogger's query about favorite trees. This is a blog topic I've meant to start myself, as I think of it every time I drive south on Water Street toward Woodley and see this magnificent elm. Winter or summer, it's a beautiful sight. But Christopher, some of the oaks on the Carleton campus are right up there for me too -- I love their gnarled intricacies.