Prairie Creek Community School in Northfield
Maysoon: "Hi this is Maysoon-”
Ruby: "And this is Ruby-”
Sienna: "And this is Sienna-”
Maysoon: "And we’re from Prairie Creek Community School-”
Ruby: "Way down south in Northfield, Minnesota.”
Maysoon: "Well, Ruby and Sienna, it’s hard to believe that this is our penultimate report!”
Sienna: "I know! The year has really flown by.”
Ruby: "Speaking of flying…here is the bird report.”
Maysoon: "Ruby, that pun was for the birds.”
Ruby: "Touché.”
Sienna: "Back to work. Michelle heard a Great Crested Flycatcher for the first time.”
Maysoon: "Our oriole is back in our woods. Last year there were two.”
Ruby: "The Blue Jays are flying in noisy packs.”
Sienna: "The swallows can be seen every morning swooping over the creek and field.”
Maysoon: "Silas saw orioles and an Osprey.”
Ruby: "And a lot of us have been seeing hummingbirds.
Sienna “The turkeys are showing their tail feathers (and one even attacked my car!)”
Ruby: "Oscar saw an eagle with a bunny in its talons.”
Maysoon: "Yikes! And many of us have seen bunnies not in eagle talons.”
Maysoon: "We had our first confirmed monarch sightings this week!”
Ruby: "It’s funny, we saw a ton of dragonflies a few weeks ago but now they aren’t as common.”
Sienna: "That’s because they were migrating and they were headed farther north.”
Maysoon: "We have total leaf out and everything is very, very GREEN.”
Ruby: "A school bus hit a deer-”
Sienna: "And there are a lot of ticks-”
Ruby: "And the wind has blown down a lot of trees.”
Maysoon: "This has been Prairie Creek-”
Sienna: "One more step along the phenology journey.”
Justice Page Middle School in Minneapolis
Roots and Wings Forest School in New York Mills
This report comes from Otto, Ava, Hank, Rose, Soren, and Theodore at Roots and Wings Forest School in New York Mills.
This report is also from Roots and Wings Forest School. Leona Cichy herself sent us an end-of-year message.
"Today was our Explorers final visit to Blacks Grove Park. They have visited the park once a week for Nature Studies throughout the school year, experiencing all seasons. It was a bittersweet moment for me as they said hello to the trees by name as we passed, as I watched them running through the trails and crouching by the creek. Their connection to place and knowledge of the natural world has deepened here immensely over the course of the school year. Today, they greeted the violets, wild strawberry, and aster as they bloomed for the first time. They discovered a crayfish claw, woodpecker holes, and unraveling ferns.
"It may seem like kids just playing in nature, and it is. But it is also so much more. As Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods says, 'We cannot protect something we do not love, we cannot love what we do not know, and we cannot know what we do not see. Or hear. Or sense.'
"To play in nature is to hear it, to see it, to feel it, to know it, to love it, and to protect it. At Roots and Wings, we allow for children to do just that. After all, they are the future of our world and the stewards of our natural spaces.
"So, thank you to John and to Charlie for allowing our students this platform to share their nature adventures, their nature learning and their nature knowledge. We'll see you guys next year.”
Long Lake Conservation Center near Palisade
This report is brought to you by Emma, Jackson and the students from Hamilton Elementary in Coon Rapids.
“During our trip to Long Lake Conservation Center on May 19-20, the winds were howling with gusts up to 40 miles per hour which made the high temperature of 53 feel pretty darn chilly.
“During our Minnesota Invertebrate Investigations class we found 10 fire ants, 10 bullet ants, 9 worms, 3 isopods, 18 centipedes, 1 millipede, 3 slug bugs, 2 earwigs, a rolly polly, a caterpillar, a fly, and a larva of some kind. We also found more than 10 mosquitos, a few leopard frogs, and a snail. Abby reported that one of the worms looked purple when she put it inside her “adventure cage”, also known as a collection dish.
“We noticed that the pinecones are budding and that they look like berries. In the very wet and boggy bog, the tamaracks are almost entirely leafed out.
“We saw a few birds braving the wind, including American Robins, goldfinches and a Red-bellied Woodpecker that we thought looked like it had a red mohawk.
“Despite the wind, we were blown away by nature and we want to remind everyone to unplug, get outside and LIVE CONNECTED!”
This report is brought to you by graduating seniors "Snee", Riley, "L", and Alyssa, as well as the students from New Century Academy in Hutchinson.
“During our trip to Long Lake Conservation Center on May 19-21, it was cold and windy with a bit of sleet, but it didn’t stop us from exploring nature.
“The bog was the place to be with pitcher plants beginning to send up their flowers, and pink lady’s slippers about to bloom.
“Our group also heard Barred Owls calling back and forth to each other.
“At the feeders, we saw male and female Purple Finches, goldfinches, Red-winged Blackbirds, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, and very fat and friendly red and gray squirrels. One of the Long Lake Naturalists reported seeing male and female Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, hummingbirds, and a Red-headed Woodpecker eating black sunflower seeds last night. Is that normal?
“A black bear found the Long Lake dumpster last night and made a big mess.
“The lake level rose to 1.68 feet at our DNR lake gauge site, up from 1.65 since our last report on May 16, and up more than a half inch since May 8.
“It was a great week in nature and we want to remind everyone to unplug, get outside and LIVE CONNECTED!”
This report is brought to you by Genevieve, Vanaya and the students from Lincoln Elementary School for the Arts in Anoka.
“During our trip to Long Lake Conservation Center on May 21-23, the sun finally came out and we had near perfect spring weather with high temperatures of 65 degrees and a low of 31.
“The plants in the bog loved the sunshine. The Labrador tea plants are budding, bog laurel is flowering, and cottongrass now has cotton. Mariana and others thought the cottongrass looked like a Lorax tree.
“One of the highlights was seeing the pink lady’s slipper in the bog. They haven’t flowered yet, but it could any day now. There were a lot, so it looks like it will be a good year for lady’s slippers.
“Our group also saw a muskrat, heard a Ruffed Grouse drumming, saw Downy and Pileated Woodpeckers, Red-winged Blackbirds, orioles, House Finches, chickadees and a chipmunk and Tree Swallow sharing seeds on the same small feeder. Interspecies sharing…pretty cool.
“It was a great week in nature, and we want to remind everyone to unplug, get outside and LIVE CONNECTED!””
North Shore Community School near Duluth
“Hello from North Shore Community School on the north shore of Lake Superior. This is the phenology report for the week of May 17, 2025. My name is Estelle, and I am your phenologist for this week!
“On Tuesday, May 20, a 64 mile per hour wind was recorded on the Blatnik Bridge in Duluth. Also on this day, sleet was reported in Hermantown.
“Ms. Jackson spotted a black bear on her trail cam the night of Saturday, May 17. It was seeing if there was any bird seed in her bird feeders. However, she had brought in the feeders before dark, so the bear was out of luck.
“On Tuesday, May 20, Ms. Urban saw a Cape-May Warbler outside of the veterinarian clinic in Duluth. Mrs. Rolfe’s neighbor saw a female Baltimore Oriole in her yard on May 19. On Thursday, May 22, Ms. Urban heard Clay-colored Sparrows on her bike ride to work.
“On Wednesday, May 21, Ms. Jackson’s class spotted tadpoles in the school’s swale on the playground.
“On Monday, May 19, Ms. Urban saw a bur oak flowering by Chickadee Landing. The fiddlehead ferns are abundant in our school forest this week, and the grass is green throughout our school playground and field.
“This concludes the phenology report. Have a great week, and be observant!”
Cohasset Elementary School
North Star Elementary School in Virginia, Minnesota
“This is Sonya, Lucy, Orion, Imani, and Stella reporting from North Star Elementary on May 20, 2025, with our last report for the 2024-25 school year.”
“This is Sonya. A robin was eating the tiny green strawberries from a strawberry plant we have in a pot. My mom is going to put some netting on the plants so we can get some berries. Another day, I was fishing at the dam by Half Moon lake and I got to watch a frog jump into the water, swim over to the shore, then climb out and hop into the forest. Frogs are amphibians, so they can live in water or on land.”
“This is Imani. I was outside at night doing chores and I saw at least 5 toads in my flashlight beam out in my yard.”
“This is Lucy. I discovered some crayfish in the lake. They were hiding in between the rocks and weeds.”
“This is Orion. Last weekend, we saw a mama black bear and her four cubs running across a dirt road in Makinen. It was surprising to see four because bears usually only have two or three in a litter.
“You might remember Miss Kay’s adventures with black bears from last fall. Remember the time one busted her truck window to eat her banana chips? Well, last weekend the bears were back and this time they destroyed her bunny hutch and killed all three of her pet rabbits. It might be time to get the DNR involved with this bear.
“Sonya here again. My aunt sent me a picture of three bears; one small, one medium, and one large. I wondered if the medium bear was an older cub that hasn’t left the mama’s side yet or if some other family dynamic is going on? Any thoughts Mr. Latimer?”
“This is Stella. Our trees are in full leaf-out. Also, the wildlife won’t stop harassing my bees. I noticed the vegetation nearby has been disturbed and there are tracks around the hives. Nothing has broken in yet, thankfully.”
“This is North Star, signing off for the 2024-25 school year. Thank you, Mr. Latimer, for letting us be a part of your show, and helping us learn more about and become more aware of our surroundings.
“Keep exploring the great outdoors!”
Great Expectations School in Grand Marais
Orin: “Hi this is Orin, Theo, Anson, Daneen, Dom and Leah from Great Expectations School in Grand Marais, Minnesota. Today is May 23rd 2025. We have had a great year of exploring phenology but today will be our last report of the school year. We will chat with you all next school year.”
Theo: “This week has been relatively cold. Sunday May 18, it snowed in Cook County. Near the lake, the large flakes melted instantly, but away from the lake some places the snow covered the ground. It has been a bit warmer this week, but highs have been between 40 and 50 degrees.”
Anson: “There are lots of flowers blooming around us at the moment. If you go out on a hike you can see lots of violets, marsh marigolds, wild ginger, honeysuckle, wood anemone, Dutchman's breeches, spring beauty, daffodils, bluebells, and much more blooming.”
Dom: “A lot of insects have been seen, the Bear Cubs have reported lots of bumble bees at recess. There has been a few ticks found and mosquitoes. The black flies have started coming out but are not a huge pest yet.”
Daneen: “Two Mallard ducks have been hanging out in the back woods are sometimes seen at recess. 8 new chicks hatched in the Wolves North class and are fun to watch grow.”
Leah: “Some of our classes have been watching the Loon nest at Chik-Wauk Museum. On May 12, it laid one egg, and laid another a few days later. We are hoping they will hatch before school ends, but most likely they will hatch after school. This has been: Orin, Theo, Anson Daneen, Dom and Leah reporting from Great Expectations School. Where you can expect a great phenology report.”
Listener talkbacks
Finally, we had two reports this morning from two listeners who responded to last week’s inquiry the diminishing number of bumblebees around flowering fruit trees.
Carol Anderson from northwest Grand Rapids said, “We too, have apple blossoms but haven’t seen any bees!”
Terry Keeler wrote from Harris Township to say, “We have a large flowering crab tree ( 9" dia.) that I planted in 1988. As the tree got larger into the new century it would be swarming with an abundance of bees, hornets etc. during Spring flowering. The last 5 years have been very noticeably different, with very few bees. I would estimate around a 90% decline. Very disturbing in the least.”
What have you seen out there? Let us know: email us at comments@kaxe.org or text us at 218-326-1234.
That does it for this week! For more phenology, <b>subscribe</b> to our Season Watch Newsletter or visit the Season Watch Facebook page.
Funding for this project was provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR).
