This week's four reports include sightings of slime molds, dynamic craneflies, and swathes of fireweed beginning to blooms.
Bell Museum summer camp at the North Central Research Station near Grand Rapids
“Hello, this is Jennifer with the Bell Museum calling in from NCROC, the North Central Research and Outreach Center in Grand Rapids. Our campers this week had an exciting trip to the NCROC Bog.
“We saw something that we had never seen out there before. It was a large slime mold, about 10 inches across, and it was bright orange. We named it Jack because it was almost the color of a ripe pumpkin. Most of the campers had never heard of a slime mold, so there were many, many, many questions that we started to research. We think it is a Physarum polycephalum, which is a many-headed slime mold.
“We also saw many critters, lots of insects, a toad, ripe raspberries and green nuts on the American hazelnut. Here are some of the student reports.”
“Hello, my name is Aliyah, and I went to the bog on July 16th. We saw lots of cool things. We saw pitcher pants that we saw everywhere. We also saw tamarack trees that had small gray pinecones and there was a baby - their needles were soft, but the big ones were a little more prickly.
“We also saw slime mold and the slime mold was orange, and the next day it was almost gone. So, that was really cool. We also got to see so many incredible things, like there were so many bright colored mushrooms, so much moss and stuff like that.”
“Hello there. My name is Gus and at the bog I like seeing the slime mold. They're weird beings that live in a log. They don't have brains, but they're smart and they eat. But they aren't plants, fungi or animals.
“Hello, my name is Neil. We went to the bar on July 16th. Some cool things I saw there were:
- I saw some random mushrooms.
- I saw pitcher plants. They're carnivorous plants, actually. Technically, they're insectivorous because they eat insects, they attract insects. The insects fall into the pitcher plant and then, that’s their stomach and they die.
- I also saw a slime mold. And they're not fungi, they're not plants, they're not an animal. They're single-celled organisms, yet somehow, they're intelligent.”
Jennifer also wrote, “Thanks for doing this program, it's so fun to see the kids getting excited about getting to report their findings - "Wait, this will be on the RADIO?!"
Charlie Mitchell at Long Lake Conservation Center near Palisade
“This weekend, I enjoyed a trip to Long Lake Conservation Center as part of the Phenology Investigations in Minnesota Schools program. It's a professional development program for middle and high school teachers run by the University of Minnesota.
“While we were there, we saw some goldenrods blooming, snacked on ripe red raspberries, and went to the bog to see the pitcher plants. The pitcher plants, which were full of pollen when I was last there on June 16, have no pollen left and seem to be developing seeds. The flower stalks are still there, and the waxy petals have darkened.
“Also, there is another kind of cotton grass in flower – if you looked close, you could see little pollen-bearing anthers. Since I’m a newbie to botany, I’ve only seen the mature seedheads before on the tussock cotton-grass – my Seek app said the ones blooming now are tawny cotton-grass, but I didn’t look it up in a more reliable guidebook yet.
“It was great to get outside with like-minded nature folks, and it brought home yet again how much I’ve learned since joining you lovely people at KAXE. I certainly never pictured myself working at a radio station, but I’m sure glad I ended up here! It was also a great reminder that the phenology reports we enjoy all school year are due to some incredibly dedicated and talented people.
“On my drive home, I saw a few more goldenrods and some purple flowers blooming in spikes along the roadside. Is there a handy way to tell the difference between purple loosestrife and fireweed? I learn both species each summer just to forget again by the time they bloom the next season.
“Thanks, John and Heidi!”
Little Falls Phenology students
Our final update comes from the Little Falls Phenology Instagram page, which is run by Chad Kaddatz, a science teacher at the school. His students have been sending photos of their nature observations all summer!
This week’s entries include a sighting of a juvenile Cooper’s Hawk. It has a streaked chest, with scattered brown stripes running vertically on a pale background. Adult Cooper’s Hawks have brown bars, which run horizontally.
The Little Falls sightings also included a few insects, including a darner dragonfly, a soot-colored moth known as a Black Arches Moth, and a strikingly colored “phantom cranefly”. Craneflies look like overgrown mosquitos, with long legs and a thin body. This cranefly had vivid white and black patterns on its legs.
You can see these photos on their Instagram page,
Newstoks near Marcell
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, subscribe 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).
