Sugar Lake Lodge near Grand Rapids
“Hello, my name is Nora. I am nine years old. I'm from Chanhassen, Minnesota, and I went on a nature hike and I caught a frog and I've been seeing lots of my friends and my mom catch crayfish and they're really cool. I caught a crayfish with my mom’s help. The sap from a touch-me-not helped for a mosquito bite so it's not itchy anymore. We got to explore lots of different rivers and ponds, and the touch-me-not also has like this flower seed thingy where you push on it – it, like, explodes.”
“My name is Abby. I live in Crookston, Minnesota, I'm 12 years old and today I went on a really fun nature hike and I learned about how to catch frogs and crawfish and fish in little ponds with fishing nets. And I also learned about trees and what type of trees they are by looking at the spikes on pine trees. And I also learned about flowers and certain flowers, they can pop. And I liked catching frogs in the ponds.”
“Hi, my name is Molly. I'm 10 years old and I live in Crookston, Minnesota and I learned how to catch frogs and crawfish and I liked that we got to learn about trees and flowers. And I touched a frog and it was very slimy. And there was a plant where you would touch it and then touch the top and it would explode, and it was really cool.”
“Hi, my name is Merrick. I'm nine years old and I live in Crookston, Minnesota. Today we went on a nature hike and I saw a lot of cool things. I caught some crawdads, some fish and some frogs.”
John Latimer: “What’s your name?”
Elliot: “Elliot.”
John Latimer: “How old are you?”
Elliot: "Seven.”
John Latimer: “And what did you do today?”
Elliot: “I played in the water.”
John Latimer: “What did you catch?”
Elliot: “A crawfish and a fishy. And frogs.”
John Latimer: “Yeah. Anything else?”
Elliot: “Nuh-uh.”
Long Lake Conservation Center near Palisade
This report is brought to you by Kathy and the astronomers who visited Long Lake as part of their annual Northern Nights Star Fest.
“This report is for the week of August 25-30 and will focus on our terrestrial observations. Next week’s report will focus on the objects we observed in the night sky during our visit.
“The high temperature was 87 degrees and the low was 50. Another noteworthy sign of autumn was a kettle of nighthawks spotted flying over the lake. A gaggle of Canada Geese stopped at Long Lake for a quick rest on their flight south. The familiar ‘Who cooks for you’ call of the Barred Owl was heard, and bluebirds and Red-headed Woodpeckers were seen.
“It was two years ago during this week that Dill Prickles returned to Long Lake’s campus after his summer vacation. No sightings of Dill so far, but we are hopeful he’ll make his triumphant return any day now.
“The Minnesota Department of Agriculture found two Spongy Moths in a trap they set earlier at Long Lake as part of their annual Spongy Moth Survey. This is typical for the area. Spongy Moths are invasive and pose a threat to Minnesota’s forests.
“One of my highlights so far is observing bumblebees. I’m a contributor to the U of M’s [Bee] Atlas Project. There were a good amount of bees on the goldenrod. I observed common Eastern, brown-belted, and half-black bumblebees. Last year, I photographed a rare frigid bumblebee, but no luck this year.
“The Long Lake staff conducted their second bee survey of the summer and reported identifying a total of 13 bees, down from 40 two weeks ago. This may be a result of the fact that the bee balm is done blooming.
“It was a great week in nature and we want to remind everyone to unplug, get outside and LIVE CONNECTED!”
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).
