Long Lake Conservation Center near Palisade
Roots and Wings Forest School in New York Mills
Little Falls Middle School
“This is Raegan and Rowan reporting from Mr. Kaddatz’s class in Little Falls Middle School. This is our phenology report for the week of September 8.
“There are a lot of mushrooms popping up, and we have seen some unique ones this fall. A spiny puffball, fairy fingers, coral tooth fungus, golden fairy club and candlebox mushrooms were all fun sightings.
“There are still green darner dragonflies hunting mosquitos in open areas, but we are seeing more and more meadowhawks now.
“It is very easy to find slugs after sunset and in morning when everything is wet with dew.
“If you find a multicolored ball a little smaller than a ping pong ball, it is probably an oak gall, formed by a developing oak gall wasp.
“Mr. Kaddatz was able to identify and watch a blue mud dauber wasp hauling a large spider that it had caught and was probably hauling back to feed its larvae.
“We have started seeing more and more nighthawks flying overhead before sunset each night.
“We are guessing that the flickers are starting to migrate, as they are showing up more frequently in yards.
“The flowers of wild cucumber and butter-and-eggs are easily spotted in ditches and fence rows.
“There is a large group of 15-20 Turkey Vultures circling around by the river each afternoon after school.
“Pocket gopher mounds seem to be popping up more frequently right now.
“Definitely the coolest sighting came from Roxie Flicek from Cushing, as she found a large bryozoan colony floating in a small body of water. It looks like an alien blob but is actually made up of thousands of microorganisms living together.
“That is our report for this week: Until next week, keep exploring, keep discovering, and keep connecting with the great outdoors.”
Prairie Creek Community School in Northfield, Minnesota
Maysoon: “This is Maysoon..."
Sienna: “...Sienna...”
Sophie: “...and Sophie from Prairie Creek Community School, way down south in Northfield, Minnesota.”
Maysoon: “It’s been a minute, but the Herons are back on phenology talkbacks.”
Sienna: “It sure is good to be back.”
Sophie: “We already have a lot to report. We’ll start with the birds.”
Sienna: “I’ve been seeing murmurations of starlings at my house in the evenings.”
Maysoon: “A bluebird and a cardinal both bumped into my window. A classmate also saw a molting female and male cardinal.”
Sophie: “At forest school we saw a Broadwing Hawk that was eating a snake. It was really cool... well, not for the snake.”
Sienna: “We have seen many, many, many turkeys.”
Maysoon: “Many of us have been seeing and hearing Sandhill Cranes. We thought they were all male because they had red heads but we just learned both females and males look alike.”
Sophie: “And I’ve been seeing a ton of Snowy Egrets in the wetlands along the Minnesota River.”
Sienna: “We can’t forget the herons, of course. We’re still seeing a lot of them.”
Maysoon: “We’ve also seen Blue Jays, geese flying south, Hairy Woodpeckers, an Eastern Phoebe, and both male and female hummingbirds.”
Sophie: “From the mammal world, Jaxon saw a groundhog wandering in his back yard. His cat also chased a chipmunk…it got away.”
Sienna: “We’ve been seeing a lot of bunnies and Theo reported two fox kits with their mamma. There were fox kits back in the spring, too. We’re wondering if they have babies all year long.”
Maysoon: “There have been a lot of deer sightings, too, including one doe with her fawn.”
Sophie: “We have seen a lot of dragonflies hunting in our field. At one point, we saw over thirty of them. We are going to report the swarm to the dragonfly woman.”
Maysoon: “She’s an etymologist who collects reports of large groups of dragonflies.”
Sienna: “It’s a great way to be a community scientist. You can google her.”
Sophie: “Finnly has reported a lot of spiders including an orb weaver and a funnel web maker.”
Maysoon: “We aren’t seeing too many box elders yet - but none of our fields have been harvested.”
Sienna: “We are still seeing monarchs including several hanging out together in the spruce trees on the playground.”
Sophie: “In the plant world - we have a few trees that are turning color. They are mostly sick maples or a few black walnuts.”
Maysoon: “We removed a lot of burdock from our school grounds. It was starting to turn brown. We hope we got it before it dropped its seeds.”
Sienna: “There were several reports of giant puff balls - but the ones that were on our field last year haven’t come back.”
Sophie: “Finally, Amelie reported that the days are getting shorter. This weekend it was downright cool but this coming week it may get up to ninety!”
Maysoon: “That’s fall for you.”
Sienna: “This has been Prairie Creek Community School...”
Sophie: “...one more step along the phenology journey.”
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).
