Sand Lake

Easier Field Trip

Leader: Kurt Mead

This field trip will visit a wide variety of northern habitats, including Sand Lake, one of the few sandy lakes in the NE part of Minnesota, which is also adjacent to the Sand Lake Peatland Scientific and Natural Area. There is also a large, old homestead clearing at Sand Lake, which is a great feeding area for a wide variety of Odonates. We will also visit the old logging-era town site of McNair, the site of the type locality of Plebejus idas nabokovi (Nabakov’s [northern] blue butterfly) which depends on dwarf billberry leaves, a relatively rare plant in the area.

Langely River is a soft-bottomed, slow-flowing, sedge-edged river and the Stony River lives up to its name, with swift waters splashing over boulders and riffles. There is a pretty high potential of encountering some of the midsummer Clubtail species at the Stony River, but this area hasn’t been well-surveyed for Gomphids so we aren’t quite sure what we’ll find.