December 16, 2020
Another late afternoon sunset walk
My wife and I like to go for walks at Fort Ridgely after she gets home from work. We get to talk, get exercise, destress from work and enjoy new things in nature on almost every walk. We used to do it after supper but as sunset gets earlier every night she has had to make sure she is home before 4pm. Sunset is now at 4:30 so we cannot avoid dusk or sunsets so have seen some beautiful displays in the west recently. I have shared several examples in past updates and here is another. The woods has a orangish hue toward sunset.
We hiked back to the overlook at the northwest end of the prairie across the road from the museum. The sunset here as a jet and contrail passed in the sky in the same direction.
The last picture is after the sunset and was taken near the parking lot by the cemetery.
Beautiful Rime Ice on everything after a foggy night and 2 days
Frost on the landscape is a beautiful occurrence in the wintertime. There is a difference between frost and what is called rime ice which we experienced about a week ago. Frost occurs when the temperature drops below the dewpoint and this is below freezing (dew if it is above freezing). The fine crystals that form are delicate and regular in their form, similar to snowflakes and are fascinating to look at when magnified by a lens or a microscope. Rime ice occurs when there is fog and the temperature is close to freezing. What happens is small icicles occur that can go in all directions from what it forms on. I include several magnified versions of this on branches and plants
The numbers for our scavenger hunt were covered with the ice too. Several people have asked for instructions and they are still up. Text me or e-mail me your email address and I will send you them as well (507-995-5635 or bekahjbaker@gmail.com).
One other thing that I noticed those 2 days as I walked both days in the park was that as I descended into the ravines or Minnesota River valley, the rime ice decreased to nothing on the trees and other plant life. I assume the fog, like clouds on a mountain, only reached so far down into the valleys. The first picture is in the woods looking up and the second is looking across the Minnesota River valley
I caught this picture of an American tree sparrow in amongst the grasses in a prairie area of the park on this same walk.
As I walked through the park on the second day of the rime ice I was thinking about how many things we get to observe with our senses in the winter when there is less green to look at. You see many things that are not as easily visible like I mentioned in a previous update about birds that usually hide in the leaves. Other things are all the fallen trees that are often covered with mosses.
This is a normal occurrence as trees have a life cycle and die like other living things like humans. Some die early and are small but many die and fall over in the woods as huge trees.
They will eventually be turned back into soil by all the decomposers like woodpeckers, insects and grubs (which woodpeckers look for), mosses, fungi and lichens. The picture below shows a log that is almost completely decayed and is more of a mound than a log.
There are no insects out at this time but some of their nest are visible now which you seldom see during the summer. The bald-faced wasp or hornet has an amazing nests. In Winnie the Pooh, what he described as a honey bee nest was actually a bald-faced wasps' nest. They make the paper from decayed cellulose from dead trees and woody plants.
Notice the amazing diversity of color of the lichens on trees, branches and rocks..
Use other senses like smell and hearing as you walk. Hear the chica dee dee dee of the chickadee. The hammering or gentle tapping of a woodpecker. On the second day of the rime ice as I walked into the woods I heard some pattering on the leaves. Soon I realized the rime ice was falling from the trees due to the breeze and melting as it got above freezing.,
Owl Encounter in Flandreau State Park
My wife try to get a walk in everyday for exercise and our own sanity. There is something about a walk in the woods hat clears the mind and relaxes the spirit. We walk at Fort Ridgely and around the overflow pond by Fairfax most often. On shopping trips to New Ulm sometimes we go to Flandreau State Park for a walk as a part of the trip. This day in late November we were walking on a path near the Cottonwood River when we started to hear the 'who, who' sounds faintly of an owl. We wanted to see it if possible so we tried to see where it was coming from. We came to a fork in the path and took the path toward where we heard the sound. Sure enough after some searching we saw a great horned owl way up in a tree. My camera has a pretty good zoom so these pictures make it look much bigger than it was to us.
Notice it has its back to us. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to look behind us without turning our whole body? Owls cannot turn their heads 360 degrees but can do 280!
Last spring, right before the lockdown in Minnesota, we went to Houston, MN for the International Festival of Owls. My son got a t-shirt that showed a cranky owl with the subtitle Irritable Owl Syndrome. This owl seems to be somewhat irritated by us looking at it.
It flew to another tree and I got a couple more pictures. It was way up in another tree and continued to make its cooing sounds. We found out why it was making the sounds. Another owl (its mate?) flew off much lower down. Maybe it was hunting and the higher up one was either warning it about us or directing it to some prey below.
