March 26, 2024

Signs of Spring

This has been a weird winter with lots of record warm weather with almost no snow. As a result, it has been very easy to hike the trails at Fort Ridgely with snow only a couple times and mud only a few times. Today is the first snow day for GFW School all winter and many area schools were also closed yesterday. It looks like March came in like a lamb but is going out like a lion.

The warm weather has fooled several early wildflowers into blooming early. The Pasque flowers which usually come around Easter (Pasque is Easter in French) were blooming below Airplane Hill on March 12 and possibly sooner. The first 3 pictures were taken on that day. The next picture was taken after a small snowstorm covered them with an inch of snow. I wonder what they will do after the present bigger snowstorm.

The first Pasque flowers for 2024.

Pasque flowers after an inch of snow melted off them and on a cloudy day.

I have been looking for several weeks for snow trilliums at a site across the river valley from Fort Ridgely where I have seen them in past years. There have not been any that I have seen there. Julie Gartner told me that she had seen them in another location that it turns out was maybe 1/4 mile from mine. Sure enough when I found the site the hillside was covered with them like my site had been in the past few years. There were a few hepaticas starting to bloom mixed among the snow trilliums.

A group of snow trilliums at Julie Gartner's site.

Sharp-lobed hepatica starting to bloom. These will soon be blooming in the park.

Robins arriving is another sign of spring. On March 6 was when I saw them first. Others had seen them before this. There were quite a few of them in Fairfax as we walked to vote in the primary. A farmer told Becky, my wife, that robins get snow on their wings 3 times before snows are over for the year. I think these have had it on their wings at least 3 times so hopefully today's snow is the last one. I have also seen grackles, killdeers and red-winged blackbirds.

A beaver in the park.

We were surprised to see several trees felled by a beaver near Fort Ridgely Creek on the trail just east of and below the chalet. There were at least 5 small trees that had been gnawed off. I looked all around to see where it had taken the trees thinking it may be building a dam across the creek. I found none of the trees in the creek or any evidence of a dam. I am not sure where the trees were taken to.

Trees cut down by a beaver

Notice the big pieces of wood it chewed off this tree.

Trumpeter Swans and geese in the pond near Fairfax

A pair of trumpeter swans were swimming in the overflow pond just east of highway 4 across from the baseball diamonds. We have seen 2 or more previous years so were not too surprised to see them. We go for walks around the pond many evenings for exercise and to be out in nature. As you can see, the sun was just setting as we walked by them. They swam to the other side of the pond but did not fly away like the geese we saw another day at this same pond.

Trumpeter swan pair swimming in Fairfax pond

Sunset silhouettes!

Some geese starting to take off from the Fairfax pond

More 'walking on water' to take off. All eventually flew away before we had walked very far along the pond.

Upcoming Events

SATURDAY, APRIL 27th

10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Spring Awakening: Ephemeral Wildflower Hike

Meet at the Chalet.

Spring is a time of new beginnings and is a welcomed sight after many long winter days. Join volunteer naturalist Bix Baker to explore the exciting wildflowers that are some of the first signs of spring and how they reveal a landscape that awakens with life each year.

The hike will be approximately 1 mile long and follow the Fairway Trail but stay in the woods rather than going out in the prairie. Most ephemeral wildflowers are woodland. There are some gentle descents and climbs along this dirt trail. Please wear appropriate footwear and dress for the weather.

If you need an accommodation, please contact Kelsey Moe at Kelsey.m.moe@state.mn.us or (507) 386-3915, two weeks prior to the event.

For you history buffs, Dean Urdahl, a retired high school history teacher and state legislator, will be showing his first 2 films about the 1862 Dakota War in the Fairfax library. He has written 5 books on this time period and has made 2 of them into movies. The first one, Uprising: the 1862 Dakota War, will be shown on May 23 from 5-7pm in the library. The second is called Assault on Fort Ridgely and will be shown on June 13 from 5-7pm. Below is an image made for a showing of the first film in Litchfield that I found online.

Hike in the snow on March 28

We had 4- 6 inches of snow on Monday night into Tuesday and there was lots of wind on Tuesday. I finally got out to see the snow at Fort Ridgely on Thursday (March 28). It was a very sunny day and though the temperature was at or slightly below freezing snow was melting in the intense spring sunlight. One couple I met walking on the trails had sunglasses on for the glare. I took several pictures with my phone but had a hard time seeing if they turned out on my screen with the brightness of the sun reflecting off the snow . Somebody had been snowmobiling on several of the trails I walked on.