November 17, 2021
Winter Walks
My wife, Becky, and I go for walks year round at Fort Ridgely for exercise and to look for and record the beauty that we see with our cameras and in our minds and experience. With a couple small snowstorms what we see has changed and how we dress for the walk. The picture below was taken from the far end of the valley below the chalet. Notice the snow in a few places and the generally muted colors of fall. Most trees have lost their leaves and the prairie grasses and flowers are dying and drying out to make sure their seeds are ready to fall and germinate in the spring. Birds and other animals eat some of these seeds now and throughout the winter. Squirrels and other animals are hiding nuts and berries for the winter too.
The only bright colors are the dark green of the grass on the trails (thanks to rains in October) and a few late blooming goldenrods and dandelions along the trails.
The shelter by the amphitheater looks great clothed in a little snow.
This abandoned summer nest also is blanketed by snow.
Earlier this week we went for a walk and I took this picture from airplane hill. Only a few trees have any leaves on them. We have to make sure we go earlier for walks with the sun setting an hour earlier with daylight saving time. This picture was taken close to sunset.
Several species of woodpeckers can be seen and heard all winter at Fort Ridgely. This red-bellied woodpecker was very verbal with its monkey like call from the trees near the park office. It was not very cooperative with me to get its picture taken.
I was pleased to see that the prairie northwest of the chalet was mowed so that it would be easier for kids this winter to go sledding on this less steep hill than the big hill below the chalet. Our 2 year granddaughter and her family will visit us over Christmas vacation and this hill is much more appropriate for her.
The staff even mowed a nice path to the hill from the parking lot.
We have had the opportunity to take walks at other nearby sites recently. My sister's husband died suddenly in Jackson, Minnesota recently so we have made several trips along highway 71 to see her. On one of these trips we stopped at the Jeffers Petroglyph historical site. We went for a walk on a prairie trail there. The quartzite deposits here are very flat and only rise slightly out of the flat prairie with only a few trees popping out. Native Americans carved many figures into the reddish purple rock all over this area. Sorry that I didn't take any pictures this time of the carvings but it is worth it just to see and hear about possible meanings of them from the staff. Nobody but us were there this time.
I will talk about this more later but one of the most colorful things to see this time of year is lichens on rocks, dead (and sometimes alive) wood and even metal bridges. This quartzite boulder at the Petroglyphs was covered with it.
Ramsey Park Hike
Another cool place to go for a walk not far from Fort Ridgely is Ramsey Park in Redwood Falls. Becky and I went for a walk there on October 26. The falls was not very impressive as there still is not much water going over it.
What was special to see was that there was a wild mink crawling on the rocks just above the falls. I wonder if it was looking for a spot to hibernate for the winter.
They also have a small zoo with goats, prairie dogs, various birds including the geese and bison They used to have elk and deer but we did not see them.
It is also very scenic walking on trails near the Redwood River.
Lichens
There is increasingly less wildlife to see on walks in the park, any park for that matter. Most plants are in winter mode and few insects can be seen. In the dead of winter, when it warms up and some snow melts, I have seen an occasional wooly bear caterpillar and even a hardy spider one time when cross country skiing at Flandreau State Park. Before the snow started flying here I saw lots of small grasshoppers and several small moths and butterflies. A friend saw a painted lady butterfly and wondered at its still being here. This is what I told her in her Facebook post showing pictures of it landing on various things: "I believe it is a painted lady butterfly. They do fly south like monarchs Google says. Many other insects and butterflies have other ways to make it through our winters without migration. The wooly bear caterpillar survives the winter as a caterpillar and becomes a moth in the spring. Some others survive in the chrysalis stage through the winter. This one may yet fly south but may die here and rely on others to come back north next summer."
Lichens are an interesting thing to look at this time of year. They have various colors, shapes and textures and are found on many things in the park. Many kinds are found on dead branches in the woods. They are a part of the breakdown to soil of various rotting things.
Some are found on rocks that are strewn around the park. I showed an example of this in the Jeffers Petroglyph part. Even the metal bridges over the creek have lichens growing on them.
They have fascinating names given to them by naturalists. I have put pictures of some on iNaturalist recently and the software identified them as golden moonglow, hooded sunburst, star rosette and candleflame lichens. These have not been verified as each of these types by a lichenologist yet. I believe there are fewer of them out there than ones studying birds , mammals, plants and insects.
It is interesting that lichens when studied in the last 50 years were a pivotal species to help scientists to modify evolutionary theory from a strictly survival of the fittest theory to more cooperative theory. Lichens are actually two species that work together and cannot survive on their own. The fungus provides the outer protection for the bacteria or algae inside that in turn supplies nutrients for the fungus and give off the chemicals that make the lichens so colorful.
To contact Bix Baker: bekahjbaker@gmail.com
To contact Scott: scott.kudelka@state.mn.us