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Fall Walk through Nature at Fort Ridgely
Fall Walk through Nature at Fort Ridgely
Becky and I returned on Monday from a 10 day visit to our daughter in western Montana (Missoula). We went on many walks in and around Missoula. They had had more rain this summer than any year in a long time. Beth's garden was productive and there were many mushrooms in the woods but also in people's yards. We ate some edible mushrooms that had come up in their yard. Her husband Justin had just taken a workshop on foraging for mushrooms. He verified with a mushroom group online that what we found was edible. It is very important to do this with a reputable group before eating mushrooms you find outside as many edible mushrooms have look alikes that are not tasty and could even be poisonous in rare cases.
Our rain gage here in Fairfax said we had 2.5 inches of rain while we were gone so I thought maybe there would be mushrooms at Fort Ridgely. Yesterday I went for two walks at Fort Ridgely, first by myself and then with Becky when she come home from work. I took lots of pictures and will share some here, I did not find many mushrooms. In places that I have seen two large mushrooms before, I found them again.
This one is driad's saddle. It is a huge shelf fungus that grows mainly on dead rotting trees.
This fungus was all along this rotting log and some shelves were a foot in diameter
The second fungus is chicken of the woods. It is also a shelf fungus and grows on rotting logs also.
It is edible and much sought after by foragers. This one is old and no longer edible. It is bright orange when fresh but turns to a tan color as it gets older.
I am not sure why there were so few mushrooms at Fort Ridgely. Usually there are lots of them after a rain if the soil and trees are saturated with water. Mushrooms are the fruiting body of underlying fungi in the soil or tree. The mushroom forms the spores (like seeds) to produce more fungi nearby in the future. Sometimes the mushroom is only there for a day or two after coming up. It could be that many more mushrooms were up and these big ones are the few that are still up. The rain came over a week ago. It could also be that the leaves that are falling down from the trees are covering them and making them no longer visible. I would say that over half of the trees have lost their leaves. Here are a couple pictures of the leaves on the trails or in the woods.
Fallen leaves covering a trail in the park.
Fallen leaves in among the trees in the woods.
Looking toward the river from airplane hill lookout. Many trees have lost their leaves
Looking northwest from airplane hill.
Some still colorful trees and big blue stem grass visible from the lower trail on the west side of the park.
Contrasting leaf color in the same area.
Prairie Flowers
Prairie Flowers
There are not many flowers remaining on the prairie. The purple New England asters made it through the frost that happened while we were in Montana. Almost all the other flowers still blooming are yellow.
New England asters
New England asters among black raspberry bushes.
Black-eyed Susan flowers near the new bathrooms
Little dandelions continue to come up and bloom along many paths in the park.
All other flowers were in various stages of seed formation and scattering. In this dry state there is a fall type beauty. Becky often decorates our house this time of year with a fall dried arrangement with this type of beauty. Here are a few examples.
Brown anise hyssop flowers with seeds drying inside
Delicate seeds where snakeroot flowers had been.
Common milkweed pods are opening and the wind is spreading their seeds all over the park.
Burdock burs are drying out all over its plant. They spread their seeds by sticking to animal fur including our clothes.
Stiff goldenrod has white seeds where the yellow flowers had been.
Canadian goldenrod plumes of white seeds where their yellow flowers had been.
Colorful red rose hips are the seed packets for this prairie rose plants.
Pink blazing star flowers form these seed packets.
Upcoming Interpretive Programming
Upcoming Interpretive Programming
Fall Nature Crafts
Date Oct. 21, 2023 Time 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Nature has much to offer when it comes to arts n crafts! Join a park naturalist to create some kid-friendly art projects that are perfect for the fall season. There will be several craft projects to choose from including spider webs, owls, and bats! All supplies will be provided.
To register for this program, please email Kelsey.m.moe@state.mn.us.
To join, please meet in the Chalet at 4 p.m.
More Information
Contact Kelsey Moe at 507-386-3915 or by email at kelsey.m.moe@state.mn.us.
Sorry for the late notice on Kelsey's program tomorrow. I noticed on my walks that there were quite a few campers in the campground. Hopefully some kids come to her program.
Kelsey and I were able to teach at a Minneopa Field Day for 500 biology students from Mankato East High School on September 25 and 26. She did a session on prairie birds and I did one on using your cell phone to identify birds, plants and other living things. We had groups of about 30 kids that came to our sessions 5 or 6 times each day. There were other sessions presented by people from other DNR agencies, from MSU Water Resources Center, from MPCA, from Riverwatch Friends of Minnesota Valley and from Prairie Enthusiasts.
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