It has been a long time since there was an update about Fort Ridgely. This is my fault and there has been confusion about who it is that writes these so I will clarify this. I am Bix Baker, retired science teacher from GFW High School and Fairfax resident. I write the articles with a few exceptions and take the pictures. I have asked a few people to write articles and have been careful to give them credit in the Update. Scott Kudelka, the area naturalist for Fort Ridgely, Minneopa and Flandreau State Parks adds a few links, puts it in proper format for e-mail and sends it out. He does a similar Update for Minneopa and would be glad to send it to you if you e-mail him. Minneopa's Update is weekly My goal for this update was biweekly but as you can see have not always attained this. I will try to catch you up on some of the things I have seen at Fort Ridgely during the time since the last Update.

Indigo Encounter

Last month I was on a walk by the prairie below the Chalet and was almost to the place where the path meets the path coming down from the Fort. I saw a brown bird, slightly larger than a sparrow with different eyes and beak than a sparrow. I wondered what it was as it chirped to others around it in the trees. It became clear what it was when it flew away from its perch on the sign and was replaced by the bright blue male of its species. They were female and male indigo buntings

I got several nice pictures of them when they flew into the prairie. It sounded like there were more than just the two of them. It could have been their offspring and they were trying to guard them.

The next day my wife was with me and we saw them both nearby in the trees above and to the northwest from the intersection of paths. This could have been where they had their nest.

Dive bombing birds

We walked along the trail across the road from the cemetery parking lot and noticed lots of swallows flying around the prairie just above the plants. They would dive down and probably get an insect of some kind in the process. I have seen one or two doing this in the past but these tree swallows must have told all their friends and family that there was good hunting today at Fort Ridgely. There were at least 30 or 40 of them flying around totally oblivious to us. On our way back we walked through the prairie amongst them and they still swooped around us barely missing us sometimes. I hope the video gives some feel for how many and close they were to us.

Rainfall Adaptation and Confusion

This year has been interesting when it comes to rainfall across our country and here in southern Minnesota. We had lots of rain in late spring and early summer. It was very dry for much of July and August. Now in September we have gotten some good rains but since it was so dry, the soil and plants have absorbed and used most of this moisture. Fort Ridgely Creek is still very low indicating that very small amounts of the rain actually ran off into the tile in the fields and made it to the ditches and streams they drain into. We had a 3 inch rain last week and now the creek has lots more water than in the picture but the Minnesota River is still low.

We went to visit our daughter's family in Montana on August 21.and did not return until the first week of September. It was dry when we left. We had not mowed our lawn in a long time as the grass was brown and had gone into dormancy. It was very tall when we got back and has stayed green since then.

Trees, grasses, wild flowers and even mushrooms adapted in similar ways to both situations (dry and wet) at the park. Many trees grew more leaves than usual in the wet spring. During the dry summer some of these leaves dried up and many have fallen to the ground covering many paths in fall-like leaf cover. Some trees are also turning color early like some maples and many sumac trees.

The grasses in the prairie areas are short in some places where the soil is sandy and 6-8 feet tall in other areas where the roots go deep. One type of flower that we saw more of this year than any other year is blazing star. There is a big patch of them in the northern part of the prairie north of the museum. Here is a picture of their purple flowers mixed with showy goldenrod.

Now the thistles are done and going to seed except for a few late ones. Blazing stars as well are almost done. Anise hyssop was almost done but made a comeback after the rains and is still blooming all over the park. Lots of bees and butterflies visit them now including this monarch. Most of the monarchs are gone now but a few are still around. I'm not sure if these will fly south soon or why they are later than many others that flew south.

Goldenrods are everywhere and are even starting to finish up flowering and form their seeds. The same is true of many of the sunflower varieties that are out this time of year. A small yellow flower that is a ground cover in many parts of the park and along the edges of many of our lawns is wood sorrel. The whole plant is edible and has a tangy lemon-like taste. It had dried up before the rain but was back and blooming enough to get honey bees coming to it as you can see in the picture.

Goats to the rescue

My wife and I were taking a walk at Flandreau State park this last weekend and noticed electric fence around certain parts of the park. We then noticed goats roaming around in the fenced in area of the woods. Some were enthusiastically eating leaves from some bushes

Some were walking along trails through the woods to who knows where. My wife put a similar video to the one attached on our Facebook feed and said, 'Even old goats enjoy a walk in the park especially if it includes lunch!"

When I was putting in the link to my video of the goats I ran across the following more official video from Flandreau from two years ago.