August: The prairie is afire — with flowers
Frontenac State Park Association newsletter
August 2025 (Vol. 3, No. 8)
Comments, contributions, compliments, complaints? Reach your newsletter editor at pamelamarianmiller@gmail.com.
August: The prairie is afire — with flowers
Wistful melancholy — not necessarily an unpleasant sensation – sometimes hits us in August, as we realize that summer has raced past us without our full attention.
And who can give nature and summer their full attention when we’re busy with work 40 or more hours a week, with rambunctious kids, aging parents, family and friends’ celebrations and sorrows, politics, picnics, meetings, addictive Netflix series, the dog to walk, the dishes to do, and all the other demands and desires that daily life presents to us?
Only a few lucky folks among us (and that includes some of us retired members of the Frontenac State Park Association) have time to wander contemplatively through our beautiful park on a weekday, or to sit on a picnic table up at that amazing main park overlook to watch the sun set.
And yet, we’re here to tell you – as you can, friends, aim to take that quiet solo hike, to admire some summer wildflowers, to get lost in the 6-foot prairie grasses, to watch that sunset a few nights with your trusty cell phone turned off (or turned on and taking photos) — just for an hour or two.
And if you feel like it, check out your Frontenac State Park Association’s August events, where you can enjoy both our singular natural world and the cheerful company of others who love nature and our park. Bring your kids, your elderly parents, your dog, your pals, your heart and soul and brain.
From our calendar to yours
Saturday, Aug. 2, 9-11 a.m.: Guided walk on post-fire ecology with head ranger Jake Gaster. Meet at park headquarters.
Saturday, Aug. 2, 10-11 a.m.: Guided nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause. Meet at the campground kiosk.
Tuesday, Aug. 5, 10-11 a.m.: Nature Explorers for preschoolers with interpretive naturalist Sara Holger. Make a walking stick! Meet at the picnic shelter.
Saturday, Aug. 9, 10-11 a.m.: Guided nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause. Meet at the campground kiosk.
Saturday, Aug. 16, 10-11 a.m.: Guided nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause. Meet at the campground kiosk.
Thursday, Aug. 21, 3-4:30 p.m.: Quarterly Frontenac State Park Association meeting. All are welcome. Main picnic shelter.
Saturday, Aug. 23, 9-11 a.m.: Guided bird walk with Minnesota Master Naturalist volunteers Janet Malotky and Steve Dietz. Meet at the Frontenac State Park campground shower building. Walk through a mixed habitat of prairie and woodland looking for nesting birds that specialize in these areas, including Baltimore Orioles and perhaps some Orchard Orioles as well as Eastern Bluebirds, Clay-colored Sparrows and up to 6 species of woodpeckers. The trail is mowed grass and is well maintained. Bring your binoculars or borrow some from the park office. No need to register. If you have any questions, email janetmalotky@gmail.com.
Saturday, Aug. 23, 10-11 a.m.: Guided nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause. Meet at the campground kiosk.
Sunday, Aug. 24, 10 a.m.: We see lichen all the time, all around us. Do you ever wonder exactly what you are looking at and what different lichens might tell you? Tanner Barnharst, author of the recently released Minnesota Lichen Guide, will lead a lichen walk and talk to show us how lichens are made of fungi and algae and are their own complete communities. Meet at the main campground shower facility. This event is free, but limited to 20 people. Please register online here.
Saturday, Aug. 30, 10-11 a.m.: Guided nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause. Meet at the campground kiosk.
Sunday, Aug. 31, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.: Falcons Live program. Known for its dramatic migration and amazing flight, the peregrine falcon has long fascinated people across the globe. Sixty years ago, there were none in the Upper Midwest; today, nearly 350 nesting pairs make their home here. Jackie Fallon of the Midwest Peregrine Society will present this program with several live birds. Bring your camera and binoculars. Meet at the ranger station near the park entrance.
September will bring many more fun and fascinating events, but we especially want to highlight this one.
On Saturday, Sept. 6, Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty, authors of “Sea of Grass: The Conquest, Ruin, and Redemption of Nature on the American Prairie,” will lead a walk on a park prairie trail, followed by a book signing up at the main park picnic shelter. We’ll meet at park headquarters, near the park entrance, at 11 a.m. that day to head out on the guided walk. Dave and Josephine are Minnesotans, journalists retired from the Minnesota Star Tribune. Their book is a beautiful, eye-opening read. Join us!
Other September events
Tuesday, Sept. 2, 10-11 a.m.: Nature Explorers program on butterflies for preschoolers with interpretive naturalist Sara Holger. Meet at the main picnic shelter.
Saturday, Sept. 6, 10-11 a.m.: Guided nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause. Meet at the campground kiosk.
Sunday, Sept. 7: Explore the life of dragonflies, one of the oldest flying creatures on Earth, on the trails of Frontenac State Park. Discover the unique and interesting attributes of dragonflies that have helped them become the most proficient predator on the planet with Jeff Fischer, a founding member of the Minnesota Dragonfly Society and past president of the Wisconsin Dragonfly Society. Time and specific location to be determined.
Thursday, Sept. 11, 10 a.m.: Forest bathing. Join certified Nature and Forest Therapy Guide Sara Holger, from Project Get Outdoors, on a sensory immersion in nature. Meet at the picnic shelter.
Saturday, Sept. 13, 10-11 a.m.: Guided nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause. Meet at the campground kiosk.
Saturday, Sept. 13, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.: Guided fungi walk with Minnesota Master Naturalist volunteer Pam Miller. Meet at the campground shower building kiosk.
Saturday, Sept. 20, 9-11 a.m.: Guided Sand Point bird walk with Master Naturalist volunteers Janet Malotky and Steve Dietz. Meet at the park’s Sand Point parking lot at the intersection of Hwy. 61 and County 2 Blvd at 9 a.m. Walk through the riparian forest and along the beach to Sand Point for the beginning of fall migration. We will look for migrant shorebirds such as Caspian Terns and possibly American Avocets, as well as an amazing panoply of resident and migrating forest birds. Bring binoculars. The trail is well-maintained and flat. The full loop is about 2 miles long, but you can head back anytime you need to. Questions? Email janetmalotky@gmail.com.
Saturday, Sept. 20, 10-11 a.m.: Guided nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause. Meet at the campground kiosk.
Saturday, Sept. 20, 7 p.m.: Starry, Starry Night program with the Rochester Astronomy Club, main picnic shelter/parking lot.
Saturday, Sept. 27, 10-11 a.m.: Guided nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause. Meet at the campground kiosk.
‘Prairie Dreams: Trail of Quilts’ coming in 2026
Are you a quilter? Do you know a quilter? Be a part of FSPA’s Prairie Dreams exhibition of quilts at the park next June.
Speaking of great nature blogs, we’d like to thank Minnesota Master Naturalist Marge Loch-Wouters for her shout-out to the FSPA in her wonderful and informative blog, “Hiking the Driftless Trails.” In her latest post, Marge writes about braving a Frontenac State Park fungi walk on a very hot and humid day and about the joys of guided bird walks in the park.
Q&A with Ranger Jake: Our park’s beautiful birch trees
By Pamela Miller
Minnesota Master Naturalist volunteer
Throughout our park, you’ll encounter many beautiful stands of paper birches, growing together like little families. Although we don’t see as many birch trees here in the Driftless Area as we might in Minnesota state parks farther north, a surprising number grow here. We asked head ranger Jake Gaster a few questions about these lovely trees:
Q: What conditions and directions make for a healthy birch stand?
A: Paper birch (Betula papyrifera) is a pioneer species, which means it thrives in recently disturbed wooded areas, such as after fires or wind events that create openings in the forest canopy. They typically will form stands in which they are the only tree species. Raspberry (rubus spp.) and elderberry (sambucus spp.) bushes often grow alongside them. Because birches are relatively short-lived and prone to mortality from disease, they will often be replaced in the canopy by maples, oaks and other longer-lived tree species. The presence of birch stands is relatively temporary from an ecological timeframe, and as such all the more beautiful.
Q: What is the history of birches in the park?
A: Birches have always been in this area and are an important part of our native ecosystem.
Q: What is the future of birches in the park? Does a warming climate make it harder for them to survive?
A: Paper birches prefer cooler climates and perform poorly in heat and humidity. With a warming climate, expect to see the natural range for paper birch creep northward. As we are near the southernmost edge of their range, we can probably expect to see a gradual decline in our park’s birches in years to come, though it will be a long time before they are gone entirely, probably beyond the lifetime of anyone reading this.
Q: What are some trees that birches are related to?
A: They are related to alders, hazels and hornbeams (family: Betulaceae), but surprisingly, perhaps, are not closely related to aspen or poplars, despite visual similarities.
Q: Are there any particular pests/threats to birches?
A: Yes! A ubiquitous native insect, the bronze birch borer, is almost always fatal to affected trees.
Q: Is there anything we can do to enhance the health of the park's birch stands?
A: Birch trees are highly susceptible to physical disturbances. Weakened, stressed, or damaged trees are more likely to be targeted by the bronze birch borer. Don’t strip their bark or carve your initials in them. To best protect them, admire and enjoy them from a distance.
Q: What else should we know about our state park’s birch stands?
A: Birch limbs are a popular craft item used in the creation of a variety of decorations, especially at Christmas. But a reminder: Collection of plant material — including birch limbs, living or dead — in a Minnesota state park is illegal. Respect your state park; don’t ransack it.
Bird note: Baby bird bonanza
By Janet Malotky
Minnesota Master Naturalist volunteer
A couple of weeks before this writing, I was gazing out my window as I often do and chanced to see a head peeping out of the little nest box on the back hill. The box is occupied by House Wrens, and for many days, the parents had been flying nonstop to the box with caterpillars and from the nest with fecal sacs (sort of like taking out the diaper trash).
Suddenly the peeper scooted up to the edge of the hole and launched itself, veering and crashing toward a nearby shrub where it somehow grasped a twig and clung, wobbling and bobbing. No sooner had the first bird fledged when a second head poked out of the box, followed by a fearless leap and careening flight through the nearby spiderwort. Four more fledglings followed in quick succession, crash-landing randomly here and there.
Imagine emerging from a dark, stuffy box to be dazzled by the wide green world for the first time, gripping a twig with your own two feet without siblings pushing and pecking and jostling in the cramped nest, being suddenly airborne! Terror? Relief? Wonder? Maybe all of the above.
Often folks assume that fledgling birds will look like miniature adults, with some growing still to do. But the reality is that by the time baby birds emerge from the nest, most are nearly the size of their parents. The exceptions to this rule are precocial birds like waterfowl and shorebirds whose babies leave the nest within hours of hatching. Picture the fuzzy little goslings trailing their parents into a pond as an example.
While the baby wrens who fledged on our back hill looked a lot like their parents, that’s not always the case. As I’m writing this, I can see fledgling House Finches at our feeder who all look like their mom, except for the little tufts of baby fuzz remaining on their crowns. None looks like their dad. There are fledgling Baltimore Orioles, none of whom carry the intense coloring of their fathers. Instead, they’re paler and duller versions of him, like their mothers. Many young birds have coloring like their mothers, possibly because duller coloring provides the better camouflage that fledglings need until they can take care of themselves.
Some fledglings have differences that aren’t like either parent. Fledgling Downy Woodpeckers look sort of scruffy and dirty. Fledgling Red-Headed Woodpeckers have brown heads and backs. Bald Eagle babies are usually dark brown all over. The white and silver Ring-billed Gulls have fledglings who are mostly brown as well. Newly fledged bluebirds and robins are speckled.
Though baby birds will eventually look like their parents, it takes a varying amount of time for this to happen, depending on the species. House Finch babies will lose their head fuzz in a couple of days, but if they’re males, they won’t get their red feathers until two to six months later. Baltimore Orioles don’t get their fancy feathers until fall of their second year. Gulls gradually shift to adult coloring over the first three years of life. And Bald Eagles take five years to get the clean white heads and tails that we associate with our national bird.
Parent birds continue to take care of their recently fledged young for a while once they leave the nest. The young cry piteously from their haphazard perches so the parents can find and feed them. Take care not to assume that a bird crashing around in the shrubbery is ill or injured. It’s very possibly a young bird still learning to fly. And if you see or hear a bird at this time of year that just doesn’t look or sound quite right for any bird species you know, think fledgling learning to sing.
Notes from the field: Black-eyed Susan origami
By Steve Dietz
Minnesota Master Naturalist volunteer
Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) is one of our most recognizable coneflowers and can be found growing in almost any sunny location due to its unusual root system, which is mainly fibrous and similar in structure to the root systems of grasses. Its copious root hairs provide a very large surface area for water absorption, a necessary adaptation for surviving the dry soils of its native prairie habitats in the Midwest, where it establishes easily by seed and crowds out weeds with minimal help.
As such, it is a classic pioneer species in new native plantings, coming in strong in the early years but then succumbing to longer-lived perennial plants. It is a prolific self-seeder, though, and will remain part of the mix for many years.
The plant’s common moniker, Black-eyed Susan, likely arises from its central blackish-brown disc cone. Or might it be related to the 1720 poem“Black-Eyed Susan,” by John Gay, about the love story between Susan and her Sweet William? Either way, who would deny the lovely interest of this bright and cheery plant? The Rudbeckia of its botanical name honors father and son Olaf. J. Rudbeck and Olaf O. Rudbeck, professors of botany at Uppsala, in Sweden, where Carl Linnaeus, the developer of the binomial nomenclature of modern taxonomy, was the favorite pupil of the younger Rudbeck. The species name hirta is Latin for “hairy,” and refers to the hairs on the plants’ leaves and stems. In England, a common name for the plant was “hairy coneflower.” There are four varieties in North America, with var. pulcherrima the one native to Minnesota.
Black-eyed Susans attract a particularly wide diversity of pollinating insects, including flies, beetles, butterflies and moths, bees, wasps, and sawflies. The Silvery Checkerspot (a butterfly) uses Rudbeckia species as a host plant. Seed is consumed by song birds, especially goldfinches.
Despite being so common and recognizable, the blooming of a Black-eyed Susan is a kind of botanical origami miracle, as pictured and described below by author, illustrator, photographer and artist Patrick J. Lynch. Enjoy!
Sources: Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden, NYFA Newsletter, Wikipedia
Poem of the month
“Mushroom”
By Nancy Willard (American; 1936-2017)
The army retreated and left
under the springs of Queen
Anne’s lace and the skin
of cinquefoil, these
tender helmets: earth star,
cloud’s ear, chanterelle,
mushrooms hunched and hid
like a covey of quail.
The gemmed puffballs, gloved
in white kid, darken
with age like the moon.
“Midwife to the fern and
the great oak, we bear no
flowers, stay nowhere long.
The wind seeds us, shakes
the wheeled loom of our
birth. Haloed in spores,
we lay at your feet our
elf-saddles and friendly
trumpets, unmusical but deep,
having the taste of time sealed
in amphoras and organ pipes;
in the eggs of mythical birds,
the taste of sleep.”
Interested in joining the FSPA?
If you are a member, thank you! You help us pursue our mission of supporting this treasured park in myriad ways.
If you’d like to join us, we’d be honored to have your support. Dues are $25 per year for an individual, $35 for dual/family membership. Here’s a link with signup information.
A reminder that joining us occasionally to help with volunteer efforts is awesome too, even if you’re not a member. The FSPA’s goals are to support Frontenac State Park activities and share our love of this beautiful park with as many people as possible.
To sign up to regularly receive this free, spam-free monthly newsletter, click on “Subscribe” below. Feel free to send questions or comments to your newsletter editor at pamelamarianmiller@gmail.com. Questions about the FSPA? You can reach hard-working FSPA chair Steve Dietz at stevedietz@duck.com.
Handy links for more information and education
Frontenac State Park
Frontenac State Park Association
If you take pictures in the park, tag us on Instagram
Frontenac State Park bird checklist
Frontenac State Park on iNaturalist
Parks & Trails Council of Minnesota
Website for our township, Florence Township
Minnesota Master Naturalist programs
Red Wing Environmental Learning Center
Lake City Environmental Learning Program on FB
Visit Lake City
Zumbro Valley Audubon Society
Bruce Ause’s Wacouta Nature Notes blog
Marge Loch-Wouters’ Hiking the Driftless Trails blog
Frontenac State Park staff
Jake Gaster, park manager; Amy Jay, assistant park manager; Amy Poss, lead field worker
Parting shots
Thank you, readers and park visitors!
This is Volume 3, No. 8 of the Frontenac State Park Association newsletter, which was launched in April 2023.
Here’s where to browse the full archives of this newsletter.