December: Winter, we welcome you!
In December, we embrace winter hopes while recapping our lively meeting and upcoming events!
Frontenac State Park Association newsletter
December 2024 (Vol. 2, No. 12)
Questions, comments, compliments, complaints, contributions? Newsletter editor Pamela Miller is at pamelamarianmiller@gmail.com.
December: Winter, we welcome you!
Lovers of winter sports and sparkling landscapes are pining for significant snow. So are we in the Frontenac State Park Association – we’ve had it with brown winter landscapes! Last year, lack of snow put the kibosh on most cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in the park, and our sledding hill sat bare and forlorn. As we write this newsletter in late November, we have no clue what the weather gods/jet stream will send us this winter. If we get decent snow, head to the park’s website for notes about winter sports and a winter trails map.
Tidbits from our big November meeting
In between complaints about lack of snow, your FSPA pals have been busy as chipmunks gathering … whatever it is they gather. November brought more bird walks, seed-collecting and buckthorn-busting, and on Nov. 21 we had our big meeting by a smoky fire, the one where we laid out our plans for next year. It was, as meetings go, pretty fun. Here’s some of what came out of it:
Steve Dietz, Barb Partington and Deb Jeske were re-elected as FSPA president, secretary and treasurer. Thanks to them for their service!
We combed through our (very humble and thoughtful) budget for this and next year and made sure that no one had run off to the casino with any of it. (We’re good, no worries.)
We celebrated our members and welcomed some new ones. (See the bottom of this newsletter for information on how to join.)
Park manager Jake Gaster offered his quarterly update. Of course we mainly wanted to know if our unofficial mascot, the legendary White Lightning, the buckthorn-destroying goat that escaped from a Rattlesnake Bluff trail paddock last year, lives on. (He does! In fact, he was spotted during last weekend’s deer hunt! Watch for him, Mabel!) In other news, Jake told us that fall park visitorship and camping numbers were robust, and that for the year 1,500 visitors participated in park programs like the ones we run. He expressed some disappointment with the lack of good conditions for burning more acres of prairie this fall, but said the park will hope to make up for that in the spring.
We passed around the precioussss solid-wood trophy we got from the Parks & Trails Council of Minnesota for being 2024’s best park friends group. Thankfully, nobody dropped it, and we’ll soon put it on display in the park’s main picnic shelter, bolted down so none of our proud members swipes it.
We affirmed our three guiding principles/goals: To present and support interpretive programs in the park. To support the park’s natural resources and operational needs. And to promote the park as a premier destination for birds and birders.
We reviewed our activities from the past year and laid out priorities for 2025. All that’s too long for this newsletter, but suffice it to say we’ll be expanding what we do in 2025. We’ll have more nature walks, volunteer events, dark-skies nights and raptor programs, continue our Nature Explorers program for preschoolers and our partnership with Hispanic Outreach of Goodhue County, seek grants for bird and other projects, and expand our range of educational programs open to the public. Be sure to check our upcoming monthly newsletters for details and schedules.
From our calendar to yours…
December brings a hiatus in the walks and programs that we offer most of the year. But there’s one very important event to be aware of, happening the same day you’ll get your January 2025 newsletter. On New Year’s Day (it’s a Wednesday), join us for our annual First Day Walk. FSPA members will provide warm fires and treats at the main picnic shelter for folks beginning their new year in the fresh, bracing air. See you there!
Bird note: A little winter magic
By Janet Malotky, Minnesota Master Naturalist volunteer
On an agreed-upon day during the holidays each December, people all over the Western Hemisphere who are interested in birds head to assigned locations to do a census of the birds they are able to see or hear at that specific time and place. This event is known as the Christmas Bird Count. Designated birders canvas Frontenac State Park during the event.
The Christmas Bird Count dates to Christmas Day in 1900. It was proposed as an alternative to another tradition in which families would compete to see how many birds they could kill on that day. (Ugh — sometimes one can only shake one’s head.) Over the years, the event has grown, and the massive amount of information gathered has built a valuable and researchable database of bird populations over time. It’s the longest-running citizen science project in North America.
But it presents some challenges. Birding in December in Minnesota tends to be cold and snowy, or cold and windy, or gray and cold, or cold and icy, or just plain cold. You’ve got to get yourself psyched up for it, unlike our Floridian friends who bop down to the beach in their flip-flops to count their dozens of species strutting the sunny mudflats and skimming the surf, or our friends in the tropics who must wipe the sweat from their binoculars in order to distinguish between the multiple hummingbirds at their feeders. Sigh … some days in Minnesota you either have to be intrepid or just plain crazy to go outside.
A Christmas Bird Count a couple years ago was one such day. The trail was crunchy with ice-crusted snow and the hills were slick. Each breath congealed with the icy fog of the sky. Birds were scarcer than snow on a turtle, and our species list for the day was the mere stump of a list in summer. The only sound was the pegging of walking sticks and the crunch of cautious footfalls. We were kind of crazy to be out there at all.
But then we heard a sound: a distant, high, musical cackling. Squinting up, we could see nothing. The sky was edgeless fog to the ground, save for the few frosted and blurred spruces looming along the trail.
We waited, the sound approaching slowly and sharpening, but still there was nothing. We held our breath, ears tilted to the sky, focused only on the sound, calibrating the slow approach, until at last it seemed it could get no closer.
And then out of nothing, seven white Tundra Swans emerged from the fog, their ethereal mass barely distinguishable from the surrounding sky. They passed overhead, beating their wings in unison, singing to each other, apparitions from their private world skimming the surface of ours.
Then, just as suddenly, they were swallowed again by the fog. The sound slowly faded until the day sank again into silence. We exhaled and looked at each other. We may have been intrepid that day and we were probably crazy, but we also felt touched by a little bit of magic.
Notes from the field: Wintering
By Steve Dietz, Minnesota Master Naturalist volunteer
We all have our own responses to winter: skiing, snowshoeing, sledding, snuggling under a blanket with a book and a cup of cocoa, fleeing south. I like all of the above, but also love winter for what it reveals. All those tracks! Who knew our backyard was such a nexus of nightime wildlife revelry? And often I see a cute-as-a-button bird nest in branches just inches from where I normally walk the park trails or spot a wasp nest high above me, normally hidden in the leafy fullness of summer.
But are they really wasps? Short answer: Very likely the nest is that of Dolichovespula arenaria, also known as the common aerial yellowjacket.
Like Mayan ruins hinting at an entire civilization, that gray, papery plum-shaped abode hanging from a branch is a wintry remains signaling the death and coming rebirth of an aerial yellowjacket society.
As early as March, several queens from the previous year’s brood emerge from protected places such as hollow logs, bark, leaf litter or soil cavities to select a nest site. Each builds a small paper nest in which she lays the first eggs of a new colony.
An aerial yellowjacket constructs its nest by collecting wood from various sources, such as dead trees. It uses its mandibles to break the wood down into fine fibers, then mixes them with saliva and molds the mix into multiple stacked combs completely enclosed by a paper envelope. A small entrance remains open at the bottom.
This process creates a unique papery texture, which is why yellowjackets are sometimes called paper wasps. The form is both sturdy and lightweight, and the nest is usually located above the ground, hence the name “aerial.” Initially, the solitary queen does all the work: constructing the paper brood cells, foraging for food, laying eggs, feeding her progeny, and defending the nest from intruders.
The aerial yellowjacket is eusocial, which means it lives in a colony with a division of labor and cooperative care of the young. The colony consists of the founding queen, who is the only fertile female, and workers, who are sterile females. The queen has the ability to control the sex of the offspring by selectively laying fertilized eggs, which produce females, or unfertilized eggs, which produce males. She typically starts by producing female workers as they will help build the nest and collect food. When these first offspring emerge from 30 to 50 brood cells, the queen feeds them for about 18 to 20 days. As adults, they assume all tasks except egg laying: nest expansion, foraging for food, care of the queen and larvae, and colony defense. The queen devotes the remainder of her life to laying eggs and does not leave the nest again. The colony then expands rapidly, reaching a maximum size of 4,000 to 5,000 workers and a nest of 10,000 to 15,000 cells in late summer.
When yellowjackets visit flowers to feed on their nectar, pollen attaches to their legs/bodies and is then transferred to other plants via their fluffy hairs. In addition to being pollinators, yellowjackets also act as biological control agents by feeding their larvae a diet of the masticated flesh of insects, other arthropods, and fresh carrion.
In autumn, larger cells are constructed within the nest for a crop of new queens. Larvae in these cells receive more food than do those in normal cells. At the same time, the queen begins to lay unfertilized or male eggs. After emergence, the new queens mate with the new males and then seek shelter for the winter. These will be the founders of new colonies next spring. The founder queen dies, and the workers begin to behave erratically until social order breaks down. With winter's arrival, the remaining colony dies.
Next time you are tramping through the woods and see a desiccated nest hanging above you, show some love for the hard work, fast times and future reincarnation of an aerial yellowjacket colony.
Sources: Wikipedia, iNaturalist
We brake for squirrels – especially this one
Many of you have had the good fortune to meet interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause over the years during his Saturday guided hikes in the park. According to ranger Jake, Bruce’s hikes were the most popular program the park offered this year, drawing 326 participants. Those hikes are on hiatus now for winter, but you can still get a dose of Bruce from his excellent nature blog, Wacouta Nature Notes.
Among Bruce’s recent sightings have been black squirrels like the one he photographed above. He noted that we’ve been seeing a lot more of them lately, and that their color is the result of a pigment gene mutation in our very common Eastern gray squirrels. His mention piqued our interest, since we too have seen a lot of black squirrels lately, so we did some research.
Black squirrels have been around for centuries, and in fact black may have been the most common hue of squirrel in North America before significant deforestation. Scientists say their darker hue may give them an advantage in winter because it allows them to absorb more sunlight, rather like a black car is more likely than a white or silver car to be warm inside on a sunny winter day. And possibly it gives them an advantage against predators, at least in biomes with darker trees like conifers.
Black squirrels actually come in several shades of black, depending on the genes their parents (one of which also has to be a black squirrel) pass along to them. We think they’re all quite beautiful, and wish them well through the winter.
White squirrels are a whole nuther story; you see far fewer of them because they’re so vulnerable to predation. According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, white squirrels can be either white morphs of the Eastern gray squirrel, with black eyes and a mixed-color coat, or true albino squirrels, with red or pink eyes.
Poem(s) of the month
“I HEARD A BIRD SING”
By Oliver Herford (Anglo-American; 1865-1935)
I heard a bird sing
in the dark of December
a magical thing
and sweet to remember:
“We are nearer to spring
than we were in September,”
I heard a bird sing
in the dark of December.
“GOOD APPETITE”
By Mark Van Doren (American; 1894-1972)
Of breakfast, then of walking to the pond;
of wind, work, rain, and sleep I never tire.
God of monotony, may you be fond
of me and these forever, and wood fire.
Interested in joining the FSPA?
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 goal is simply to share our love of Frontenac State Park with as many people as possible.
To sign up to regularly receive this free and gloriously 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 website
Frontenac State Park Association website
If you take pictures in the park, tag us on Instagram
Frontenac State Park bird checklist
Frontenac State Park on iNaturalist
Parks & Trails Council
Website for our township, Florence Township
Minnesota Master Naturalist program
Red Wing Environmental Learning Center
Lake City Environmental Learning Program on FB
Visit Lake City
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 2, No. 12 of the Frontenac State Park Association newsletter, which was launched in April 2023.
Here’s where to browse the full archives of this newsletter.