Week 8

Bald Eagle

On Monday, Rylee (one of the YCC) and I went to all of the pools on the refuge to check water levels. We also noted beaver activity and cattail mat encroachment. Some pools are checked more often than others and some I had never actually been to, so it was an adventure finding them all. I really appreciated Rylee's help as my navigator! 

Lupine Seeds

This week I also did some work on our forb garden. We have various wildflowers planted in eight boxes by the old schoolhouse. I made identification cards for the flowers so that visitors would know what we had growing. 

I also transported the seeds that have been collected by our volunteers to storage. Lupine seeds are stored in a tent, as seen above. This is because lupine seeds are in a pod, which pops open to release the seed, which can be kind of messy! 

Speaking of flowers, more pictures! 

Sunflowers

 Purple Vetch

I took the YCC to Crane Meadows NWR on Wednesday to help out on some projects they had. Crane Meadows and Sherburne are in a complex, along with Rice Lake and Mille Lacs. We painted a porch, stained a deck, and helped to dig up their forb garden so it could be replanted. I think I wound up with more paint on my clothes than the porch. It was fun! 

Purple Martin Chicks

Crane Meadows has a couple of pretty cool bird houses dedicated to birds whose numbers are declining due to habitat loss. There is a Purple Martin condo, a box of which is shown above, as well as a chimney swift tower.  Chimney Swifts are on the decline because they traditionally nest in chimneys, which are on the fall due to more energy efficient heating. 

And then we set the refuge on fire. 

Well not me, because I'm not red-carded. But most of the other staff of Sherburne (and a couple of folks from Crane Meadows) performed a prescribed burn on a 60-acre patch of land next to Blue Hill Trail on Thursday. It was amazing to see. The smoke cloud was ridiculous. It also went way faster than I expected, and was a pretty successful burn.  

We walked the burned area after the fire, and found some pretty cool bones left behind.

There was also this dragonfly eating another dragonfly. How rude. 

Week 7

I recently had the privilege of visiting the smallest refuge in the National Wildlife Refuge System. Mille Lacs NWR consists of two islands (Spirit and Hennepin) located on Lake Mille Lacs in Minnesota. Both islands are important to the local Native American people.

Spirit Island

Hennepin Island

In addition, Hennepin Island hosts a breeding population of common terns, which are a state threatened species in Minnesota. We spent one morning on Hennepin Island surveying tern nests and helping to protect them from harm.

Terns are pretty minimalist when it comes to nesting. As the above picture shows, they basically plop their eggs down in sand or gravel and call it a day. The first thing we did was count nests and how many eggs were in each nest. 

Tern Chick

We also installed bird houses to help provide the chicks with some protection from the sun.

Tern nests are heavily predated by gulls, who will peck holes into tern eggs. In order to help combat this, a rope grid is established on the half of Hennepin island that hosts tern nests (the other half of the island only has gull and cormorant nests). While the grid still allows the smaller tern to navigate the land, it prevents the larger gulls from entering and destroying eggs. Unfortunately, if the ropes aren't taut, birds that fly into the grid can get caught. I cut this tern free (it was still alive!), and then we reestablished the grid and tightened all of the ropes. 

Gull Nest

Unfortunately, the grid isn't enough to discourage gulls from using the island. Gull eggs found inside of the grid are destroyed. On the other half of the island, gull eggs are oiled with 100% vegetable oil. Eggs are porous, allowing the chick developing inside to breathe. By applying oil, the pores are sealed and the chick will die, but the adult gulls will continue to care for their nests. This keeps the gulls from laying even more eggs.

Visiting Mille Lacs NWR was fun and informative! 

Back at Sherburne, we completed the forest plots for fire monitoring. We also established new plots for future study in the area where cattle are grazing. 

Dragonfly

Milkweed

Mullen

Black-Eyed Susan