North Shore Naturalist

I've wanted to make my way out to this specific site for quite some time, and it was not a disappointment. Today's cliff is part of the Rove Formation, a section of mostly sedimentary geology in northern MN that is quite distinct from the usual igneous rocks. Although I know very little about it, or geology in general, maybe that will be the next thing I have to start researching. I do know that unique geology in conjunction with other unique environmental conditions is a recipe for unique ecology. All in all it was quite the day of botanizing this fascinating site! This is the only location that sticky locoweed (Oxytropis borealis var. viscida) is known from in MN. One of the many arctic-alpine disjunct species (it is about 600 miles from the species main range) of the state, this plant has quite a few adaptations for this harsh climate - a thick taproot, hairy leaves and calyx, low growth form, and the ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen. As with many of these rare plants onl...

From reading up on false mountain willow (Salix pseudomonticola) on the MN rare species guide, I knew it occurred along the St. Louis River somewhere. I figured Jay Cooke was probably the most likely place, after all public land is much easier for botanists to survey than getting permission on private. So, I followed Joe’s advice, look for a distinguishing feature on the landscape and then zoom in and find a distinguishing feature on that feature and so on. Obviously the St. Louis is a big distinguishing feature, by far the largest river in the area, that feeds into the largest lake on the continent. Looking at the satellite map, I saw a large section of waterfall with three large sandbars in the river right after, and what looked like a steep slope along the edge of the river; three distinguishing characteristics in a small area. That had to be the spot! Sure enough after trekking out there I found the willow after about 30 minutes of searching. Willows are usually pretty hard to ID, ...

As the Adventuring for Animals summer camp is coming to an end, we finished up the last day of classes with an all day bioblitz. We split up into groups and tried to document as many animals around Wolf Ridge as we could, covering as much ground as we could.  My group of students made our way down to Raven Lake where we got a handful of insect, bird, fish, and of course leech observations. The most noteworthy find of the day for me was a species of flesh fly likely in the genus Fletcherimyia. The species F fletcheri seems like a good candidate, but I haven’t been able to find much information on these flies in the north yet. Like other pitcher plant inquilines these flies complete the larval stage of their development in the liquid of the pitchers, consuming the prey that fall in, in turn making nutrients available for the plant.  Fletcherimyia sp. found within purple pitcher plant Still in the pitcher Also plenty of pitcher plant mosquito (Wyeomyia smithii) larva and many pup...