Nature Walk at the Quaking Tamarak Bog

We went for a nature walk with my CM Nature Study in MN group today at the Quaking Tamarak Bog in Theodore Wirth Park, right here in Minneapolis. I am constantly amazed at the little hidden away oasises of nature we have right here in the City. There were 14 of us walking today... 5 Moms and 9 children. It was so fun to meet some new friends!

We met a couple of ladies along the trail who brought our attention to some fairly loud bird sounds coming from a nearby tree. We were able to pinpoint it to a small round hole in the tree quite a ways up off the ground. I tried to look in the hole using my binoculars, but I couldn't see anything. As I was looking, though, a Woodpecker came along... it landed on the tree and walked over to the hole. It stuck its head in the hole for a few seconds and then flew off. I am certain we were watching a Downy Woodpecker's nest!

"The downy's nest is a hole, usually in a partly decayed tree;
an old apple tree is a favorite site and a new excavation is
made each year. There are from four to six white eggs, which
are laid on a nice bed of chips almost as fine as sawdust.
The door to the nest is a circle about an inch and a quarter across."
~Anna Botsford Comstock - The Handbook of Nature Study - Page 72~

It was nice to have Amanda join us for this walk. She is very knowledgeable about Wildflowers and the likes. She helped us to identify quite a few of the flowers we saw along the trail...

Wild Calla


Star Flower


Wild Columbine

She even introduced us to a Wild Edible... Garlic Mustard. It is an Invasive Species, so we picked a leaf to try it out. When rubbed it smells like Garlic. It has a salad green, lettuce, leafy flavor. Tyler says he didn't like it! :)

Garlic Mustard

Our new friend, Heather, brought her microscope along! She grabbed a sample of the water from the Bog and the kids took turns looking at it under the microscope. They really liked this part.

Tyler decided it would be cool to have a microscope... I was telling my Dad this over the phone and he said that he has one at his house that he never uses and he will send it to Tyler! Yay!

We had a really fun walk and enjoyed spending time with all of our friends, both old and new! We hope to get together again real soon!