Minnesota Prairie Roots

Writing and photography by Audrey Kletscher Helbling

Wildlife observations from along the flooded Cannon River in Faribault June 25, 2024

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 5:00 AM
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
An egret flies over the Cannon River by the barely visible dam at North Alexander Park on Friday evening. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo June 21, 2024)

WILDLIFE SENSES, understands, picks up on nuances that we as humans often fail to notice in our heads-bent-to-our-smartphones, busy scheduled lives.

A blue heron perches on the edge of a tree along the Cannon River by the park-side dam. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo June 21, 2024)

The recent flooding is a prime example. I saw countless cellphones raised to record floodwaters and rising rivers. I carried my 35 mm Canon camera, drawn just like everyone else to document the historic natural event unfolding before me along the Cannon River in Faribault.

An egret and blue heron seem to be checking out the river as a red-winged blackbird sits among the grasses to the right. That’s the Faribault Mill in the background, railings for the park-side dam in the foreground. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo June 21, 2024)

But I also noticed the wildlife. They, too, were observing. Watching the water. And watching people invade their river habitat by the hundreds. I sensed how uncomfortable the egret, blue heron, ducks and red-winged blackbirds were amid all the human chaos. So many people and so much traffic.

Flying high above the flooded river. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo June 21, 2024)

I expect they longed for quiet. Peace. A respite from the attention. A return to normalcy. No more peering eyes. No more crowds gathering.

A bullhead partially emerges from shallow water on dam’s edge as it tries to swim up the floodwaters. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo June 21, 2024)
Another bullhead attempts to swim up river. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo June 2021)

And then there were the fish, primarily bullheads, but a few bass, attempting to swim up through water that was rushing down, spilling over the edges of the dam by North Alexander Park. The fish appeared determined to make it to the other side, to the quieter waters of the widened river. It seemed a losing cause to me. But who am I to discourage a stubborn bullhead? If anything, it was fascinating to watch.

A duck family swims in the shallow floodwaters next to the top of the dam. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo June 21, 2024)

Finally, I observed a mama duck and her brood aside the top of the dam. They began edging, descending toward the river. Foolish ducks, I thought, judging the mother mallard. And then I voiced my concern out loud, “Stop, you’ll drown!”

The ducks move toward the deep river. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo June 21, 2024)

I can only imagine the thoughts of that mother and her six ducklings. “Did that woman really say that, warn us to stay out of the water lest we drown?” If ducks could laugh, the seven of them would have chortled, chuckled, carried on and then shared what they’d heard me say. Quack. Quack. Quackity. Quack.

A mallard drake swims in the Cannon River, nowhere near the female duck and ducklings. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo June 21, 2024)

But it was my husband who spoke for them. “They’re ducks, Audrey,” Randy said. “They can swim.”

An egret stands watchful and tall, next to the water rushing, roiling over the dam. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo June 21, 2024)

Uh, yeah. He was right. But it was the mom in me emerging, the protective spirit that, in that moment, did not separate wildlife from human so focused was I on the dangers of the swollen, swift-moving river.

© Copyright 2024 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Riverside observations June 13, 2024

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 5:00 AM
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
River reflections. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo June 2024)

THE SHRILL TRILL OF TREE FROGS cut through the woods along the river. Yet, the frogs remained unseen, despite their overwhelmingly loud voices seemingly screaming for attention. Nature is odd like that sometimes. Raucous, but stealthy enough to remain hidden.

A mallard drake adds a spot of color to the dirty river water. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo June 2024)

Yet, on this walk along the Cannon River near Two Rivers Park in Faribault, not all creatures stayed unseen by me. A mallard drake swam in the river, shimmering iridescent neck and head contrasting sharply with water muddied by recent heavy rains.

A mallard drake nearly hidden from view along the wooded edge of river backwaters. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo June 2024)

Through a curtain of leaves, I spotted a second drake settled on a fallen limb. Sometimes you have to look closely to notice nature in a natural landscape.

Crossing the river along the Straight River Trail near Two Rivers Park. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo June 2024)

I doubt the two youth pedaling the bike trail across the river bridge, along the river, around the bend beside the woods, noticed.

Two rows of boxcars parked near the former Faribault Canning Company by the Straight River Trail were painted with graffiti. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo June 2024)

They likely noticed the parked boxcars, though, painted with graffiti. Bold. Vivid. Graphics seemingly screaming for attention. Messages undecipherable to me. Street art. Public art. Boxcar art. Perhaps even some gang graffiti.

The rushing, rippling Straight River by the Straight River Trail near Fleckenstein Bluffs Park. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo June 2024)
A portion of the Straight River Trail that runs through Faribault. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo June 2024)
Wildflowers grow along the Straight River bank. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo June 2024)

Nature paints her own art in reflections and ripples upon water’s surface, in a canopy of trees draping a trail, in a clump of wildflowers or weeds, depending on perspective.

I got mighty close to this rabbit before it hopped away. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo June 2024)

I noticed all of this and a juvenile bunny hunkered at woods’ edge, attempting to appear unseen in a statue still pose. I crept nearer and nearer, clicking my camera until the rabbit eventually decided inaction was likely not the safest option. I posed no threat. But a young creature of the wild doesn’t understand that.

I’m thankful for city parks and trails that give me access to the river and nature in general. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo June 2024)

And so this is what I noticed, along the river. Floral and fauna. Noise of tree frog and nearby traffic. Scared rabbit. Duck upon muddy waters. Paint upon boxcars. Me, trying to find my place in the all of it, here beside the river.

© Copyright 2024 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

“In every walk with nature…” March 20, 2024

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 5:00 AM
Tags: , , , , , , ,
Leaping across a path near the parking lot at River Bend Nature Center in 2013. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo April 2013)

THEY LEAPT LIKE BALLERINAS across the dirt trail, white tutu tails flashing.

They were a herd of 11 deer sighted recently at Faribault’s River Bend Nature Center. I stood on Raccoon Trail aside Randy simply watching. One after the other they leapt with such grace, such practiced precision.

I photographed these deer at River Bend in April 2022, not far from where we sighted 16 deer on March 13. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo April 2022)

Only moments earlier, as we hiked down Arbor Trail on the nature center’s northeast side, Randy touched my arm, motioning me to stop. There, ahead of us, across the intersecting dirt path, several deer lingered in lowland grasses. I didn’t initially see them, my distance vision not all that acute. But eventually I spotted the camouflaged deer.

Rustic signs mark trails at River Bend. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo April 2017)

And then we saw more in the distance, nearer the Prairie Loop. There, barely visible behind trees.

A sense of wonderment, of awe, of just wanting to take in the scene before me overtook my spirit. Such moments in nature deserve full attention. We watched while two men walked right past us, unaware of the nearby deer so engaged were they in conversation.

We waited, whisper-quiet. Watching. Then the deer moved, ambling along the edge of tall dried grasses, staying parallel to the trail. Soon more deer emerged from a stand of trees and trailed the first traveling troupe. It was a sight, the endless stream of deer moving east.

Our attention turned that direction, toward the deer, one by one, long-leaping over Raccoon Trail, into the woods, up the hill, toward the prairie. We started counting. One, two, three…all the way to eleven. Only when the last deer exited the stage did we dare move, so mesmerized were we by the performance.

Inspirational quotes like this are spread throughout River Bend. I especially love this one. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo June 2019)

Randy and I resumed our hike, following Raccoon Trail until the biting wind of the March evening prompted us to turn back. By that time we were talking again or walking in comfortable silence. I wished aloud that I had my 35 mm camera with me. I’ve never been this near so many deer at River Bend. Eleven. But perhaps it was better I was without my camera so I could focus on the moment rather than on focusing and framing images.

Camouflaged deer among the prairie grasses of River Bend. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo April 2022)

Then, back at the intersection of Raccoon and Arbor Trails, Randy alerted me to more deer. Five this time. Standing statute still, without stage fright. Watching us. Us watching them in a stare-down. I wondered which of us would move first. Wildlife or human.

This sign posted in a kiosk along Raccoon Trail reminds visitors that deer and other wildlife, are just that, wildlife. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo March 2024)

I ooohed over the cute babies, last year’s fawns. Even if deer are dreadful when darting onto roadways and unwanted when dining on garden flowers and vegetables, I appreciate them in their natural habitat. This is their home, their stage, this land of tall grasses and woods. Here they walk with elegance. Here they leap with the grace of seasoned ballet dancers. Here they give me pause to stop, to listen to the trill of red-winged blackbirds as we watch each other—deer and human—in the fading light of a March evening at River Bend.

© Copyright 2024 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

On the hunt for deer November 6, 2023

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 12:03 PM
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Deer photographed at River Bend Nature Center, Faribault. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo April 2022)

MANY MINNESOTANS hold a love-hate relationship with deer. We love watching them in the wild. But when they devour our flowers and other plants, then deer are not quite so cute. Or, if they dash onto a roadway, slamming into our vehicles (or perhaps us into them), then the hate factor amps up considerably.

Leaping across a path near the nature center parking lot. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo 2013)

And then there are the deer hunters, including many in my extended family. While I’ve never asked why they hunt, for some it’s a food source, others tradition, a challenge, a sport, camaraderie and the joy of time spent in the woods, fields and prairie.

Spotted on a back country road near Mazeppa. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo May 2022)

Right now is prime deer hunting season in Minnesota with the recent firearms deer hunting opener. It’s a big deal with even our governor donning his blaze orange attire. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources regulates hunting with detailed rules for firearms, muzzleloader and archery hunts plus a whole lot of other specifics for ages and regions. Way too complicated for me. But then I don’t need to understand given I don’t hunt.

A hunter in bright orange roamed fields during the opening weekend of deer hunting in Minnesota in 2018. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo 2018)

But I do need to be aware. I prefer not to go on leisurely country drives during firearms hunting. Bullets can travel a long way. While I know most hunters are careful, not all are. Being sure of your target before firing is a basic rule of hunting. Even I, a non-hunter, understand that.

Spotted along a trail at River Bend while hiking on Sunday. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo November 2023)

I also understand the need to heed warning signs like the one I spotted while hiking at River Bend Nature Center late Sunday morning. The nature center will be closed Thursday, November 9, through Sunday, November 12, for an archery management hunt. It’s a necessary event to manage the deer population. Coyotes do some of that, but clearly not enough.

The muted autumn landscape at River Bend, the path leading back to the woods or onto the prairie. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo November 2023)

I appreciate River Bend for its diverse landscape of woods, prairie, wetlands and river. To walk the trails within is to connect with nature, to feel peace, to experience a sense of awe and wonder at the intricacies and beauties of the natural world.

One of my favorites at River Bend, grass that stretches 10 feet and bends poetically in the wind. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo November 2023)

Here sky meets prairie. Here woods shelter. Here river twists. Here milkweeds flourish and grasses stretch and snakes slither. And here deer roam, too, in this land that is more theirs than ours. Yet, we claim it also.

Deer nearly camouflaged in the dried grasses at River Bend. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2022)

And even though I intellectually recognize the need for an archery management hunt, part of me wants to shout a warning: “Run, deer, run!”

© Copyright November 2023 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

No lions or tigers, but bears, oh, my May 26, 2023

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 5:00 AM
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
A fox climbs the wooded hillside behind our garage in January 2018. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo January 2018)

YEARS AGO, A VARIETY OF WILDLIFE frequented the wooded hillside behind our garage and spilled over into our and our next-door neighbors’ yards. Raccoons, woodchucks, opossums, skunks, even a fox once, and evidence of deer in tracks left behind. Such sightings were not unusual, even though we live in the heart of Faribault along an arterial street. But the Straight River runs only a few blocks away and our property edges Wapacuta Park atop the hill. Both make for inviting wildlife habitat. That doesn’t explain, though, why we no longer see an assortment of animals.

Deer in their natural habitat at River Bend Nature Center in Faribault. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo 2022)

Now only squirrels and rabbits scamper through the woods and yard, along with voles and the mice I never see but which occasionally find a route into the basement of our aged house. (Within the past week, though, I’ve found two dead mice in our backyard. What’s with that?) Feral cats sometimes wander our corner lot, too. I expect other animals may roam my neighborhood in the cover of dark. I’ve heard coyotes howling while attending an evening concert at River Bend Nature Center in Faribault and while visiting friends just outside of town.

The only bears I’ve seen in southern Minnesota are dead ones, including this one for sale at a seasonal sale in rural Medford several years back. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo)

One wild animal I haven’t seen yet is a black bear. Typically, they don’t venture this far south from their northern Minnesota habitat. But that has changed in recent years. In late April, bear sightings were reported twice in my county of Rice. The first report came at 2:30 pm on April 26 and the second on April 28 at 9:33 pm, according to a bear sighting map published by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Around that time Northfield police issued an alert about a bear and warned residents to keep their trash and bird feeders inside. I haven’t heard anything official about that bear since then.

Earlier, a bear and three cubs were spotted in Steele County, the county just to the south of Rice. That was at 2:12 am on March 7. A solo bear doesn’t seem nearly as frightening as a mama with babies. Just like human moms, the instinct is strong to protect one’s young.

As I studied the DNR bear reporting map, I was surprised to see so many sightings in the Twin Cities area, primarily in the north metro. Admittedly a higher density population may lead to more reports. Still. Olmsted, Mower and Winona counties to the southeast of Rice County also had numerous bear sightings. Winona County, especially, with many wooded areas and along the Mississippi River, seems a place where bears would feel right at home.

Up North at the cabin, surrounded by woods and water, a natural environment for bears. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo July 2021)

When we stay at an extended family member’s lake cabin in the Brainerd lakes area of central Minnesota during the summer, we are bear aware. No leaving garbage outside, no doing anything that will draw bears in from the surrounding woods. We understand we are in their habitat.

But here in southern Minnesota, primarily among corn and soybean fields, I don’t expect bears. Yet, I suppose they didn’t expect humans to wander into their homeland either, among the lakes and forests of central and northern Minnesota.

TELL ME: What wild animals have you spotted in and around your home? I’d like to hear, whether you live in Rice County or elsewhere.

CLICK HERE to see photos of a bear that wandered onto an Up North Minnesota blogger’s porch recently.

© Copyright 2023 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Fox trot in Faribault January 27, 2018

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 6:21 PM
Tags: , , , , ,

 

A MINUTE LATER, a minute earlier, and I would have missed it—the beautiful fox that stood on the snowy wooded hillside in my backyard late Saturday afternoon as my husband and I arrived home from a Walmart run.

“Fox,” I shouted to Randy, as he drove into the garage. I grabbed my camera bag from the floor, unzipped the case, pulled out my Canon DSLR and flung open the car door, all the while hoping the fox hadn’t trotted away.

 

 

I raced to the side of the garage. Any shots I took would come from that spot or the patio. Even though I wore boots, I had no intention of flailing through deep snow. I fired a few frames, then moved to the patio where I got an even better look at the unexpected wild animal moving with agility through the snowy woods.

 

 

At one point the fox stopped, turned and looked directly at me, just like my initial sighting. Given my excitement, I was uncertain whether I had managed any clear photos. I did. We’ve lived here since 1984 and had many wild animals on our property—raccoon, skunk, possum, woodchuck, deer and the usual abundance of squirrels and rabbits. But never a fox.

Now I’m left wondering whether the fox has a den on this hillside next to my home, next to Wapacuta Park in the heart of a residential neighborhood in south central Faribault.

© Copyright 2018 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

A non-hunter’s observations about deer hunting season in Minnesota November 9, 2015

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 5:00 AM
Tags: , , , , , ,

Deer cluster in the woods at Riverbend Nature Center, Faribault.

Deer cluster in the woods at River Bend Nature Center, Faribault. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo 2013.

YOU KNOW IT’S OPENING weekend of firearms deer hunting in Minnesota when…

  • you drive downtown Faribault before noon on Saturday and notice pick-up trucks ringing a corner bar and a dead deer in the back of one.
  • you spot a dead deer dangling from a tree while driving to church on Sunday morning.
  • you notice that the divider curtains in the Clinton Falls church (at which you are a visitor) are made of a deer print fabric. (Not that these were installed specifically because of deer hunting, but…)
  • a woman, during prayer time, asks for protection for hunters.
  • on the way to lunch at your nephew’s house, you see a hunter dressed in orange carrying a bow and arrow.
  • your brother-in-law and great nephew share about the six deer that walked through the yard after they’d returned from hunting, without a deer.
  • your nephew excuses himself from a houseful of guests to hunt for deer before the sun sets.
  • your sister-in-law retells her tale of bagging a deer, with her car, along a dark stretch of highway in central Minnesota. Her family claimed the deer and got more venison than when her husband shoots one. (The unlucky highway roaming deer suffered only broken legs, meaning no meat spoilage.)
  • the Le Center Municipal Liquor Store welcomes deer hunters with an exterior banner advertising $3 bottles of Busch Light beer during happy hour. (Do hunters drink light beer?)

WHAT CAN YOU add to this list?

© Copyright 2015 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

In pursuit of Bambi April 16, 2011

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 7:56 AM
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

OH, FOR A TELEPHOTO lens on my camera…

Since that is not in the cards, the budget or the plan, I find myself often lamenting missed nature shots. It’s not like I can holler to Bambi, “Hey, hold still, will you, so I can take your picture! Move that way a little bit. Just one more shot.”

Nope, can’t do that.

So I shoot anyway, firing my camera in the hopes that once, maybe once, I’ll get something decent on my CF card.

So…, Wednesday evening my husband and I are checking out the rivers in Faribault. We are driving toward Teepee Tonka Park from the viaduct that crosses the Straight River and railroad tracks. And there they are. Four deer. Standing. In a yard.

I am so excited. But already the deer are fleeing, alert to the danger of our approaching van and a car driving up the hill toward them. My only thought is to photograph this quartet.

But I am frustrated because the lollygagging car is in my way. Can’t the driver see that I have a camera? Probably not.

Oh, well, I try anyway, shooting seven frames through the van’s windshield.

And although the results are not stunning or fantastic or overly-impressive, I’ve managed to capture at least one photo that is good enough to show you. And that, folks, is all I can ask for without a telephoto lens to shoot Bambi.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Those of you who live in southeastern Minnesota are probably wondering, “How did she shoot these photos on Wednesday when we didn’t have snow on the ground?” You would be correct in questioning that.  I wrote this three weeks ago and forgot about it in my post drafts. However, since we got snow overnight here in Minnesota, I thought it appropriate to publish today.

© Copyright 2011 Audrey Kletscher Helbling