Sweet Marsh - A Disturbing Walk There Again

The weather last week was unseasonably warm and the perennial plants on the farm were going from "nothing much going on here" to "yep, in full bloom now" rapidly.  Tammy and I have been pretty swamped with work, while trying to slip in a little farm and life on the side.  Sadly, that means we haven't been getting the "walk there agains" in as we would ideally like to.  But, just like the plants on the farm, we had to respond to the weather and get ourselves out on a walk this past Saturday by heading to Sweet Marsh Wildlife Management Area.

The last time we tried to walk here there was ice on the water and the cold wind was making it very hard to look at much of anything.  I think Kip Ladage summed it up nicely in a comment that suggested any time the wind speed in miles per hour was the same as the temperature (in Fahrenheit), conditions would be less than ideal for a human to enjoy the situation.  Although, I will say that I've been out in zero degree weather with no wind and found that to be pleasant.

Our theme for this walk was "disturbance."  As in, our presence walking on the dike was seen as a disturbance by most of the other living creatures in the area.  At least it seemed that way.  

I had to tie my shoe, so Tammy continued on ahead.  I took note of a line of birds (probably coots) that were moving themselves away from the area by the dike where Tammy was walking.  I wanted to capture that and snapped a picture.  As you can see, I must have tied my shoe too tight and I was lopsided at the moment I tried to take the picture...

 

We continued down the path and noted that there was a turtle crossing it a few hundred feet ahead of us.  This Painted Turtle really wanted nothing to do with us either, but it couldn't swim or fly away.  Instead, it simply pulled into its portable home and put out the unwelcome mat.  

Of course, being the inconsiderate humans we are, we had to stop and observe this poor creature for longer than it wanted.  To be fair, our simple passage was already considered enough of an inconvenience.  But it seemed like it had a pretty nice home - and we told it so.  

Of course, we got no reply and we eventually gave up having a conversation as a bad job.

We did manage to get out to the marsh  before the sunshine left for the day.  So, we got some blue skies as part of the bargain.  And, to make it even better, the high wind that was forecast had not really arrived.  There was enough to make the water a bit disturbed, but not so much to make things more difficult than it needed to be for the walkers.

The wind was starting to pick up towards the end of the walk.  It even got to the point that some of the open water showed miniature white caps. But, by that point, we were close enough to the trees to avail ourselves of some shelter.

While this was not a current "disturbance," I am sure the fish that once was a part of these bones felt disturbed when it was taken out of the water and nibbled by some creature up on the dike.  We noted several dried fish skeletons on the walk that indicated to us that there are some decent sized fish in the water and there are some predators that know that this is the case.

We did see plenty of Bald Eagle activity earlier in the year (only one on this walk) and we know there are other predators that might find fish to be a tasty snack.

At one point in the walk, we took note of a disturbance that was not being caused by us.  There was some thrashing and rustling on the near bank.  But, we could not really see what was making the noise with the taller reeds and grasses between us and the disturbance causer.  Both of us concluded, fairly quickly that it was one of the water-loving mammals known to be in the area, such as an otter or a beaver.  Given the ruckus, we're pretty sure it was a beaver and that it had been disturbed by our presence and slapped its tail in the water a few times.

If you look at the picture above, I think you'll see a beaver lodge.

The noise was clearly enough to disturb a pair of Canada Geese that decided they could find a calmer area in the marsh to float around.  Personally, I think it's pretty silly for geese to complain about a disturbance.  After all, if you've been around Canada Geese, you already know they make their fair share of noise when they're around.  How bad must it be when those who are used to being the disturbance become disturbed themselves?

If the plants in the area were disturbed by our presence they didn't really show it.  Of course, when you are rooted to the ground, it's pretty hard to escape when a mobile creature - like a human - walks up to you wielding a camera.  

I remember learning about this plant during a field trip when I was in elementary school.  When I saw the flowers as we were walking, that memory was tugging at me, but I just couldn't attach the name and the event in my life to it.  This is a Bloodroot flower and you can see the leaf, on its separate stem, just below the flower itself.  Blood root was used by Indigenous peoples as a red dye and as an insect repellent.  Their flowers are only visible for a short period of time and they close up at night, so I count myself fortunate to be re-introduced to them. 

There were several mounds of fuzzy leaves on the dike near the walking area that are Common Mullein.  I did a quick search and found an interesting article that featured this wild plant and of course, I would take one of the plants nicknames (Cowboy Toiletpaper) away with me over any number of more pertinent facts I could have shared.  So, I had to check out other resources too in order to get my mind on to the task at hand.

Common Mullein is a biennial, which means it will live for two years, sending up its flower stalk in the second season.  The flower stalks from last year's blooms are still in evidence at the marsh.  However, there are fewer standing than there were the last time we were there.

At the left is an image showing one of the dried stalks of a Common Mullein plant.  They can get as much as six to seven feet tall, but most of the examples I have seen over time are between three and four feet in height.  

The yellow flowers on the stalk seem to open randomly over an extended period of time.

Common Mullein is an introduced plant (it is not native to the United States) and is actually considered an invasive species in Michigan.   On the other hand, Iowa and Minnesota simply identify them as wildflowers.  On each site, they recognize that the seed can only germinate on bare soil, which actually makes it fairly easy to control them.  This also explains why the mullein is near the path on the dike.  

See, you wondered how I would keep with the "disturbance" theme, didn't you?  Common Mullein LIKES disturbed soil.

And now we move from that kind of disturbance to a picture that shows how my brain was momentarily disturbed.  I looked over at this culvert and my brain said "how is it possible that there is no water in the culvert itself?"

The current water level was very nearly at the exact half-way point on the round culvert.  The reflection provided me with an optical illusion that made it look like I could see the entire circular opening of the metal tube.

Ok.  I thought it was cool. You can either decide that I am truly disturbed or you can just consider that this is what happens when you read the Genuine Faux Farm blog.

And, of course, one Painted Turtle sighting deserves another.  This one was a bit smaller and seemed to be more colorful.  It was also a bit less shy, deciding it could continue walking on its path after I backed off to about fifteen feet.  

Yes, it was a bit disturbed, but maybe this turtle was feeling more philosophical about it?

The last recorded disturbance of the day happened to be the interesting tracks that disturbed the mud in what remains of Marten's Lake.  Marten's Lake is still drained for maintenance and we're hoping the DNR can get someone to take the contract and follow through with it this time.

Anyway, these tracks criss-crossed and had lots of fun loops to them.  With the parallel tracks, we surmised that they were created by a weasel or otter.  And no, we weren't going down into the mud to get a closer look.  For those who might have interest in learning to identify animal tracks, I ran across this nice resource.

The final (unrecorded) disturbance of the day was the camera telling yours truly that I needed to charge the battery.  That's okay.  I took enough pictures of disturbances for one day.  All in all, it was a good walk and I am sure we will make time to walk there again.