Day 5 June 9,2011 Necedah NWR Wisconsin

A typical road in Necedah NWR. We drove many.

Campsite at Horicon WI
The Visitor Center at Necedah NWR (All Green)

Day 5- Thursday June 9, 23011- Necedah, Wisconsin

Boy, did the temperature do an about face! From the 90’s of the first three days to a low of 50 F last night with a north wind putting some bite into it. It went from AC to “turn on the furnace” . But all is good and we got out early this AM to see if we could locate and get some photos of the rare Karner Blue butterfly in the Necedah NWR. It is the only place it is known to live because the host plant is the blue Lupine that is native to this Refuge. The refuge is almost as large as Horicon NWR and consists of a variety of ecological habitats from pine forests, prairie, mixed woods and some wetland. It is about 10 mies long and some irregular 7 miles wide. Our time was spent slowly driving the roads to find what bird and animal life we could find. A muscrat was the only mammal, and the rare Blandings turtle was the amphibian. (see pic).

But early on Thursday we headed out directly to the Karner butterfly trail to see what we could see. There were birds and Ruth did get a chance to see the Red Headed Woodpecker a number of times , later we saw about 30 birds with the Least Flycatcher among them. The terrain for the Karner habitat is open, rolling with some scattered small trees and a few shrubs for cover for birds in this mix of savannah and meadows. The trail circles this area for about 8/10 of a mile. We did not see any butterflies and didn’t think we would at 55 F, but on the last 1/4 mile Ruth studied a particularly prospective patch of Lupine, when lo and behold , there was one butterfly. It was the only one, but she got some good shots of that one for posterity. We did see it, so that day was already complete. We had a lunch on the road and discovered along the way that much work is being done to eliminate water from this area, as well as trees. There is actually a “window” of 30 days in which people can come in certain areas and cut ANY trees they wish with a permit (#10.00). That is to assist the development of the Karner habitat throughout the NWR. There is a constant clearing of forests to establish a solid habitat for them. (Much like this was done in Mio MI for the Kirtland’s Warbler with the Jack Pine.) There are also here, Black Bear, Bobcat, Grey Wolves, and at least one turkey as we saw that one today , too.

We had some time and after a stop at the Visitor Center one more time we returned to the trailer and had some short down time before supper. Tomorrow will be our longest day of some 325 miles into N Central MN.. See you then.