I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills. Psalm 121:1: Our favorite conservation area

We are very blessed to have a conservation area in our small town and live only about 5 minutes from it. There are upland forested areas, upland prairie areas, wet prairie areas, wet woodlands, along with regular wetland areas (meaning ponds & swamp). So, besides our walks around our yard, we try to get out to the conservation area 2-4 times a month (well, except in the winter....we don't have snowshoes, heehee!). During the spring, it is a little harder to visit all the areas because even with grass, the trails get muddy. We have hiked trails on warm, early spring days only to still encounter snow on the trails!

We have found it to be a great place to see many different kinds of birds, plants, trees, frogs, etc. Last year, I had the privilege of taking a visiting friend to the conservation area. She and her daughter were privileged enough to even get bit by some of our state bird (cough....mosquito! heehee!). Since they visited in the summer when all the plants were well into their life cycle, I thought I would share some of the pictures I took last week to show it at the beginning of the season. I took the pictures with my friends in mind. I hope you enjoy them.

>>A beautiful, flowering tree in the wooded area just off of the parking lot. I am still working on the tree name for this one. I love this time of year.

<<The is the main trail that we walk on from the parking lot.

>> By mid-summer, the grasses are about 3-4 feet all through here. Right now, they are just a few inches. Sometimes, they will do a controlled burn in the prairie zones. G3 was very excited to know that bluebirds happen to live in the birdhouse in the middle. I missed seeing it, but the children actually saw an altercation between a bluebird and some robins in the area (in the trees behind me). I suspect there was a territory violation.

<<In this picture, on the left side of the trail in, when my friends were here, this was full of a wildflower that I had not ever seen before in that area. I suspect it was something new that was seeded in that area.

>>The prairie area here would be on the right side of the picture above. In this area, there are flowering plants that grow well over 7 feet tall. It is amazing to walk through this zone and be simply dwarfed by the plants. Right now, we are dwarfing the plants. In a few weeks, not so much. It is amazing how quickly plants can grow!

<<The large green "tufts" in this picture on the left are the beginnings of some of those huge plants. The picture just below on the right is a close up of the same plant, but from a different area. No name for it at the moment, but I will when it flowers this summer.

A close up of one of the unnamed tufts.

<< This one of my favorite plants in the prairie zone. In early fall, when it is dried out, the huge leaves make this fabulous dry, rattling sound. I cannot explain it, but it is the most amazing sound to me. Isn't that just silly? This one and the one just above it are ones we are researching the names


This one has the answer to one of the clues.

This particular visit, we are looking for a Letterbox. I started us letterboxing back in 2005. We are better known as the Catherders of WI on the trail. However, due to pregnancy challenges with M3 and then life afterwards, we have not been letterboxing since the summer of 2010 (just before I went on bedrest with M3). So, this is M3's first time looking for a letterbox. We were looking for one about a Tiger....G3 was very worried that we would find Lion's in the forested areas. Silly boy!