A Fantastic Morning in the Marsh
As you can likely infer from the picture; Old Uncle Chris has, very effectively, passed on his addiction of fishing to his nephews. It is from that addiction that the idea for this trip originates. Early spring is a time of amazing growth and renewal for most of nature, but if you are a young man who loves sports and fishing, there really is not much to do yet. When Aaron hears that there are fish biting near home in the Upper Mississippi, the logical thing to do is call up your Uncle and ask him to take you fishing. Taking into account my intense desire to get outdoors after a long winter, and my love for my nephews and fishing it was impossible to say no. It also helped that some nice weather had made it a good bet that some of my favorite wild edibles would be coming into season. So, off to a nearby US Fish and Wildlife restoration area in the Upper Mississippi quickly became the plan.
Due to the fact that there are several large Basswoods growing adjacent to the area where we parked, it was a logical first stop on our journey to the Mississippi with our fishing gear. My explanation of how to identify the Basswoods from the shape of their leaves and the abundance of shoots sprouting from the trunk, known also as suckers, was fairly simple and inspired many more questions. My favorite of these was, “why are the lowest, easy to reach leaves gone on this tree?” Aaron thought perhaps someone had been here before us and harvested them.
Amongst the racket generated by the honking of Canada Geese and rolling trill of Sandhill Cranes the calls from Mallard and Northern Shoveler Ducks were readily apparent.
Oddly enough, our hurried, less than thorough morel hunt did manage to net us about 15 to 20 of what I consider to be the world’s best fungi. The search also led to an encounter with a rarely seen and little known forested marsh dweller. While my partner for this morning adventure was excitedly collecting a nice trove of morels he had discovered at the base of an old dead Elm tree, he nudged a large piece of dead bark with his foot, uncovering this spotted salamander. “Uncle Chris! Uncle Chris! Come here quick. Look at this!” I quickly trotted over to see what was causing the ruckus. I ended up nearly as excited as Aaron was to see this little guy cowering there dead still. Immediately after asking me what it was, his next logical question was if it was dead because it was so still. I explained to Aaron that they spend most of the daylight time underground or under logs and bark like this one had been. Spotted salamanders are very nervous being exposed in the daytime. Many of the other creatures here in this wetland area love to eat them. It is sitting still like that hoping we cannot see it, then like most other creatures when they find them, grab it and eat it. Aaron’s response was classic 10 year old, “Yuck, no way! It is all slimy and gross…What do they eat then?” “At night they crawl around finding the worms, bugs, and all the little creepy crawlies that live down under the leaves in the mud and muck.” was my answer. Aaron then surprised me by reaching into the bait bucket and dropping a night crawler down near the little fella before gently replacing the piece of tree bark before we continued on to the fishing area.
There happened to be a number of Leopard frogs in and around the little spring fed pond. Catching a frog tends to be much more interesting and irresistible for a tired, hungry nephew than helping me pick and stow Watercress. Unfortunately, the average Leopard frog is much more agile than a tired little boy. It was still something of a surprise to me when I looked up from my bag of Watercress at the sound of a squeal and a splash. Now, to Aaron’s credit and my eternal amusement, instead of growing angry and upset as he was having very difficult time getting his bearings and feet under him as he struggled in the middle of the pond. I was flabbergasted to see him spitting out inhaled water while laughing hysterically! I, of course, followed suit with laughter so intense I nearly fell into the freezing cold pond myself.
Our bag of Basswood leaves was waiting for us when we got back to my vehicle with our bag of Watercress, morels, and bucket of fish. The drive through burgers and ice cream were second only to our dinner that evening, composed of our morning’s harvest, as one of the best meals we have ever eaten. The stories and the memories of that trip that we shared have inspired much interest from other family members and friends. Because of that, as I write this, the plans are coming together for another similar trip this weekend with several more adventurers, weather permitting. I am sure many things will not happen the same way but I am certain that there will be plenty of learning, excitement, and resultant tired children (uncle too). I hope the story of our outing into this amazing wetland area amused, occupied even educated you a bit. As a Conservation Biologist, I also hope it gave you a glimpse of the awesome diversity and scope of the creatures that are dependent upon wetland areas for their survival. The species listed in this story just manage to scratch the surface of the amount and variety that depend on such areas. All of these creatures help enrich our planet in uncountable ways.
My sincere thanks to long time River Citizen Mike Schwenker for the donation of you amazing photos.
Chris Stangl, 1 Mississippi WI/IA Regional Outreach Coordinator
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