Nature center comes to life
While the display installers keep hard at work inside the Chik-Wauk museum, hustle and bustle also fills the outside world surrounding the museum. Some exceptionally warm May weather (about a week and a half with consistent highs in the 70s, if not 80s!) has given the gardens a terrific head start and if the chorus of birds chirping happily in the trees every day is any indicator, it seems the wildlife has all resumed their busy summer lives.
You’ll now find sign posts and trail maps marking the beginning of all five of the Chik-Wauk nature center trails. You can learn a little more about the trail offering at Chik-Wauk here. If you want a sneak peek of the Chik-Wauk trail system, you can join Ecologist Jack Greenlee and Botanist Erin Heep for an introduction to the Amazing Orchids of Northern Minnesota. Chik-Wauk’s wildflower trail, Moccasin Lane, boosts its own orchid collection of stemless pink moccasin flowers.
The summer gardens haven’t quite been completed yet, but the warm weather allowed some of the perennials to burst into colorful blooms. Right now, the lilacs and irises are especially exquisite.
Although it’s hard to be sure just yet, it appears that a loon couple has decided to build their family home in the Chik-Wauk bay. They’ve certainly been busy swimming back and forth around the bay from the rock pictured below. Loons aren’t always terribly keen about having house visitors, but the Amikwiish Way trail offers a secluded place to peep at the loons without ruffling the loons’ territorial feathers.
The loons aren’t the only ones calling the Chik-Wauk bay home. At least one painted turtle has been spied sunning itself on a log along the shoreline. If you keep your eyes peeled, all sorts of wonderful discoveries are in store at Chik-Wauk.