My wife, The Queen B, and I traveled to Rockford, Iowa in June.

Wednesday, July 11, 2001

My wife, The Queen B, and I traveled to Rockford, Iowa in June.

I know what you are thinking, &uot;Are they nuts? Why would they travel all the way to Rockford, Iowa when they have such tourist Meccas as Hartland, Geneva and Bath within easy driving distance?&uot;

Well, yes, we are nuts. None of our family members have ever denied it, but there was a reason for our madness. The Queen B and I were headed to Rockford to see two things-the Fitz-Reading Garden and the Rockford Fossil and Prairies Park. Either of these would be well worth the drive to Rockford.

Rockford is located a bit west of Charles City and is situated at the fork of two rivers, the Winnebago and the Shell Rock. It has a population of 850. The Dusenberg brothers, Fred and Augie, were born on a farm outside of town and had their first bicycle shop on Main Street of Rockford. They went on to become well known for the Dusenberg automobile. Robert Waller, author of the &uot;Bridges of Madison County,&uot; is a native of Rockford.

Our first stop was the Fitz-Reading Garden. To call this masterpiece a garden is like calling the Mississippi River a creek. Stan and Corlyss Fitz are the owners of this beautiful and thoughtful place. Stan and Corlyss proved to be about as nice as people are allowed to be. The garden contains 700 plants (about 65 percent of them being perennials) with about 120 varieties of hostas. The walking paths are made from over 20,000 paving bricks that Stan installed. He figured that he handled each brick at least 5 times and is still hunting for more bricks. I haven’t seen bricks put to better use since I stopped reading &uot;Krazy Kat.&uot;

Stan said that he did not know an annual from a perennial when he started gardening in 1992 until he took the Master Gardener course the next year. The Fitz-Reading Garden is a collection of paths, curios, flower beds, benches, vegetables, prairie areas, desert plantings, bird houses and garden sheds with more attractions coming soon.

Words do not have the capability of adequately describing the garden. It needs to be seen. Stan named the garden after his Grandmother’s maiden name, Reading. As a child, Stan had to work in his Grandmother’s garden. He did not find the work to his liking and was not the least bit appreciative of the chores. He thought that his garden would be an appropriate tribute to his grandmother.

Our second stop in Rockford was at an old quarry just outside of town-the Rockford Fossil and Prairie Park.

The quarry was in operation from the 1890s into the 1970s with a purpose of extracting clay that was used to make tile and brick. At this location an abundance of fossils can be found in the clay and shale. These fossils, estimated to be at least 370 million years old, placing them in the Devonian Period. Wherever your foot falls, you have a pretty good chance of finding a fossil. Any shift of soil, such as that brought about by rainfall, frees more fossils. The numbers of fossils are so great that visitors are allowed to take a few home.

The Park consists of 400 acres with lots of prairie, walking trails and even some antiquated kilns. So when you become tired of all the hustle and bustle of the large metropolitan areas like Hartland, Geneva and Bath; take a trip to Rockford. You will come home with a pocket full of brachiopods, sea lilies, horn coral and gastropods and memories of an amazing garden and wonderful people. Good traveling.

The House Finch

A common resident of Minnesota backyards and a regular visitor to bird feeders, the House Finch is a beautiful bird and an accomplished singer. The bird’s song is a frequent, melodic warble that often ends with a louder, harsh note. The House Finch is sparrow-sized; about 6 inches long. House Finches and Purple Finches are often mistaken for one another. If you see one here during the summer anywhere other than in northern Minnesota, it is almost certainly a House Finch.

The Purple Finch breeds in northern Minnesota and Canada. The male House Finch has red on his head, chest and rump with brown streaks on his sides and belly. The male Purple Finch is very similar, but has more red over his head and shoulders and lacks streaking on sides and belly. The Purple Finch’s color makes him look as if he had been dipped in wine or raspberry juice. The females lack the red color and are both brown birds. The female House Finch has finer streaking on her sides, belly and head than does the female Purple Finch. The Purple Finch female has the heavier streaking on the breast and belly and has a distinctive white line behind the eye.

House Finches were once sold as caged birds because of their singing ability. The birds were shipped from California (House Finches are native to the western part of the U.S.) to New York in the 1940s. The pet stores that sold them called them &uot;Hollywood Finches.&uot; Such dealing in our native wild birds was and is against the law. Dealers released the birds to avoid prosecution by agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It established a breeding population in New York and has been increasing its range ever since. This area, of course, now includes Minnesota.

It is a rare homeowner who has not found a House Finch nest in a hanging basket or windowbox. The nest is made of twigs and grasses with 4 or 5 pale bluish-green or bluish-white eggs with sparse black spotting and a slight gloss. The female incubates the eggs for 12-14 days, with the young leaving the nest in 14 to 19 days. They are regular visitors to feeding stations, where they enjoy sunflower and niger seeds. They will also visit a jelly feeder. They are not insect eaters. Listen to the song of the House Finch today. It’s like having a free canary.

Fox

Minnesota is inhabited by both the gray fox and the red fox. Both are shy and nervous as well as being nocturnal, meaning that they are most active at night. They can be seen infrequently during daylight hours.

The adult gray fox weighs 5-14 pounds. Its life expectancy in the wild is 6-8 years. Young (normally 3 or 4 kits) are born in March-May and leave their parents and begin hunting on their own at the age of 4-7 months.

The red fox weighs 8-15 pounds. Offspring (normally 4 or 8) are born in March-May, with a life expectancy of 6-8 years. The young come aboveground when they are 1 month old. Foxes have a varied diet, eating rabbits, rats, mice, birds, eggs, woodchucks, acorns, cherries, grapes, apples, squirrels, grasshoppers, caterpillars, beetles, voles, corn and crayfish. Red foxes prefer a wooded area and open country mix for their homes. Farmlands with woodlots and brushy areas near marshes and swamps are ideal habitat for the red fox. The gray fox looks for wooded areas and partially open brushland with little human presence as its preferred habitat.

The gray fox has a coat of fur that is salt and pepper gray in color. A black stripe extends from the base of the tail, ending in a black tip. Another black stripe crosses its face from the nose to the eye and then to the side of the head. It has a white belly, while its legs and the back of its ears are an orange color. By contrast, the red fox has several color variations. It may appear black or silver in addition to its red phase. In its most common color phase, the red fox has rusty red or reddish yellow fur on its sides, along its back and on its face. Its throat area, cheeks and undersides are white. The legs, feet and the outsides of the ears are black. The tail is long and bushy with black and red hairs leading to a white tip.

How do you tell the foxes apart? The red fox has a conspicuously white-tipped tail that the gray fox is lacking. If you see a fox in a tree, it is a gray. The gray fox has climbing ability and the red does not. Mounds are much more likely to be around the dens of the red than the gray. The mounds are rarely markedly visible around the den of a gray fox. The gray fox dens up in the winter while the red seldom does. I have seen red foxes during the winter curled up in a ball, with its bushy tail wrapped around its nose and footpads. At times, I have seen such a fox covered with snow.

Thanks to all those who worked on Albert Lea Lake’s Clean-up Day. It was fun joining you.

Please make plans to attend the Freeborn County Fair. The Minnesota Zoo and the Raptor Center will be putting on programs near the Conservation Building.

&uot;Nature writes, gardeners edit.&uot;-Roger Swain

&uot;Shared joy is double joy and shared sorrow is half-sorrow.&uot;-Swedish proverb

DO GOOD.

Allen Batt of Hartland is a member of the Albert Lea Audubon Society. He can be reached at SnoEowl@aol.com.