Fabulous Fens

I love wetlands in general, but I didn’t realize fens were a specific habitat until I started visiting the glaciated part of Ohio. Now they’re one of my favorite places to visit for birds (which like the open habitat) and summer flowers (including unique species I see nowhere else).

The video above is from the tower at Siebenthaler Fen, where the open expanse looks a lot like any old cattail marsh. You have to look closer to see the uniqueness of the fen.

What makes a fen a fen? I’ll let the educational signs above clue you in. The most important parts: fens are fed by mineral-rich groundwater year-round, allowing peat (partially decomposed plant matter) to accumulate. Unlike bogs (which also make peat), fens are alkaline (thus the cool plants!).

In the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes region, glaciers are responsible for laying down the sand and gravel necessary for fen formation. Although the photos in this post are from Siebenthaler Fen where this is harder to see, if you go to the nearby Pearl’s Fen, you can see water bubbling up out of the ground.

Every week of summer seems to bring new blooms to Siebenthaler Fen, so it’s worth repeat visits. When I dropped by last weekend, Queen of the Prairie (the pretty pink flowers) were in full bloom, as were Shrubby Cinquefoils (which seem to be a dominant fen plant).

There are always lots of birds rearing babies at Siebenthaler, but you’ll want to keep a particular eye out for Red-headed Woodpeckers and Willow Flycatchers (both of which are common at there but not in most of my other haunts). I didn’t get any good shots of either rarity time around—birds pictured above instead include a Downy Woodpecker and an Eastern Kingbird. You can see and hear the Willow Flyctatchers in my video though. (Sorry about the wobbly non-tripod zoom…)

Not pictured: Kirtland’s Snake, with a gorgeous pink belly. (Found dead, so I didn’t think you’d want to see.)

Finally, the damselfly above is a Seepage Dancer, a fen specialist which I found in another park which I’m not going to tell you the name of because, even though the sign didn’t say so, apparently you’re not supposed to enter without a permit. Oops! But also, too pretty not to share!