Westwood Hills Nature Center 10/17/21
I didn’t have much to do on my birthday, & there was no time to visit a traditional zoo, so I decided I would visit a fairly new nature center nearby. This technical isn’t apart of the trip, but I thought I’d put it here for convenience sake. I also apologize for this coming a bit late, but I had some unexpected work I had to get finished before I got to work on this.
Westwood Hills Nature Center is an average-sized nature center located in the Minneapolis suburb Saint Louis Park. It is situated on roughly 160 acres, most of which is uninterrupted woodlands. most of the structures seen were built within the past two years, as the center received a massive overhaul recently.
The first thing seen when entering the parking lot is a small children’s playground, some restrooms & large entrance building known as the “Interpretive Center”. Buildings like these are common among other similar nature centers I’ve visited in the past, but not on the scale of this building before. When entering the building of the right side, you are greeted with a large entrance hall, featuring four main segments. Three are to the left when you first enter, & are small child-oriented interactive displays about the wetlands, woodlands, the hive of a honey bee. The fourth takes up the right portion of the room, & feature about a dozen of average terrariums for various native reptile & amphibians, with an oddly placed Chilean Rose-Haired Tarantula as well. In the middle of these is a modestly sized exhibit for an injured Southern Flying Squirrel. This was the first time I have seen this species, so i was quite pleasantly surprised by it’s inclusion, although the exhibit was on the smaller side, the squirrel also has a larger off-exhibit space, which may or may not be rotated with an Eastern Chipmunk (which was in an exercise ball roaming around the outside of the second squirrel enclosure). This exhibit is seen from one of the terrariums, which gives a view of the space behind the exhibits. Above these are a variety of taxidermy specimens, including a Canadian Lynx, American Beaver, American Badger, & an unknown species of mustelid.
Picture of the Terrariums
To the left of the Terrariums is a long hallway, with various landscape paintings on one side, and a locker room, used for guests to hang up their jackets in the winter time. Beyond that is a small room with a large mural similar to the ones found at Richardson Nature Center (a similar facility only 5 minutes from my house). Walking outside, you are met with three relatively large raptor enclosures. There design is quite interesting, as each exhibit has two large steel doors in the middle of it that, when closed, allows the enclosures to be sectioned-off for indoor holding in the winter months. All are home to injured birds from around the area, which is common place at a large portion of nature centers. Beyond this complex are a series of small streams, marshes & bogs that collect storm water that will eventually soak back into the ground.
Picture of the Raptor Complex
Moving past the this is a small board walk that
leads to a small shelter overlooking a colony of Italian Honey Bees. Getting back onto the main path, you are led down a wide staircase to the start of a long trail around a shallow marsh. It is quite the serine & peaceful walk, until you start to get within feet of various office buildings, shopping centers, & residential developments, which, at points, can ruin the experience, but overall, its a very nice experience.
Picture of the Shelter
Now onto the species list. This will be pretty brief, so I will include it in this post, but in the future, the review & species list will be in separate posts. Species not seen will be in
Italics
Interpretive Center
. Bullsnake
. Unidentified Aquatic Macroinvertebrates
.
American Toad
.
Northern Leopard Frog
.
Eastern Box Turtle
. Foxsnake
. Southern Flying Squirrel
. Southern Flying Squirrel
. Eastern Chipmunk
. Spiny Softshell Turtle
. Grey Treefrog
.
Common Garter Snake
. Eastern Hognose Snake
. Eastern Tiger Salamander
. Chilean Rose-Haired Tarantula
Raptor Complex
. American Kestrel
.
Barred Owl
. Red-Tailed Hawk
Bee Hive
Italian Honey Bee
stay tuned for my review/species list of the Great Plains Zoo & Delbridge Museum of Natural History, coming some time next week.
