Happy Father's Day

To celebrate Father's Day, we continued a tradition started several years ago of having a picnic at Forestville State Park. Everyone brings something and it's a nice family get-together. Brother Dave came down from St. Paul and my two nieces also came with their mom (my sissy).

My niece had a special cake made for Grampy. My sister was looking through photo albums and found some fun pictures of Dad wearing goofy hats, so this was incorporated into a special "Hats Off" to Dad and Grampy cake.

Here's Dad and his cake. (It was a mighty tasty cake too!)

After the picnic lunch, we had some time to hike around the park, so Brother Dave and I took off down one of the paths. Here are some of the things we saw.

Right in the picnic shelter, there was a pair of IO moths. Here is the male--he's larger and more of a brownish color.

Here's the female with more of a yellowish coloring. When we picked up the log she was sitting on, she immediately opened her wings and turned upside down as a defensive posture. Don't those dots on here wings look like an owl face? That was pretty neat to see her do that.

Farther down the path, Dave found this caterpillar on a stinging nettle leaf. I'm not sure what it is, but I'm leaning towards a Painted Lady. Can anyone help with a positive identification?

We saw this little snail on another leaf.

There were some butterflies too....

Pearl Crescent

I'm going to guess that this might be a Tawny Emperor. My Peterson "Flash Guide" for butterflies says they are found in woodlands near streams and rivers and feeds at animal droppings. We saw this one on a little road next to the river that's used as a horse trail and this butterfly was near some horse "road apples."

While we were walking down the trail, I got the distinct feeling we were being watched.....

Look how this tree has managed to grow from an almost solid limestone hillside.

A pretty shelf fungus on an old log on the ground.

Happy Father's Day, Dad. Hope you enjoyed your afternoon and this little walk through Forestville.

Butterflies & Dragonflies

Near where we live, a new subdivision is being planned. For the road into this subdivision, they have taken out many of the trees which has fragmented what used to be a nice little woods. They have also put a water drainage retention pond down at the end of the road. We had over an inch-and-a-half of rain this morning, so the pond was pretty full.

I took a little drive over there on the ATV this afternoon to see if there was anything that might be interesting for a blog and here's what I found.

Rick had been over there one day last week and told me he found some very tiny deer hoofprints, so we know that some fawns have been born. I found some of these little hoofprints also, and because I didn't have a tape measure along, I have used my own foot to show you the difference in size

fawn hoofprint

and the mother deer hoofprint

(looks like my toenail polish needs to be re-done but at least my toe isn't hairy!)

On the path to the pond, I spotted this Tiger Swallowtail getting nectar from some thistle blossoms. I had to walk through some thistles myself to get this picture, but it was worth it!

As I was walking down to the water, I could hear all these "plopping" noises of something jumping into the water. As I got closer, I realized it was tiny little frogs. Here's one of the frogs that's still retaining some of his tadpole identity.

There were lots of dragonflies down by the pond. The majority of the dragonflies I saw were Common Whitetails--they were everywhere (this is a male).

Here is a picture of a female who was laying eggs on the edge of the pond. She was sitting on the edge of the water and tapping the end of her tail in the water. There were several males hovering all around her. I figured she might be laying eggs and this was confirmed when I checked in my Stokes "Beginner's Guide to Dragonflies" field guide.

Most of these dragonflies weren't sitting still too long, so I didn't get too many pictures of them.

This is a female Twelve-Spotted Skimmer.

And here is the male Twelve-Spotted Skimmer.

Even though this isn't a very good picture, I'm going to guess it's a Familiar Bluet, especially since the description of its habitat in my field guide says, "A large variety of habitats, including poorly vegetated lakes and ponds" which this pond is.
Lastly, on my drive home, I spotted this Red Admiral on the dirt trail ahead of me.

It was hot and humid this afternoon, with almost no wind, but I covered myself with insect repellant and had a really fun time wandering around this little pond and seeing all the beautiful living things that made their home in and around this muddy water.

Thanks for coming along!

Come With Me For A Walk

I took a little walk down to the end of the yard this evening and here are some of the things I saw.

The wildflower garden has more flowers starting to bloom.

Purple coneflowers have just started--I will have varying shades of purple and all different sizes and shapes of petals once more start blooming

Lots more of the coreopsis blooming

Here's the first of the gaillardia

Ah, the neglected hammock--I've only relaxed in it once so far this summer.

Farther down the hill I came upon some wild roses that grow near the road ditch. Some of the blossoms are almost done.

But here is the promise of more to come.

I walked to the very end of the yard to check a couple bluebird boxes (no tenants yet) and caused some consternation for a red-winged blackbird couple. They must have a nest nearby because both of them raised quite a ruckus at my presence--especially the male. I didn't stray off the trail, but they sure didn't like having me down there.

On the way back, I checked on the mourning dove nest in one of my neighbor's evergreens. Looks like these two are almost ready to fledge.

On the way back up the hill, I saw a bird fly out of one of my other bluebird houses (the other one of the pair where bluebirds had nested in a few weeks ago). It didn't look like a bluebird, so when I opened the nestbox expecting to evict a house sparrow, here's what I was surprised to find:

"Holy mackerel," I said to myself. Six eggs--I think this might be the same pair as before, because she had six eggs also. I haven't been checking these houses at all because I thought that pair would still be busy with their first brood and I've never had the same pair nest to close to their previous nest. Shows you how much I know! I have no idea when these eggs will hatch, so I will have to be a little more regular in my nestbox checks now.

The other thing this leads me to believe is that the pair of bluebirds that hangs around in my dead tree in the front yard is a different pair! So it looks as though I have two pairs of bluebirds in my yard this summer.

Almost back home now, let's walk through this little trail in the woods.

I have a small grove of aspen trees that started with a few trees I dug up from Mom and Dad's backyard around 1990. I finally got tired of mowing around each one and just let them grow all over. I mow three little paths through the grove. It's grown to be really dense and it's nice to have my own little "woods" in the backyard. The birds really like hanging around in here too. Every summer I let a few more trees grow up so the grove continues to expand.

Thanks for coming along.

Keeping Track of Time

I got a kick out of Mary's statement in yesterday's post, where she said she had to look at her cell phone to verify that it was Wednesday. Is this a sign of old age creeping up or are we all just too busy?

Here's the first thing I see when I stagger out to the kitchen at 4:10 a.m. on workdays:

My day clock!

I took this picture at "half past Thursday" today when I got home.

I don't need to know the date, knowing the actual DAY of the week has become much more important.

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I have a nearly dead tree in my front yard. In spring of 1988, this was the first tree I planted at our new house--a clump birch from ShopKo that was 5 feet tall and cost me $12. It was a beautiful, fast growing tree and probably about 8 years ago, it started to die. I'm not going to cut it until it Mother Nature finally blows it down. (My neighbor across the street comes over at least 3 times a year and asks me when I'm going to let him cut it down.)

All of the birds love this tree. The branches are still very tall and any bird perching on it can get a wonderful view all over the yard. Yesterday evening when I was out watering flowers, the following birds were all sitting on a branch somewhere in this tree at the same time: bluebird, robin, goldfinch, cedar waxwing, house finch, chipping sparrow, and hummingbird. Now why in the world would I take a bird magnet like this down?

This evening the tree wasn't quite as busy, but I did get this grand picture of the male bluebird surveying his kingdom from the topmost branch. I will post some more stories about the benefits of dead trees in a future blog.

Bird Pictures from Forestville Bird Hike

How happy I was to open my e-mail at home today and find the pictures taken by Mr. Schiffman on our Saturday bird hike at Forestville State Park. AND he included pictures of other birds in addition to the Yellow-Billed Cuckoo.

Here are pictures of the Eastern Phoebe that was perched in a tree at the edge of the parking lot where we started our bird hike. There was some discussion as to whether this bird was an Olive-Sided Flycatcher or Phoebe, but in the end Phoebe ruled, especially due to the fact that the bird was "wagging its tail down-up repeatedly" while perched on the branch (quoted from my Kaufman Birds of North America field guide.)

Here is a nice picture of a couple Turkey Vultures catching some rays in a dead tree. On our way home, my sister and I saw a TV snacking on a dead raccoon in the road and hoped to get a picture, but even though we slowed way down in the car, the TV wasn't interested in hanging around for pictures, so I'm glad Mr. Schiffman included this picture. Not the prettiest bird in the world, but they're so much fun to watch soaring through the skies.

Lastly, here are the pictures of the Yellow-Billed Cuckoo. Having never seen one before, I was surprised at the size of this bird--as large as a Mourning Dove. Their call is not real loud, but definitely distinctive, once you've heard it. I'm glad they were so cooperative on Saturday morning.

Martins & Bunnies

I got done with supper and still didn't have any ideas for a posting today, so I did a little internet surfing and then took the dogs out for a walk around the yard. We had a high temp around 90 again today, and it had finally cooled off a little bit around 7:00 so the dogs could walk a little farther in the yard. While I was out walking them around, I thought I heard purple martins chirping. When I got closer to the house, I could see there were three sitting on the TV antenna. I rushed the dogs in the house and ran upstairs to get my camera.

By the time I got back outside, they were flying around the gourds again. One of them took off shortly after I got back outside, but there were still two flying around and investigating the gourds.

Purple martins are such a challenge. They're the only bird in the eastern U.S. that depends entirely on human-provided housing. (In the western U.S. they will live in tree cavities and under highway overpasses, but that's a whole 'nother story.) They don't seem to be too fussy about their housing, so it can be wood, plastic, metal, or natural gourds. Many of the successful martin landlords I know use the wood or aluminum T-14 houses. I decided to go with gourds because they were less expensive, it was less likely that sparrows would try to nest in them, and I just like the look of gourds. I have 6 natural gourds, and 6 of the plastic super gourds. In all previous years that martins have lived in my gourds, they always preferred the natural gourds.

These two martins flew around for quite a while and hung on the gourds, but never went inside. I was just whining to Rick after work about how I probably wouldn't get any martins this year, and then these guys showed up after supper. Hopefully now that there were multiple birds looking at the gourds, they will come back and decide to stay and set up housekeeping within the week.

Because it's been so warm, I'm watering my flowers in pots every day and this evening I decided I'd better water my flower and vegetable gardens also. When I was getting the hose out to water the butterfly garden by the house, a big bunny dashed out through the little fence and I noticed a little brown blur run along the back of the flower garden. A baby bunny? I wondered to myself. I looked around under the flowers, but couldn't see anything. I went ahead and started watering and when I got down to the end, sure enough, there was a baby bunny that I must have already watered because he was sitting along the edge of the garden border and looked a little damp.

After I dragged the hose to the vegetable garden and got the sprinkler set up, I had to come back and adjust the water flow and there was another little bunny trying to hide in the grass. I went and got Rick and he picked this little guy up for a picture. Then we delivered him back to the flower garden next to his sibling.

When I finally went to turn the sprinkler off, I came around the house and Mama Bunny dashed out of the flowers again. I quickly looked to where she had come from and saw four little bunnies squirming around. They must have been nursing or napping next to her, because they seemed pretty disoriented from having her run away so quickly. I know they're destructive, but they're just so darn cute. We'll have to make sure the dogs don't get over there and disturb them. Daisy thinks bunnies are an excellent snack and this time of year I really have to keep an eye on her.

Sunny Monday

It's summer here! Last week on the channel 4 weather, Paul Douglas told us that from a meteorological standpoint, Summer begins on June 1st. Lots of places in Minnesota hit 90 degrees today, including us. We're going to have highs in the mid- to upper-80's for the whole week, with very little rain in the forecast. I had to water my vegetable garden last night, but the weather is so beautiful, that I can't complain.

All of my growing things are looking really good....including the birds. Here's the mourning dove nest. The babies have gotten so big that Mama can only cover one of the babies anymore and the other little one is sitting right in front of her.

I planted a yellow yarrow plant (for attracting butterflies) by my "lawn boulder." The robins love sitting on top of this rock (as evidenced by their "calling card").

My delphinium is just starting to bloom. Love those pretty blue flowers!

Yesterday a sub-adult male purple martin stopped by my place. He sat on the TV antenna for quite a while, then would fly down by the gourds, but never attempted to go inside. I'm running out of time for this season to attract a nesting pair. In 2004, I had a pair show up on June 13th, so I haven't given up hope yet.

One of my co-workers and her husband have a huge martin colony and were recently featured in an article in our local newspaper. She stopped by today to tell me they have 140 eggs and babies are already starting to hatch. She invited me to stop over and see them some day after work. (NOTE TO SELF: don't forget your camera--this would be another great idea for a blog post!)