Follow Up

Overnight, something (probably a raccoon) dug up and ate the turtle eggs I saw being laid yesterday.  I know it's the circle of life and all that, but still, I am sad. I was hoping to keep tabs on them and see the baby turtles, unlikely as that timing would have to be.

Pretty Prairie

I thought this photo showed just how lovely the prairie is at the beginning of June.  

The cast of characters is changing... shooting star has left the stage.  As you can see above, spiderwort and indigo have become numerous and prominent.  

In addition to the foxglove beardtongue pictured earlier in the week, other new flowers include wild quinine, shown here:

This I think is a smooth phlox, which was blooming last week but I didn't include a photo.  I said "I think" because I don't think phloxes usually have those pretty spots around the center, but I can't figure out what else it would be.

This flower is a mystery to me.  I spent a while with guide books, and Chris with a computer, and we didn't figure it out.  Might be we could with the actual plant, but with only a photo, no luck. 

I saw this huge snapper laying eggs.  And when I say I saw it, I mean, I actually saw the white, golf-ball sized eggs dropping from her body into the hole she dug.  It was really cool.  Unfortunately, my trigger finger doesn't have the luck or skillful timing to catch that in the photo. 

Addendum

What I forgot yesterday... Dame's rocket and phlox. What I didn't notice because I was running... False Solomon's seal.

We went back to closely inspect the red patch, which involved a significant off-trail jaunt. Here's Chris standing by them:

And here's a close-up:

It is, I believe, Indian paintbrush.

We also rescued a turtle today. 

And saw a lot of crayfish remains.

Lasts?

I put a sumac leaflet next to this tiny snapping turtle so you could tell how small it was -- body inch and a half, maybe? 

Here is a list of things I saw this weekend that might be "lasts" for 2015:

• a monarch butterfly
• a dragonfly
• a turtle
• a snake
• a cicada (saw it, not heard it.  It looked fine, but technically, I didn't check for signs of life and it might have been dead.)
• a toad and a frog (which I don't think will be the last...)
• weather in the 70's (upper 70's on 10/10/15)

I would also like to say a word about red-wing black birds.  I certainly don't associate them with fall... I think of their distinctive shrill calls piercing the March chill as signs of spring-to-come.  I think of the constant threat of being dive-bombed as mid-summer perils.  But they fade away in the fall.  I noticed a lot of them this weekend, though, in flocks, even.  They were vocalizing but not a lot or loudly/distinctively.  They were near the trail but didn't appear at all interested in harming me (thank goodness!).  I guess they're getting ready for their winter retreat... 

Fresh Flowers and More

Each day or two there are so many new and noteworthy flowers showing their faces that I can't possibly hope to chronicle them all.  Here are a few that caught my eye this morning or yesterday:

Foxglove beardtongue blooming in the prairie.

One of my most evil enemies, the bindweed (shown with a tiny bee pollinating it).

This false sunflower was one of two in full bloom -- very early -- in a whole grouping of which none of the others are even close to blooming.  Odd.  Note the crab spider hanging out, well-camouflaged, just above the disc flowers in the photo.  Because tiny critters on flowers is a theme of the day!

Purple coneflowers aren't blooming yet, but they actually look so interesting at this stage of almost-ready that I decided to include this.  Plus, there are ants crawling on it. 

Found her hanging out on an arborvitae tree... who wouldn't love this face? 

Yarrow

Last week I showed a painted turtle laying eggs, this week it's a ginormous snapper.  

Slow and Steady...

Turtles are laying eggs!

Here are things in full bloom in the prairie today:

Golden Alexander and spiderwort color the prairie with yellow and purple...

Cream Indigo

Wild Rose

Canada Anenome

Columbine

Prairie Alumroot

Phlox

Vertebrates of Devil's Lake

The nine group camp sites at Devil's Lake form a semi-circle. In the center of the circle, next to the shower'bath house facilities, is a stand of pine trees that, for as long as I remember, is home to a great blue heron rookery. I've no idea how many birds nest there, but they are constantly coming and going. Their warbles and cackles are the white noise of the sites, and their occasional screams pierce the air in a most disconcerting way. It keeps things from being dull, that's for sure.

This little fellow decided to fledge a bit early. It wasn't injured, as far as we could tell, but it managed to wander itself right into the bathroom complex. And it was ferocious. Though not even close to its full adult size, its feet and beak, overlarge for its stature, may have been their size. And even if not, they were imposing. It made a racket when someone approached, both by calling and by clicking its beak. Chris did manage to rescue it and return it to the grove of pines where the nests are, and when we went to check on it, it was gone. I hope that it survived...

In addition to herons, we saw these Sandhills several times. They seemed to inhabit a farm field near the park, and enjoy wading in this pond which was across the road. At one point, we actually ran across -- though happily not over -- the pair in the road. Here, we saw them dancing in the water right close to us... but by the time I was picture-ready, they had moved across the pond.
Fox snake getting ready to strike (right in the middle).
This turtle is burying eggs (or,digging in preparation to lay them). We saw another crossing the road, probably to find a nest site, and we saw a HUGE snapper moving away from the water, presumably for the same reason.
Little red squirrel. They are so much cuter and feistier and chirpier than the grey ones we see here. I just love them.

Everybody's Out...

...enjoying the beautiful weather. Yes, we finally got one of those days -- one of those weekends, better yet -- when you can sit outside, unmoving, and feel warm. When the temperature feels like summer although the colors are still early spring. A day that smells like sunscreen. One of those days when the slog through winter seems worthwhile, because we got to this, and it's marvelous because we waited so long for it.

And everyone is out enjoying it. We saw about 20 turtles, sitting on a log and soaking in the day. As we approached, they one by one plopped into the water, and then re-emerged, the sunbathing too enticing and the people too distracted by the little skull they found:

(About 3 inches long, non-rodent, not a lot of teeth... present or originally, for that matter).

Dragonflies were out, too... happy day!!! I first saw him as a flash, just that, that disappeared into the trees, but I knew that nothing else shimmers the same way in the sunshine. When we stood still and watched the pond, we were able to see several darting past, soaring and diving. They were male green darners and none alighted long enough for a photo op, but that's OK. We've got months of odonata watching ahead of us.

Snakes were out, although the only one I saw disappeared quickly into the grass. Frogs were out, also, calling loudly but there was also a froggy plop, animal unseen, as we approached the water.

The bugs were out, flies and gnats swarming... yesterday I saw my first wasp, and today I saw several more. First mosquito, too, although it is no more.

This tick (left) hitched a ride on my pants but didn't make it to my skin, thankfully. I also took a picture of this velvet mite, a much friendlier little arachnid, because the red dot caught my eye.

Spring ephemerals certainly aren't out in strength yet, but...

this hepatica decided to grace us with a bloom today, and violets are in full force. Others are just leaves yet, spring beauties looking like grass and trout lilies barely distinguishable from soil. But soon, soon... we're behind this year. Hepatica flowered on April 2 last year, and I still haven't seen even the leaves of mayapple or bloodroot poking through the soil (which were also noted on April 2 last year). I hope this isn't because mine are dead! But I feel like every year, I think they've died and every year they do eventually show up. Fingers crossed...

In the garden, carrots are planted now, and almost our entire front yard is covered in cardboard meant to smother the turf grass. We're putting in another native garden. Best, I still had time to sit outside and read lazily before the clouds rolled in and the winds became annoyingly strong a few minutes ago. I think I just heard thunder. Perhaps time to go close all the windows and doors? (I guess that's the beginning of the cold front, as today's 85 degree high is supposed to be followed by the 50's tomorrow.)

Cute Cookie

A student found this painted turtle in his deck and brought it to his class today. I got to go with them to release him into the wild. The kids, who developed quite an attachment in only 4 hours, called it Tiny Tim, but I called it Cookie. Actually, I call all turtles that are about an inch (give or take) in diameter cookie turtles. They just make me think of little cookies, the kind of thing you could pop in your mouth in one bite. I mean, I wouldn't actually do that, even if I weren't a vegetarian, but... they're just as cute as little cookies, even though they have little grumpy-old-man faces.

In other news... nearly everything (or at least some members of every species) has at least tiny leaves now -- locusts and lindens, ashes and oaks... it's a green world out there! And the first lilac flowers opened today, but just like one flower per bunch...

Yellow! Etc.

Outside, lightning flashes and thunder crashes. The house shakes. It's the first storm of the spring. This following a 75 degree day with winds so strong that we saw branches fall in the woods. Some discoveries from today.

First celandine poppy in my yard.

Dandelion.

Forsythia.

Sunflower birdhouse gourd, painted by Naomi, recently hung by Naomi's mom.

And... some non-yellow things I noticed today...

Interesting beaver chew.
Very large Mayapple... maybe an Aprilapple?
False rue anenome.
Herd of turtles (I counted 7 painted turtles sunning themselves).
Mertensia (Virginia bluebells).

Paddling Reflections

Both days this weekend were warm (low 70s) and sunny (although the sun's angle is about 30 degrees in the middle of the day). We took full advantage.

I went canoeing with my dad on Sunday afternoon. (note: all the green in the picture is buckthorn. The rest of the leaves have pretty much turned color and fallen off...) Before my grandfather died, he and my dad used to go canoeing almost every Sunday when the water was open. After he died, for a while my dad and I went every week. But this summer, we didn't go at all. This is partly due to the fact that my dad basically lives in England and only comes home for about 1 weekend a month; it's partly due to the fact that my dad's shoulder was injured this summer. At any rate, it was nice to get out this weekend. (another note: my arms are out of shape. Apparently approximately 7 minutes of lifting 8-lb weights 2 times a week is not equivalent to an hour of paddling every week.)

For a while, I had thought that the herons were gone. We used to see them at every turn. But we didn't see any until about 2/3 of the way through our paddle -- and then we rounded a corner and saw this fellow. I guess they're not all gone after all.

And, on the same fallen tree was a turtle!

I would like to end this post with a note about paddle sports. I noticed the trend today of people kayaking with iPods. I know that they are fitness paddling and I don't have a problem with people jogging with headphones. But it bothers me that people have them while paddling. I don't know. A big part of what makes paddling enjoyable is the sound of the boat slicing through the water, tiny waves lapping against the bow. And the plunk of your paddle entering, the drips as you pull it out. Not to mention the sounds of nature, and all that. Headphones wreck it. So people, just don't.