The Power of Observation

From an earlier walk we found this perfectly camouflaged katydid perfectly blending in with the shadows.

 

Autumn

From our walk this morning there was more than a whiff of autumn in the air.

There was also silky dogwood - Cornus amomum.

This deciduous shrub has an open-rounded form and features tiny yellowish-white flowers in flat-topped clusters in late spring to early summer, followed by attractive berry-like drupes that ripen from white to blue in late summer.

It is typically found in moist lowland areas, such as swamp borders, floodplains, and along streams and ponds.

The berries are edible for birds and wildlife. The berries can be used in teas or other preparations when ripe but are otherwise toxic to people. 

Late Summer Blooms

From our walk there was white turtlehead (Chelone glabra) is a native perennial wildflower known for its distinctive white, two-lipped flowers that resemble a turtle's head. It thrives in moist to wet soils, such as those found in swamps, stream banks, and rain gardens, and prefers full sun to partial shade. This plant is a valuable host for the Baltimore Checkerspot butterfly and attracts pollinators like bumblebees and hummingbirds.

 

Summer Blooms And A Bonus

From our walk yesterday morning it was much warmer.  Nevertheless, there was Great Blue Lobelia, bumblebees on Joe Pye Weed and Pileated Woodpecker wood working.  They'll keep at it until they disassemble that snag.

 

Trails and wildlife openings are complete! 

 

Situational Awareness

From our walk this morning we found swamp and bur oak acorns.  The critters gonna love all this mast.

And the big bluestem was pollinating. 

Yes, grass pollinates.

It costs nothing to be aware of the natural world... 

Wildflower Blooms

From our walk this morning, and thanks to the newly-cleared trails, we added some new finds to our growing list of natural stuff…

Cardinal Flower

Wild Quinine (Feverfew)

Nodding Pink Onion (Lady's Leeks)

And a Yellow Garden Spider snacking on its prey 

Two Rainbows In Two Weeks

Alerted by multiple cell phone audible alerts a fast-moving July storm moved thru quickly this evening at the start of our Lions Club meeting.

And after all the ruckus was over on my way home I was greeted with this.

A doubler. 

When you live in Flyover Country the panoramic views are far better than in an urban setting.  Two rainbows in two weeks.

Ma Nature smiled on the landscape with her all-clear sign….

Thunder Month

The full moon we experienced last Thursday is sometimes called the Thunder Moon.  This is as a consequence of weather patterns in our hemisphere being the stormiest in the month of July.  None of this is a result of climate change – it’s just the way it’s always been.  

So far we haven’t experienced any particularly show-stopping storms but I did stumble across one from 2016 that is worthy of sharing.   

Ordinarily I would not recommend standing on a wet porch in your bare feet during a lightning storm.  But the view of that stormy sunset was spectacular.  

And as the ruckus breathed its last gasp Ma Nature hurled some extra lightning bolts at the setting sun....

 

Thunder Month

July is known for its storms.

Ma Nature is known for her rainbows…..

 

Early Blooms

We planted this tree in the front yard twenty-one years ago.  It was one year-old bare root stock; a pencil-size twig.  And for the longest time we never thought it would amount to anything.

It's grown into a handsome young oak tree.  Further evidence of its maturation, it is bearing a sizeable crop of acorns again.  And if history repeats itself, when they ripen they'll barely last a week as the critters will hoover them up in short order.

The species has been forgotten so I asked a forester pal if she might ID the tree for me.  She is confident that it is a Northern Pin Oak (Quercus ellipsoidalis) commonly known as a Hill's oak.

Towards the end of last month I noticed that the tree had large numbers of catkins hanging from the branches as the leaves of 2025 emerged from their buds.

Yes, oak trees have blossoms too.  These are one of the flowers that are produced by the tree – the male flower to be certain.  This species is monoecious – meaning that it produces both male and female flowers.  Each male flower typically has six stamens (ranges from two to twelve) which have long spreading white filaments when the flower fully opens.  The female flowers are more reddish-green and appear as small slender spikes in the axils of new growth. 

I gave this tree a thorough examination and could find no flowers of the female persuasion. Not surprising inasmuch as they are not visible to the naked eye.  It is from the female flower that acorns are formed.  This species begins producing acorns around 15 to 20 years of age; give or take.  Large numbers of acorns won't materialize until the tree is fifty years of age.  Which makes sense for a tree that will live 90 to 120 years of age. 

As a general rule the acorns will mature in late summer and begin falling in September or October.  

This tree has been producing acorns for about 6 to 7 years.  From last week there is this. 

Overachiever..... 

Beautiful Skies

Gentle spring storms moved thru late afternoon treating us to a colorful sky display.

View to the southeast...

And directly behind me the view to the northwest...

Ma Nature knocked one outta the part tonight.  

Messenger Of The Gods

Iris is the name of the Greek goddess of the rainbow – who also happens to be the messenger of the gods. This name can also be given in reference to the word (which derives from the same Greek/modern Latin source) for the colored part of the eye and the flower.

The wild-growing iris - like those found in the low areas and on the banks of Silver Creek - should begin their seasonal blooms later this month and into the next.  More on that to follow.

For now there are Jill's domestic cultivars that are adding some spectacular color around the house and serving the pollinators. Pictures are from this morning.

 

 

Jill's father raised iris and at least one of these goes back many, many years to one of his.

Others are from friends.

These iris are doing pretty well; actually thriving at a latitude half-way between the equator and the north pole.

 

Tough plant the iris is.....

2024 Recruits

For the longest time I fretted-over the fact that I hadn't seen any turkey poults (young); either in person or on the trail cameras.  The wet, wet spring weather is good for suppressing infestations of spongy (gypsy) moth caterpillars but generally not so good for ground-nesting birds.  Then, all of a sudden, the turkeys materialized.  Hens and their newly-hatched young'uns.

Many of the poults were smaller - implying they were hatchlings from a second laying - and going into the fall their are certainly more grouse-sized poults than what would ordinarily be observed.

Better smaller than none at all.  Nature works that way occasionally.  Come to think of it I'm seeing some awfully small fawns too.

From the trail camera trap line are these photos and videos....

Small birds

A solitary poult

Some larger birds

And a smallish fawn

Happy Solstice

We returned from almost three weeks of family vacation in the UK last week.

While there, a visit to Stonehenge was in order.

No Druids were involved as this is both a Neolithic religious and astronomical site.

Happy Solstice, people!

 

 

Summer Solstice

Tomorrow is the Summer Solstice here in the northern hemisphere - 3:51 PM to be precise.  Which means that on Thursday we receive more sunlight than any other day of the year.  Naturally, you would conclude that this date would have the earliest sunrise and latest sunset, no?  

Don't jump to conclusions.  Even though the solstice has the greatest amount of daylight - the earliest sunrise occurs before the solstice and the latest sunset falls afterward.  The occurrence of those events is dependent upon how far you are from the equator – a function of the tilt of the Earth on its axis.  

Here is an interesting factoid – I went to the US Naval Observatory Astronomical Applications Department and looked-up the Sunrise and Sunset times for The Platz before, during and after the solstice.

June 17 Sunrise 4:03 Am Sunset 8:38 PM

June 18 Sunrise 5:03 AM Sunset 8:38 PM

June 19 Sunrise 5:03 AM Sunset 8:38 PM

June 20 Sunrise 5:04 AM Sunset 8:39 PM

June 21 Sunrise 5:04 AM Sunset 8:39 PM

June 22 Sunrise 5:04 AM Sunset 8:39 PM

June 23 Sunrise 5:04 AM Sunset 8:40 PM

June 24 Sunrise 5:04 AM Sunset 8:40 PM

June 25 Sunrise 5:05 AM Sunset 8:40 PM

 

Notice that the three dates preceding the solstice have almost the same amount of daylight.  The implication is that the solstice lasts more than half a week. 

 

What's the explanation?  Does it have something to do with our location being almost equidistant from the North Pole and Equator?  Or is it a consequence of rounding the precise times?  I think it is the latter rather than the former.

 

Nonetheless, any difference is the amount of daylight will not be discernible to this old guy’s eyes.

 

 

Competition

Speaking of trees.

From our walk there was this.

An oak and a spruce growing together, side-by-side.

The oak has had a head-start and presents itself as a 10-12 foot sapling,  Somehow a spruce seed germinated at the base and has grown into a 2 foot seedling.

I'm not going to interfere in the competition; preferring to let nature take its course. 

Beard Frost

When temperatures are above freezing water vapor (dew) can condense and collect on grasses, branches rocks and other surfaces.

If the temperature falls to freezing (or below) the dew can take the form of a white covering known as frost.

A feathery form of frost phenomena occurs when climatic conditions (typically overnight) are such that crystalline spicules grow from water vapor in the air upon the freezing surface of solid objects.  

This is called desublimation (changing directly from a gas to a solid with no intermediate liquid phase).  The air must be humid, but not so humid that solid ice forms.  Wind moves the humid air over frozen objects causing frost spicules to form.  The size of these feathery crystals depends-upon the temperature, the amount of water vapor in the air and how long they are allowed to grow undisturbed.  The result is called hoarfrost.  

The word hoar derives from old English and refers to the old age appearance of the ice crystals that mimic white hair or a beard.

Jack Frost was rather busy overnight as we woke to a crystalline wonderland.

After breakfast the dog and I scored more than 40 photos of this wonderment on our walk today.

Here are a handful...

click on any image for a closer look

 

 

From Little Acorns

From the Wisconsin Woodland Owners Association newsletter there is this:

In Wisconsin, the white oak seem to be having a “mast year,” which occurs every 2-5 years, with smaller acorn crops in between. Boom and bust cycles of acorn production do have an evolutionary benefit for oak trees through “predator satiation.” In a mast year, animals can’t eat all the acorns, so they leave some nuts to grow into future oak trees. Years of lean acorn production keep predator populations low, so there are fewer animals to eat all the seeds in a mast year. A year of heavy acorn production may use up much of a tree’s stored nitrogen, and few acorns may be produced the following year while the tree’s nutrient stores are replenished. 

The importance of acorns as a food source for wildlife is primarily related to their widespread occurrence, palatability, nutritional value, and availability during the fall and winter months, when they provide an excellent source of needed energy. Historically they were a source of food for humans also, however care must be taken to remove the tannins prior to consuming them.

Oak trees take decades to mature and one oak produces more than 2,000 acorns every year, but only one in 10,000 acorns will manage to develop into oak tree. 

Pictured are one of our swamp white oaks planted from two-year-old bare root stock in 1998 and a seedling growing in a sunny spot in the forest understory.

 

 

An Intervention

I'm not sure what this snake was thinking but it clearly bit-off more than it could chew.  There is no way a common garter snake is going to swallow a whole toad for lunch.  A leg maybe?

If one of our resident five foot long fox snakes attempted this I can assure you the toad loses.  In any event, Jill intervened and released the toad from the snake's grip.

Buddha would approve.

Post-Burn Update

There's an old saying about the grass being greener on the other side of the fence.

On May 10th of this year we conducted a prescribed burn on the seven acres of pollinator habitat out back.

And at the seven weeks point post-burn things are greening-up rather spectacularly.

View east, north-east....