Phoebe

The Eastern Phoebe Sayornis phoebe is one species in the family of Tyrant Flycatchers.  Phoebe is mostly insectivorous. It forages by watching from a perch, flying out for insects, and catching them in mid-air.  This is called a "sallying" style – flying up  directly from their perch to catch an insect and then immediately return to the same perch.  In some cases, Phoebe will take an insect from foliage while hovering briefly.  The pond area is replete with insects in the air and on the plants around it.  The branch on the feeder pole is a good 'sallying' perch.

grackle and turtle

Grackles Quiscalus quiscula forage on the ground. Food items might include seeds, acorns, fruits, and garbage. In summer their diet includes grasshoppers, beetles, caterpillars, spiders, mollusks, fish, frogs, salamanders, and mice.  

Maybe this Grackle was so intent on diet he did not notice the Painted Turtle passing nearby on the shore of the pond.

early meadow rue

Early Meadow Rue Thalictrum dioicum is also called Quicksilver Weed.  The small flowers will open into fuzzy clusters.  The foliage is a pleasing blue-green color.  This specimen is coming up among other plants hiding beneath the young trees.  Early Meadow Rue often likes moist partly shaded areas, so this one will thrive in the position it has chosen near the pond. 

I believe that plants actually move to where they can optimally survive.  If a seed falls in suitable habitat for the plant to thrive and reproduce, then it does so.  If the seed falls in a less-than-perfect place, then it withers. This way, plants move from generation to generation, even as the climate changes.

wildflowers May

Wildflowers are blooming around the pond.  3-1/2" of rain yesterday will encourage more blooms.
Ox-eye Daisy (top), Golden Alexanders (middle), and White Campion (bottom).

Sandpiper

This morning a Spotted Sandpiper Actitis macularius was finding a meal -- small invertebrates,  crustaceans, or insects -- among the reeds on the shore.

They nest on the ground near water, so we will be looking for Sandpiper nests as we do citizen science for NestWatch this season.
https://nestwatch.org/

eagle nest

The eagle nest near the pond is surrounded by more leaves each day.  The tree is healthy and shelters the Bald Eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus family well.  The strong forked branches are big enough to support the huge nest that has been here several years.  Surrounding their tree, the eagles have fields and several wetlands to hunt for food. 

emerged

We have been watching the cocoon since it was re-attached to a willow stem two days ago.  Today the Polyphemus silk moth Antheraea polyphemus emerged.  This adult will live 3 or 4 days. She will not hunt or feed, only seek a mate in her short existence in this form. The life cycle will start again when she lays eggs; the eggs will hatch caterpillars that will eventually cocoon to become as handsome as this adult.  Look closely -- the 'eye spots' are as transparent in real life as they look!

what is it May 2020

I found an unfamiliar object on a twig laying on the ground near the pond. Deer have browsed the willow shoots in that area, and this was cut but left behind. The object seemed like a gall or growth rather than a seed pod.  It has dried leaves curled around it, and looks to be attached to the twig with a web-like or woven material.  I asked my friends on Botanical Wanderings for ID help -- it is most likely the cocoon of a native silk moth. If so, it should emerge in the next few weeks. Hopeful, I tied it to a sandbar willow branch near where I found it, since willow a host plant where giant silk moths lay their eggs.

Tree Swallow pairing

Several Tree Swallows, Tachycineta bicolor, are flying around above the pond, estimating the area as a food resource.  They also checked in to the two nestboxes here.  We think they approve, signaled by them placing a few grasses in the boxes.

Painted Turtle

Lack of rain has exposed some of the rocks in the pond as water level recedes.  The Painted Turtles Chrysemys picta climb on the rocks to bask in the sun.  Females grow to 10 inches, while males are slightly smaller at full size.  They are common in Minnesota, and sometimes called "mud turtles".

Mallard ducklings

The female Mallard appeared on the pond today with 11 ducklings in tow.  It is hard to tell exactly how many hours old they are since we did not track the nest or hatch time.  They stayed by Mom at first, but all swam vigorously as they got used to the water.

muskrat take-in dinner

This adult Muskrat is probably taking a meal home to the nest.  They can bear more than one litter per year.  Carrying this much food, rather than eating on the spot, suggests this adult has a litter unable yet to feed on their own.  In Minnesota, Muskrats, Ondatra zibethicus, eat vegetation they they find and harvest in wetlands.  They weigh 2 to 5 pounds, and live in burrows or domed nests on the edge of ponds or streams.

Red-winged Blackbird

Red-winged Blackbird Agelaius phoeniceus is setting his territory around the pond.  The water is surrounded by grasses, rushes, shrubs, and wildflowers -- perfect habitat for the nests that female blackbirds will build.  But this bird is a bully -- he chases every other songbird.  The Tree Swallows tried to inspect the nestbox intended for them and the Blackbird displayed his beautiful wing epaulets while screeching at them.

Grosbeak

This Rose-breasted Grosbeak Pheucticus ludovicianus
male paused on the deck rail for a moment after he helped himself to sunflower seeds from the bird feeder.

It is always easy to tell adult males from females -- he is a black-and-white bird with a brilliant rose-red chevron extending from his black throat down the middle of the breast.

A female adult is not black and white, but heavily streaked brown shades with a lighter eye stripe.

But juvenile males are not easily recognized.  Their first plumage is like their mother, streaky brown with gold brown breast.  In their hatch year, male Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are streaky brown overall with white patches on the primary wing feathers and pink patches on the underwings.  Females in their hatch year are streaky brown overall with small white patches on the primaries and yellow patch on the underwing.

RBG usually nest in a vertical fork or crotch of a sapling.  There are plenty of saplings around the pond.

Mallard bath

These two Mallards are cleaning up.
Each duck dips the front of her or his body into the pond and splashes water on the rest of their body.  Ducks' feathers make them buoyant so they can roll, rock, shake, and wiggle their tail and still stay afloat.

bald eagle

Bald Eagles Haliaeetus leucocephalus

nest near the pond. 
Near enough for the adult Eagles to
 glide over the wetland

 in search of meals for their brood.
  

We cannot see into the nest, high in

 a tree, but before the leaves unfurl we can see little fuzzy nestlings when they lean up to beg for food.