Phoebe in September

Phoebe is hunting at the pond today, balanced carefully on a reed bending over the water, with a reflection mirrored in the hazy sunlight.  

Eastern Phoebes Sayornis phoebe are usually lone birds.  Other than nesting season, one will rarely join another phoebe.  They will sit upright and wag their tails from a low perch, looking for flying insects to eat.  

They migrate south starting in September, wintering in the southern states.  And, they are among the first migrants to return to their breeding grounds in spring, sometimes as early as March. 

 

muskrat tail

The muskrats who live here were gathering breakfast this morning in the pond.  One, with tail held high, munched aquatic plants growing to just below the water surface.  Their tails are 7 to 11 inches long, covered in scales rather than fur, and flattened vertically (side-to-side) to serve as a rudder in swimming. 

September wildflowers

 Coneflower, Mountain Mint, Sneezeweed, Ironweed, Asters, Goldenrod.

asters

White asters are common wildflowers across Minnesota.  They pop up along pond shores, woodland edges, meadows, fens, roadsides, and ditches. This may be Panicled Aster Symphyotrichum lanceolatum, complementing the yellows and purples of late summer blooms around the pond now.  The center disk is bright yellow, and turns reddish as the flower goes to seed.

 

lavender asters

 Asters in the Symphyotrichum genus may be blue, lavender, or white, and many shades of those colors.  These lavender flowers, blooming now in the buffer around the pond, are one of approximately 25 aster plants native to Minnesota.  Some of them provide food for bees and other insects through the late summer season.

bur marigold

Even while fading and going to seed, the Bur Marigolds Bidens cernua nod as their seed load gets heavier.  They are called 'Nodding Bur Marigold' for good reason.  That makes them sound benign but their middle name 'bur' refers to the hard angled seeds with 4 barbed hooks that give them a free ride on passing animals or people to where they might sprout anew.

leopard frog

Leopard Frogs Lithobates pipiens  who live in our pond may travel one or two miles from water in the summer.  You might hear them make a long, deep 'snore' noise lasting several seconds ending with a chuck-chuck-chuck.  In the fall, Leopard Frogs come back to their pond.  We saw this one hopping across the sandy shore.  They spend the cold winter in the water, burrowed into the mud, hibernating with their metabolism slowed.

lobelia still vibrant

The native perennial wildflower still showing vibrant periwinkle blooms in the riparian buffer is Blue Lobelia Lobelia siphilitica. 

It also is called 'Great Lobelia' or 'Blue Cardinal Flower'. 

But don't confuse it with the annual plants or seeds sold in the garden stores lobelia erinus. 

This native perennial forms clumps in the wetland around the pond and comes back every summer, blooming from July until frost in October

damsel

 

Eastern Forktail damselfly. This is a young female who will change color as she matures.

dew drops

After a gentle rain all night and mist this morning . . .  jewels left among the wildflowers and seeds.

ducks in September

 

Mallards, dabbling ducks who rely on ponds like this one, have been growing and feeding in nearby crop fields while they molted into new feathers.  Now we see them on the pond more often than in mid-summer. It is our signal to watch for daily duck visits as they prepare for migration.

grasshopper on coneflower

On the blooming coneflowers, a Two-striped Grasshopper Melanoplus bivittatus rests in the sunshine.  This grasshopper usually lives in sunny, moist, lush, weedy or meadow areas -- like the wetland around the pond. They eat a wide variety of plants, and sometimes also dead animal matter on the ground.  They require unsaturated fatty acids in their diet since these nutrients help keep their wings strong and rigid.

green heron scouting for prey

We have not seen the Green Heron Butorides virescens around the pond since mid-July.  This one was balanced today on rocks near the shoreline, its thin legs crossed as it turned its body to spy prey below the water. After a while, it went into the grasses to hunt for another food item.

Birds seek quiet hidden places while they molt into new feathers each year after nesting season. Here in Minnesota, most birds have passed that phase. So, again we are seeing dabbling ducks and diving ducks visit the pond.  Early this morning, three Mergansers were floating on calm water warming themselves in the sunlight.  After a while they began diving to find food. They eat fish, mollusks, aquatic insects, and plants.  This one was poised to dive, with her wings up, feet back, and bill ready to lead her into the water.

garden spider

Hidden in the grasses around the pond, this Yellow Garden Spider wove her web suspended from two plants two feet apart.  It looks like she has been successful catching lunch; the white item in her grasp is an insect wrapped in silk.  No brown paper lunch bags for this elegant creature, a Banded Argiope Argiope trifasciata.
 

bee on sneezeweed

 

monarch on vervain

The Blue Vervain blossoms have mostly gone to seed. In the buffer around the pond, they've been blooming since mid-July. The flowers of Verbena hastata open one by one from the bottom of spikes held on the crown of the plant.  This Monarch butterfly looked for nectar in the few remaining flowers at the top of the spike. Along with butterflies, bees and other insects visit Vervain.  Now, the seeds will be food for birds like Cardinals, Sparrows, and Juncos.