temperamental autumn

Autumn and Spring are the transition seasons, temperamental and transformative.

In past years, I’ve watched birds arrive for nesting on their sacrosanct schedule, whether driven by daylight hours or other clues. Some years, they arrive in Spring when weather is fine, start building nests, and then have to endure several days of cold rain or snow. 

So it is with Autumn.  In October this year, we endured a week of early winter with extreme cold air and several inches of snow.  

But then we had this delightful first week in November!  Sunny and warm until today.

dabbling ducks

Ducks are generally described by birdwatchers as 'dabblers' or 'divers'.  This refers to how the ducks feed on the water of ponds and lakeshores. Mallards are dabblers. They paddle slowly in shallow water looking for snails, worms, insects, or seeds among the aquatic plant material. They dip their heads under water and search for food with their bills.  But their bodies are very buoyant, so when feeding they are almost comical as they bob and dabble, with tails upright and legs visible.

sparrow feeding on shore

Evidently there are still damselflies or dragonflies among the reeds and grasses on the shore.  This sparrow scored one while hopping in the shallow water of the pond. 

surviving below freezing - turtles

Since we had several cold days and nights already, Painted Turtles Chrysemys picta who live in the pond are getting ready for winter.  Lacking summer heat, this one was wandering very very slowly for a food item or a place to settle. Turtles will spend the next several months in frigid pond water below the frozen ice, with their metabolism and their heart rate slowed way down. They can absorb oxygen from the water through vascularized areas in their mouth, throat, and anus (cloacal respiration).  But using oxygen produces lactic acid in their body, which the turtle counteracts with minerals released from its shell and bones.  Painted Turtles do not eat during this time, but they do remain alert, especially to light from above.  In Spring, when the hours of daylight increase, they will respond.

water sports

Sunny and warmer, closer to normal weather today, after an early snow in October.  Several Mallards are getting ready for their travel south by feeding on the dwindling supply of plant material in the pond.  But the resident muskrats do not like to share their food supply.  We watched several encounters today between the animals.  

junco on snowy suet

Juncos arrived last week from nesting grounds north of here.  Several made their way to our feeders.  Usually, they stay in this area all winter, so it is important to locate some food sources before the snow flies.  They will live on seeds from the native plants . . .  and of course, suet.

slush trail

Snow!  Several inches.  Before we were ready for it.  Before the Mallards were ready for it. As they paddled around on the pond to find breakfast, they made a trail in the accumulating slush on the water.

seed heads

 

I have been wandering the riparian buffer and clipping some of the wildflower seed heads to distribute them around the pond. Some native wildflowers exist here already, and we want to spread desirable plants throughout the buffer. 

The clipping process is "a few for spreading to make new plants, most left for the birds." 

Even after the seeds are gone, the structure of the plant is interesting!

boneset in autumn

Boneset Eupatorium perfoliatum has a stout hairy stem, and the plant's leaves occur along it opposite to one another.  In autumn, the flowers go to seed, and leaves turn a rich red-brown color.

The leaves are described as 'perfoliate' because each joins the opposite leaf around the stem so it appears the stem grows through one large leaf.  All parts of this plant are toxic and bitter. Birds rarely eat the seeds, but are attracted to the flowers for the many insects there.

Mallards have been feeding and sunning themselves all day on the pond, even though we had a few snow squalls.  They must be getting ready to head south for the winter.  At dusk, the muskrat came out to gather a meal.  Seeing the ducks, he swam towards them again and again, trying to chase them away.  Defending his territory, or maybe since it is autumn he does not want to share the dwindling green plant material left to eat in the pond?

diving ducks

 

Mergansers stopped on the pond for a rest.  They floated in the early sunlight for a while, then dived under water to search for a meal.  Maybe they found aquatic insects, worms, frogs, or snails.  

Below, the duck on the right is just gathering her body upward to curve down and dive.  Because feathers make ducks buoyant, it takes muscles to dive.  The one on the left is just emerging from a dive, as the water rolls off her head.

reflection in October

 

floating pondweed

The floating leaves of Pondweed are fading at the end of summer.  And the leaves of the nearby trees fall in the water, drift with the breeze, and catch on the Pondweed.  They look golden in the sunlight, brighten the pond, and complement the wildflowers surrounding the water. 

Floating Pondweed Potemogeton natans  has two kinds of leaves; floating and submerged. The shiny leathery floating leaves are opaque, and support the whole plant which is rooted in the mud below. The submerged leaves are thin, transparent, and move with the water.  In summer these plants provide habitats for many tiny aquatic invertebrates. These in turn are used as food by frogs, snakes, turtles, and ducks who feed here. After these plants die, their decomposition by bacteria and fungi provides food in turn for the aquatic invertebrates.  The Pondweed survives winter with rhizomes buried in the mud at the bottom. 

yellow loosestrife

Autumn chores for me include wandering the riparian buffer around the pond and assisting dissemination of wildflower seeds.  Some native plants exist here in clumps.  Our goal is to spread desirable wildflowers throughout the buffer, while suppressing the 'weeds'.  The many tiny seeds on Yellow Loosestrife Lysimachia ciliata form in small round capsules after the flower matures.

 

The capsule is formed from the five sepals, 

those green triangular-shaped structures behind or below the petals of the flowers.  As they dry out, the capsules harden.  When the seeds are ripe the spheres burst, the five parts open, and the seeds are released.  This is a perennial plant in the Primrose family, and important to native bees in Minnesota.  Next season they will bloom again, bright yellow.

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.