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.

planthopper

 

Planthoppers are masters of disguise. A green Acanalonid Planthopper, hiding on a stem, can look like part of the plant -- a seed pod, leaf, bract, or stipule. 

This one is only 3/8 inch long.  It was perched on a stem at the leaf sheath, probably sucking sap from the grass.  Planthoppers, true to their name, can leap many times the length of their bodies.  And they are very agile insects that can move easily forwards, backwards, or sideways. 

sneezeweed

Growing from 2 to 6 feet high on angular winged stems, Sneezeweed Helenium autumnale is blooming on all sides of the pond.

The flowers are showy, golden yellow with a domed center.  These late-summer plants will feed butterflies and unfold their blooms until winter comes.

The common name 'Sneezeweed' came about because the pollen, when inhaled, causes sneezing.  In the past, the powdered flower heads were used in medicine to cause violent sneezing as treatment.

green frogs on rocks

Usually, the frogs who live here sit on shore hiding among grasses looking for prey insects or invertebrates.

But when a rock is available, Green Frogs Rana clamitans prefer to sit in the sun and wait for a meal to present itself.  

goldenrod

 

To complement all the blue and purple flowers around the pond this week, the Goldenrod has unfurled its blooms.  Solidago species, commonly called Goldenrods, are in a genus of more than 100 species of flowering plants in the aster family, Asteraceae.

Goldenrods are often blamed for allergies, but they have sticky pollen and rely on insects to move most of it.  The wind borne pollen of ragweeds and pigweeds are to blame for 'hay fever' in late summer.

These plants are habitat for a large number of insect species. Blooming in late summer, they are a critical nectar source for many bees, butterflies, and moths to fortify themselves before freezing weather comes. 

balanced turtle

This turtle was probably thinking it could be the top part of a balanced rock sculpture.  Or, maybe seeking a sunny rock and believed this would be it.  Not enough rocks for a sculpture, nor the right shape to be comfortable!

turtle munching

The pond was quiet and clear today, after a rain shower overnight.  We could see to the mud, sand, and rocks on the bottom. 

A Painted Turtle Chrysemys picta was very visible in the water, looking for lunch.  Painted turtles feed mainly on aquatic vegetation, algae, small water insects, dragonfly larvae, crustaceans, plants like water lily or duckweed, and sometimes dead or injured fish.  

When this turtle bumped into a floating mass of algae or plant matter, it was lunch time!

ironweed

The tall, stately plants topped by brilliant purple flowers -- blooming now by the pond -- are Common Ironweed Vernonia fasciculata.  Each 5- or 6-foot tall plant has a purple-green stem, dark green toothed leaves along the stem, and clusters of flowers at the top. Clusters are made up of many flower heads, each about 3/4” across. After the flowers open and mature, each becomes a fruit that is composed of a dry seed with a tuft of coppery brown hair. 

This is a host plant for the 'American Painted Lady' butterfly and also has value to native bees.

Ironweed got its common name because of several qualities: tough straight stems like iron rods, fading purple flowers become rusty-tinged, and seeds are colored like rust.

Ironweed is one of about 500 species of perennial plants constituting the genus Vernonia of the family Asteraceae; it's species are distributed throughout the world.

black wasp

 

I was surprised and apprehensive to see this big black wasp on a milkweed flower near the pond.  It was alarming because of its size (over one inch) but is not a pest to harm people. This Great Black Wasp Sphex pennsylvanicus, looks iridescent violet-black with smoky transparent wings that have a violet sheen. They visit flowers to feed on nectar and pollen; no harm to the plants. 

The female Black Wasp digs a burrow in the ground to reproduce her kind. She hunts katydids, paralyzes them, and places several in the burrow. She then lays eggs in the burrow.  They hatch into larvae. They have a ready meal, quietly growing into adult Black Wasps.