new logs, floating in the pond

 

The painted turtle Chrysemys picta is a native in Minnesota and of North America.

Painted turtles are active only during the day; they are warmed by their surroundings on sunny days by basking for hours on logs or rocks.  On cloudy days or at night the turtle drops to the bottom of the pond.  Painted Turtles eat aquatic vegetation, algae, and small water creatures including insects and crustaceans.  They primarily feed while in water and are able to locate and subdue prey even in heavily clouded conditions.

duck house

We put up a nesting box for ducks last Spring, especially Hooded Mergansers. 

It was too late for nesting season, but I read that sometimes they scout out in the autumn a place to nest next Spring. 

We hope this female is scouting!

spiderwort

The Spiderwort Tradescantia in the riparian area around the pond bloomed for a few days.  Then, the flowers disappeared.

Critters have been eating plants and leaving evidence behind . . .  broken off flower stalks, chewed reeds, left-behind stems, grass sheared off at ground level.

The muskrats swim across the pond to gather food on the opposite shores. The rabbits browse among the plants around the pond. I wonder who ate the Spiderwort?

muskrat, greener pastures

The muskrat left the safety of the pond to find fresher food!  Usually, it eats plants that are growing in the water or very near the shore.  It has been a cold wet Spring, so maybe the plants are not producing enough for muskrats.  This critter ventured out of its comfort zone to fill its hunger.  Several times!

Near the safety of water, circled around to run up the slope to find fresh food.

At top of the slope, gathering a big mouthful of plant material.

Running downhill to the safety of the pond to munch the fresh food, and try the gathering again.

mallards arriving

Even though Spring is here and the birds have been moving to their nesting areas in Minnesota, the ice  is thick on the middle of ponds.  The Mallard pair is finding food in the open water near the shore.  They act like ice-breakers with their beaks and legs to get to the plant material beneath the water. 

heavy snow

We use a metal toy 'slinky' to keep squirrels away from the bird feeders.  The feeder was blown off the metal pole that held it. But the slinky held on and gathered a coating of the wet heavy snow.

Slinkys have been discouraging squirrels for many years in my experience as a bird watcher.  They try to get to the feeders again and again.  But they are startled by the movement under their claws, or their feet get tangled up in the flat wire coil.

baby snapping turtle

We found this baby Snapping Turtle on a street curb in the neighborhood. We relocated it to the wetland around the pond, hoping it would find enough to eat there.  Snapping Turtles Chelydra serpentina eat water plants as well as insects, worms, snails, small fish, and anything edible that it can find. 

 

senna

Wild Senna Cassia hebecarpa or Senna hebecarpa grows in the riparian area around our pond. The seeds may be eaten by wild turkeys, wandering through, and the flowers attract bumblebees who are looking for pollen. The plant also has "extra-floral nectaries" which are a nectar source separate from the flowers; they are adjacent to flower buds on the stems. Read more at 

https://xerces.org/blog/plants-for-pollinators-wild-senna.

green frog looks like . . .

. . .  like a rubber toy in rocks near the pond.  But it sounds exactly like a frog!

The Green Frog is widely present in the eastern half of Minnesota.  

Typically greenish-brown on top, and males have yellow throats.

muskrat claws

 

Often we can see a muskrat swimming back and forth in the pond, harvesting plants and taking food home to the family.  Muskrats Ondatra zibethica eat the roots, stems, leaves, and fruits of many water plants such as cattail, rushes, smartweed, duck potato, horsetail, sedges, and willow sprouts.  They are strong swimmers due to their two long back feet and five webbed toes.  For grasping and harvesting food, they have developed smaller front feet with four fingers with claws and a small thumb.   By living near the pond, muskrats control plant growth, provide open spaces for new plants to grow, and make space for other animals to build their nests.

muskrat whiskers

The muskrat Ondatra zibethicus was gathering breakfast this morning near the pond. 

He has a short soft underfur that traps air for insulation and buoyancy, and with longer stiff guard hairs over the underfur.  The whiskers stand out from the face.

Their tails are 7 to 11 inches long. No fur here . . .  the tail is covered in scales.  When they dive to move around, the tail is flattened vertically and serves as a rudder.

 

robin likes suet

 

This bird has been coming to the suet feeder near the pond for several days. American Robins usually eat insects, invertebrates, and berries.  This suet has seeds in it. They must be tasty to the Robin.

'homing' Mallards

Mallards can stay through winter in Minnesota if they can find food near open water. Now that the solid shore-to-shore ice on the pond is melting, a pair showed up here. This is probably the same pair that nested near the pond last year, since Mallards are known to 'home' where they have nested previously.

Even though a fractured layer of ice floats nearby, these ducks find food beneath the water. This might be what is known as a 'cold lunch'.

hare

The pond has been under a comforter of white snow. The snow layer insulates and protects the critters tucked in among the rocks, mud, and dormant plants below water and ice.

On a sunny day, we saw a large rabbit sitting in the snow near the pond. It created a depression in the snow among reeds and wildflower stems, and snuggled down there all day. At dusk, it was gone from that spot. The next day the sunshine was bright on the white snow. The rabbit was in the same spot again, and napped all day. I suspect it was a White-tailed Jackrabbit Lepus townsendii, actually a hare.  Jackrabbits are nocturnal hunters and are known to take daylight naps in a shallow hole. 

pond lily

How nice to have a pond lily! We anticipated seeing it bloom next season. The little plant was happy in this pond, spreading out its leaves to soak up the sun and give the tuber in the mud oxygen through the underwater stems.  

Then, ducks landed on the pond . . .  and ate the leaves and stems.  We'll see next Spring if they ate the roots too.

bee on asters

 

The asters are abuzz with pollinators.  While standing among the wildflowers, I hear the buzzing as loud and pleasant.  There are many Panicled Aster Symphyotrichum lanceolatum plants in the riparian area around the pond.  The nectar and pollen of the flowerheads attract many kinds of insects, including honeybees, bumblebees, wasps, flies, butterflies, skippers, and beetles.  I have not seen any Wild Turkey here, but they feed on the seeds and foliage of aster plants.  Maybe some day . . . 

blue lobelia

Blue Lobelia, a native perennial, started blooming several weeks ago in the wetland around the pond.  Each spike of flowers opens from the bottom up.  This plant Lobelia siphilitica is related to the intense red Cardinal Flower Lobelia siphilitica.  In fact, sometimes Blue Lobelia is called  Blue Cardinal Flower.  It should bloom until frost, now that we received some rain after a dry summer. 

new Mallards, second clutch

Mallard female has been hiding her second clutch of eggs near the pond among grasses.  Today she led all 6 hatched ducklings to the pond, where they paddled around and started to feed.  They can eat seeds, stems, and roots of many different plants; also aquatic invertebrates such as worms, beetles, dragonflies, or insect larvae. 

galls on goldenrod

 

Now, in June, the typical insects are laying their eggs in the goldenrod stems.  The eggs will hatch larvae who will feed and grow inside the bulge or 'gall'.

By autumn, the swelled galls with be more noticeable on the dried thinner stems.  The larvae will stay in the gall through winter, unless a bird pecks through to feast on them.  In Spring, those who stay hidden will emerge as adults.

The most typical insect causing galls are the Goldenrod Gall Flies Eurosta solidagnis, who completes its entire life cycle only on goldenrod. 

Last fall, I gathered several dried stems with galls.  They are such interesting shapes and colors, so they deserved to be in a drawing or painting!

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.