So far the end of the summer has been warm and wet with lots of flowers.
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It’s been a hot, wet month.  For a while we were getting thunderstorms nearly every day, often an inch of rain with each storm.  The birds were looking a little bedraggled.

Baltimore Oriole

 

Downy Woodpecker sheltering from the rain under the deck railing.

 

The beaver dams had been holding back the floods, but 3 1/2 inches of rain in 12 hours finally broke through the dams.  This is the flood over the dam where I have my trail camera.  Fortunately it didn’t reach the camera, and the water receded over the next few hours.  Also fortunately, there’s still a lot of the dam left so the animals and I can still walk across it.

 

I finally finished pulling the last of the Wild Parsnip.  I was able to go over most areas twice this year, so I don’t think I missed many stragglers.

This was one of the places I checked at the very end – a willow thicket with an understory of Stinging Nettle, Canada Goldenrod, Hog Peanut and (unfortunately) Garlic Mustard.  But not much Wild Parsnip.  The understory plants are nearly as tall as I am so it’s tricky to walk through – but shady and humid – feels a lot like a rain forest.

 

The wetland looks beautiful now – Oxeye, sunflowers and Joe Pye Weed are just starting to bloom.

 

The big sedge meadow has gotten much more diverse.  Instead of just sedges, now it has Joe Pye Weed, Boneset and Angelica mixed in.

 

Pine Point Prairie sloping down to the sedge meadow

 

This is the western corner of Pine Point Prairie.  For years it was a thick growth of giant bush honeysuckles, buckthorn, and Wild Cherry and Box Elder trees.  Erik from Kule Region Forestry mulched it with a forestry mower in the fall of 2022.   I planted prairie seeds that fall, but since the brush had only been cut, not treated, it all sprouted – and each trunk produced multiple stems.  I spent about a month late last summer cutting and treating those sprouts and weeds like Burdock and Mullein.   This year it looks wonderful – full of native prairie flowers.

 

Another big success this year is Sheep Hill Bluff Prairie.  This was an old field that had been heavily grazed, and probably cropped at one time.  We had it sprayed with roundup in the fall of 2021, and I planted it with prairie seeds that winter.  Mike mowed it several times in each of the next few years – mostly to control Queen Anne’s Lace.  This year Monarda, Oxeye and Yellow Coneflower are all blooming, and there’s almost no Queen Anne’s Lace. (Drone photo by Mike O’Connor)

 

The summer flowers have been spectacular this year –  especially Monarda – maybe a result of all the rain we’ve had.  This is Indian Grass Point with Monarda.

 

The Knife Edge Point with Monarda

 

Hidden Oaks Point with both white and purple Monarda

 

An earlier photo of Indian Grass Point with Prairie Coreopsis – before the Monarda started blooming.

 

Mike did several drone flights trying to capture the lushness of the flowers.  This is looking south over Indian Grass Point showing one of the big areas where we’ve been cutting and treating brush and small trees.  Nothing here was planted – Monarda, Coneflower and other prairie species have been coming back now that they get more light.

 

Drone photo of Buffalo Ridge (crop field planted with prairie seeds in the winter of 2004/2005) with Monarda.  The swallows like this prairie – especially when there are people or vehicles that make the insects fly up so they’re easier to catch.

 

Drone photo of Big View Prairie with Monarda.  This is a large remnant that we’ve been working to restore for many years.   Our friend Todd cleared some of the trees on top, Mike and I have worked on clearing the upper prairie, and Erik and Beth from Kule Region Forestry have worked on the lower savanna area.

 

Buffalo Ridge Prairie (planted prairie) flowers – looking north

 

Buffalo Ridge Prairie – looking southwest

 

Wood Lily with an Edwards’ Hairstreak

 

White Camas

 

Grooved Yellow Flax

 

Rough Blazing Star in the Knife Edge Prairie – almost ready to bloom

 

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on Monarda

 

Silver Spotted Skipper

 

Mourning Cloak

 

The annual butterfly count was held here on July 13.   I had just had surgery, so I didn’t participate, but Mike and Karen found some other counters to help, and they had a good (hot) day.

Here are the counters, starting out.

 

And a few moth photos….

This is the caterpillar of an Unexpected Cycnia – a small moth whose caterpillars eat some of the small prairie milkweeds.  This one is eating a leaf of Green Milkweed.

 

For the second year in a row I found an Imperial Moth.  It’s a Giant Silk Moth – related to Lunas and Cecropias and about the same size – nearly as big as my open hand.

 

Luna – Some Lunas have two generations a year.  They mate and lay eggs in the late spring;  the caterpillars make their cocoons in July, and at the end of July some emerge and go through the cycle again – just barely making it into their cocoons before winter.

 

Here are two moths at the other end of the size spectrum.  This one doesn’t have a common name – it’s Caloptilia stigmatella – a leaf blotch miner moth.  Its tiny caterpillar eats between the surfaces of a leaf of willow or poplar.

 

Double-banded Grass-veneer – also tiny, its caterpillar eats grasses and possibly other low plants.

 

The other big event we held this month was our Moth Party.  This was the first one we’ve had since covid began.  It was a lovely evening – nice people, delicious potluck and interesting moths.  I photographed the moths – and other creatures that were attracted to the lights – and Mike projected the photos on a screen so they were easier for people to see.  Here’s a link to the full story of the party, with photos of all the creatures.

 

 

Me – busy photographing

 

Raccoon family – taken through our porch screen

 

A drone photo of the farm with blooming Monarda and distant thunderclouds.

 

It’s been a beautiful month – warm with plenty of rain so we sometimes feel like we’re living in a rain forest.  The lingering drought from last year has completely disappeared Continue reading →

This has been a beautiful warm month – spring sliding into summer. Continue reading →

Rain and warmer weather are slowly turning the landscape from brown to green.

April began with snow

 

and frosted branches in the early mornings.

 

Once the snow turned to rain the trees put out flowers and new leaves.

 

We saw a few more Pasqueflowers.  Several came out in the early warm spell we had in March,  but it was so dry that they shriveled up before they could open.  This one bloomed after the rains came and looks much happier.

 

Red Admiral butterflies don’t overwinter here, they fly up from the south once the weather warms.  Some years we see only a few, but this year we’re seeing them everywhere.  The males stake out and defend spots along paths and on top of hills where they watch for females.  They chase anything that comes by – including people.

 

Small White Violet – one of the smallest and earliest violets to bloom

 

Dutchman’s Breeches is an early spring flower that I’ve never found growing here.   It grows in shady woodlands, coming up and blooming before there are leaves on the trees to take advantage of the sunlight.  It does grow nearby, so I’ve been planting some on one of our cool shady hillsides.  This year I found just one stalk of blossoms.

 

But there are quite a few leaves, and it looks like the plants are spreading.

 

Pussytoes – one of the early prairie flowers

 

American Lady butterflies are closely related to Red Admirals.  They spend the winter as adults farther south, and then fly north in the spring to lay their eggs on Pussytoes and a few related plant species.

 

This is the first queen bumblebee we found this spring – a Tricolored Bumblebee.  It was a cloudy, cool day, so she was very cooperative – sitting quietly on a willow flower.  Later that day we saw another Tricolored queen searching for a nest site on the hill behind our house.

 

Spring prairie flowers are blooming…..

Bird’s-foot Violets

 

Hoary Puccoon

 

Prairie Smoke

 

We have two species of Serviceberry – very early blooming shrubs.  This is Smooth Serviceberry.

 

It’s growing in a tangled corner of Twisted Oak Savanna.

 

Another Serviceberry – I’m not sure of the species – on Hidden Oaks Point.

 

Several big branches broke off this old Bur Oak last winter.   We didn’t want to cut it down, but we wanted to move the broken branches so plants could grow underneath.  This is how it looks now – we removed all the branches that were on the ground, but left the ones that are still attached to the tree.  It’s fitting that it’s growing in Twisted Oak Savanna.

 

Wild Plum

 

As I walk in the woods this time of year, I sometimes disturb Woodcocks sitting on their nests.  This one didn’t fly until I nearly stepped on her.  I quickly took a photo of the eggs and then tiptoed away.

 

I heard and saw a new bird for the farm this week – an Eastern Meadowlark.  It called from a tree on the edge of Western Prairie, but then flew off across the valley and we haven’t see it again.

 

Most nights have been cold or windy or rainy, but there were a few good moth nights.

This is a new species for me – Lintner’s Gluphisia.  (I’m still counting the moth species I’ve seen here – I’m now up to 1033.)

 

And here are two favorites…

Bold-based Zale – a colorful species I don’t see often

 

Sigmoid Prominent

 

The landscape looks a little greener every day.

Center Valley

 

Hidden Oaks Point

 

Rainy morning

 

Sheep Hill Bluff Savanna – more open than it used to be, but not yet restored

 

This last photo is a link to a Turkey video from one of our trail cameras in late March.  At that time we were still seeing big flocks of Wild Turkeys – by now I think most of them have nests and eggs.   Be sure to turn on the sound – but not too loud.

Most of March has been warm, sunny and very dry.   Finally, in the last week, we got a little winter – cold temperatures, and several snowstorms with a little rain mixed in.  Now spring is slowly coming back.

During the spring weather we saw moths and butterflies and a few flowers.

The first Mourning Cloak of the year – March 13

 

Eastern Comma – March 12

 

The Infant – a small day-flying moth that emerges very early in the spring – March 11.

 

Crocuses blooming around the old farmhouse

 

Old fashioned garden flowers – Crocuses, Iris, Peonies and Garden Phlox – still bloom in the old yard.

 

I’ve only found one Pasqueflower so far.  It’s easy to see why folks around here call them ‘crocuses’ even though the plants aren’t related.  (Crocuses are in the Iridaceae – the Iris family; Pasqueflowers are in the Ranunculaceae – the Buttercup family.)

 

Scarlet Cup fungus –  their bright cups come out in woods in the spring.

 

The spring weather has meant that I’ve been able to work a bit on a project I’ve been thinking about for a while – a southwest facing hillside along the knife edge point.  All of that side of the point faces west, but one part of the hill bumps out to face southwest.  It has prairie vegetation, but has become overgrown with brushy invaders.  It looked like a good place to liberate some prairie.  The problem: it’s very steep.

Here’s a comparison of the way it looked in the summer of 2005 – long before we’d done any work here – and a few days ago.  In 2005 there were prairie plants growing on the slope, but they were being shaded by the birch trees.  Since then I’ve killed the birches and most of them have fallen,  and in the last few weeks I’ve cut most of the bushes (buckthorn, honeysuckle, and prickly ash)  that had invaded after the birches died.

 

This shows the steep slope of the hillside a few weeks ago,  just before I started work.

 

And this is that same slope, after cutting and treating the brush.

 

This is looking straight down at the part I cleared.

It’s a very long hill with lots of prairie slopes, so there’s plenty more to do.

 

More spring arrivals…

Chipmunks have reappeared

 

Bluebirds are back.  I replaced this nest box with a new one this week – the roof finally gave out although the bluebirds didn’t seem to mind.

 

A woodchuck on the cliff behind our house

 

We’ve seen a few huge flocks of Wild Turkeys.  This was a small part of a much larger flock.

 

The county did a big project cutting back the trees and brush along the road that goes through our land.  The folks who did the project were great – they worked with us to protect especially sensitive areas, and were careful not to disturb the ground any more than necessary.  Hopefully the native plants will recover, and the frogs and Western Red Damselflies that live in the ditch will survive.

 

Spring clouds over Armund’s Gap

 

The frosty looking trees are blooming aspens.

 

Then real frost arrived…

 

And snow

 

Pine Point and the wetland

 

Cloudy sunrise over the wetland

 

Yesterday I found one more Pasqueflower.  It think the early warmth and the extremely dry weather were difficult for some of the early flowers.  This one looks like it tried to bloom but shriveled up before it opened.

 

Sand Cress – an early flower that did manage to bloom

This has been another amazingly warm month.   We’ve only had two small snowstorms.   The mornings have been frosty, but the afternoons are mostly warm and snow-free. Continue reading →