This has been a month of very changeable weather – first dry and cool, followed by dry, hot and windy, and this week, heavy rain.

Now the lush plants and humid air are making it feel like we’re living in a rainforest.

 

Wild Parsnip has been our biggest outdoor project this month.  Wet prairie plants are thriving in the wetland fields we planted a few years ago, but Wild Parsnip is also thriving.  I suspect there were years of Parsnip seeds that had accumulated in the soil and once they got more sunlight they were able to grow.  There was no way I could pull them all, so Mike mowed those fields.

This is the Farmhouse Meadow, newly mowed.  I planted the area around the tree a few years earlier, so it’s farther along and didn’t have as much Parsnip.  It’s nice to be able to let some places bloom.  The yellow flowers are mostly Golden Alexanders.

 

Here’s the Farmhouse Meadow again from a few days ago, with Oxeye blooming.

 

This is the biggest area where I’m pulling Parsnip.  We call it No Bridge Meadow because it’s surrounded by creek and sedge meadow, so we can’t get to it with the tractor.  So all the work we do there has to be done by hand.  The vegetation is quite diverse – I suspect the farmers couldn’t do much there either.  There’s quite a lot of Parsnip, but I always find interesting natives too.

 

This year I found Sweetgrass growing there.  I’d never seen it before.  It blooms early compared to most grasses – this was in the first week of June.  There isn’t a lot of it – it’s mostly growing along the edges of animal trails.

 

This is the sedge meadow along the edge of No Bridge Meadow – mostly  tussock sedges, but also Marsh Marigolds and a sprinkling of other wetland plants.

 

Here’s one of Mike’s ‘Tiny Marcie’ pictures.  I’ve just crossed the creek into No Bridge Meadow.

 

It’s nice to spend more time near the creek.  I wear boots so I can walk in or across it when I need to.  Reed Canary Grass is thick along the edges, but I still see native flowers, and frogs plop into the water as I walk along.

 

Baltimore Checkerspot – a wetland butterfly that’s flying right now

 

I’ve noticed several new patches of Wild Iris this year.

 

This one is below Pine Point.

 

The blackbirds talk to me while I’m working.  I try to stay away from their nests – their calls get pretty frantic when I get too close.  This time they were quiet, so I saw the nest.

 

Golden Alexanders line the edges of the driveway through the wetland.

 

The upper prairies are full of Golden Alexanders too – especially the Narrows Prairie.

 

Our walks on the upper prairies are often quick ones before a storm arrives, or on hot days, trying to catch the wind and avoid the sun.

 

Indian Paintbrush in Buffalo Ridge Prairie

 

The blister beetles arrived just in time to devastate the lupine flowers.  Just a few patches survived.  The plants are fine – they just won’t make seeds this year.   The beetles have a mating/eating frenzy while they work on the flowers.

 

The same beetles also eat White Wild Indigo flowers and seeds.  This year they moved on before they’d eaten too much of the Wild Indigo, so we still have some flowers left for the butterflies and bumblebees.

 

Prairie Larkspur

 

We haven’t seen many Monarchs, but they must have been here and have been laying eggs because here’s a caterpillar – on Whorled Milkweed.

 

Low Bindweed – a native morning glory that grows on our prairie points

 

Northern Cloudywing  on Red Clover

 

We only have a few Pale Purple Coneflower plants.  They don’t normally grow this far north – I think the seeds for these came along with some of the other seeds I bought.

 

Wood Lilies are starting to bloom.  I’ve never found Wood Lilies growing naturally here, but they’re found in nearby prairies, so I’ve planted them in some of our bluff prairies.

 

This plant is in one of the planted prairies.  I had no idea there were any Wood Lilies there.  The prairie was planted in the fall of 2003, and this is the first time it’s bloomed.

 

We have a garter snake living in the wall of our garage.  If we tap on the siding, it rattles back.  It slides along the bottom edge of the wall, and has its own private entrance to the garage.  I hope it’s finding good things to eat inside.

 

I’ve had a few very successful mothing nights.  This is a White-streaked Looper – a new species for me.

 

And one night a Cecropia came to the lights.   I’ve found Cecropia cocoons, and a few years ago I found a caterpillar, but this is the first time an adult has come to my lights.

 

I collected an interesting caterpillar from the clump of Tall Meadow Rue that grows right outside our door.

 

I fed it more Tall Meadow Rue leaves and eventually it pupated and the adult emerged – a Straight-lined Looper.

 

This fawn has been spending a lot of time near our house.  It sleeps while Mom is gone, and bleats when it wants to find her.  I was outside at dusk last night, and the two of them wandered by, not worrying about me at all.

 

Restored savanna – with Yellow Pimpernel blooming

 

Stormy skies from Hidden Oaks Point

 

There are so many rabbits on the driveway these days.  They’re not afraid of us at all – they just sit while we walk – or even drive – right up to them.