Journal for August 31, 2025

End of the summer weather has arrived – cool sunny days, very cool nights, and a few big rainstorms. One storm brought nearly 6 inches of rain. A creek in the next valley flooded, but we haven’t had any flooding here.

Late summer savanna

Walnut Woods

We found a Rusty-patched Bumble bee – the first time we’ve seen one here. A male – on July 31 – our first federally endangered species.

Showing off his rusty patch – on Culver’s Root

Since we cut and removed invasive honeysuckle bushes from 3 Finger Valley last year, it looks much better.

The bottom of the valley is a planted prairie – planted in the winter of 2001/2002 – but since it’s deep in a narrow valley and doesn’t get much sun, the prairie plants have a hard time. But this year Field Thistles and Purple Giant Hyssop are blooming and attracting lots of butterflies.

Giant Swallowtails on Field Thistle – I think this is a female nectaring, with two males following her who are interested in mating.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail – a yellow female – on Field Thistle

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail – a black female. You can see the dark tiger stripes where light shines through the wings. Also on Field Thistle.

We have a big patch of Purple Prairie Clover outside our front door, and when it blooms, it’s full of insects.

I spent a lot of time outside with my camera, trying to get photos of them.

Bumble Bees

Tricolored Bumble Bee

Goldenrod Soldier Beetle

Susanna’s Cellophane Bee

Masked Bee

Jagged Ambush Bug

Northeastern Hammertail – a Robber Fly (Thanks to Mike Reese for the ID.)

Migrating birds are flying south now – every day there are fewer calls, and fewer wings in the trees.

Henslow’s Sparrow on a stalk of Rough Blazing Star

Field Sparrow on White Wild Indigo

These are Cliff Swallows, lined up on the powerlines. They nest under a small bridge on our neighbor’s land, but they fly over our land to hunt insects and to perch on the wires.

Monarchs have started their migration to Mexico. We had one day when we counted 78 on our afternoon walk, but most days we’ve seen only a few. Right now they’re mostly nectaring on purple flowers: Blazing Star and native thistles.

on Rough Blazing Star

on Field Thistle

Viceroy

Bumble Bees are everywhere this year. This is – I think – a Brownbelted Bumble Bee – on Field Thistle.

Common Roadside Skipper on Hoary Vervain

An American Lady caterpillar. The caterpillars eat the green surfaces of Pussytoes leaves. If you look closely at patches of Pussytoes, you can often find the nests the tiny caterpillars make for themselves out of leaves and silk. This link shows what an American Lady looks like as an adult.

Most of the Jewelweed we have is the orange flowered species – also called Spotted Touch-me-not. It grows in wet places and in damp, shady woods.

But in a few places we have the yellow flowered species – Yellow Jewelweed, or Pale Touch-me-not. It seems happy in slightly drier spots.

The reason for the ‘Touch-me-not’ name is that if you touch the ripe seed pods, they pop open and their seeds shoot out in all directions.

My current project is cutting and treating aspen sprouts in the Narrows Prairie. This prairie has always had an aspen problem – as soon as our prairie plants started coming up, we realized that thousands of aspen sprouts were coming up too. Mike mows the prairie every year at the end of the summer which keeps the sprouts from growing into trees, but the the next spring they all come back.

For the last several years I’ve been trying an experiment to see if I can find a longer term solution. I picked out an area along our walking path where I cut and treat each stem with herbicide. It’s slow work, but so far it seems to be helping. The areas I’ve cleared of aspen have stayed mostly aspen free.

This shows the area I’ve worked on – the wide strip along the left side of the path. To the left of that strip are thick aspen patches that I haven’t gotten to yet.

This is one of the aspen patches I’ve been working on in the last few days.

This is what a newly cleared patch looks like – slightly trampled, but lots of flowers and no aspen.

I often find interesting things hidden down under the aspen.

Lily-leaved Twayblade is a small native orchid. When I found it, it had bloomed and gone to seed. It was an odd plant to find here. The field was a crop field for at least 30 years, then planted with prairie seeds in 2004 – not with any orchid seeds, as far as I know. And most orchids need particular soil fungi to partner with. I’m amazed a seed found its way here, and then found what it needed to grow.