We finally got rain after weeks of sunny dry weather – at least 2 inches so far. Yesterday, the heavy rain day, we had Grosbeaks, Orioles, Indigo Buntings and many others vying for places at the feeders. I counted 25 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks on and around the feeders at one time. It’s not raining as hard […]
Butterfly photos: Silver Spotted Skipper – (Epargyreus clarus) On wild iris – Iris versicolor Silver Spotted Skippers are common summer butterflies. They’re the largest and showiest of the skippers we have in the northern midwest. One generation a year in the north – they overwinter as a pupa and the adults emerge in spring. The […]
Cold!
Red-winged Blackbird 3/24/2019 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 6/1/2019 Courting Ruffed Grouse 1//27/2019 12-29 to 1-4-2020 American Crow American Goldfinch Bald Eagle Belted Kingfisher Black-capped Chickadee Blue Jay Dark-eyed Junco Downy Woodpecker Eastern Screech Owl Golden Eagle Great Horned Owl Hairy Woodpecker Mourning Dove Northern Cardinal Northern Shrike Purple Finch Red-bellied Woodpecker Red-tailed Hawk White-breasted Nuthatch […]
It feels like fall has come and gone already. We’ve had a lot of windy, cool days, so the colors are muted and most of the leaves are down.
Suddenly it’s fall. We had our first frost a few nights ago.
This is Blazing Star season.
What: Our goal is to restore our land – an old dairy farm – back to the prairie and savanna that was here before the land was settled. Why: When we first started our project, we thought it would be a fun and interesting project to try. It’s been a huge amount of work, […]
[To see photos and stories of this prairie in other years, go to the links on the main 3 Finger Valley page.] We didn’t do anything special to this prairie this year except one part of Goldenrod Valley, and one hillside near the house. We hired some folks to clear the east-facing Hidden Oaks Hillside, […]
The end of the old year, and the beginning of this new year have been beautiful, but very cold.