We all love a Very Good Dog, and John’s dog Mila is living up to the title.
Mila performed two feats of self-control this week:
- Pointing at, but not chasing, a fledgling hermit thrush.
- Coming back when called, despite the presence of a runaway skunk.
What a good pup! (John, in contrast, was off investigating roadkill. More on that later.)
Please note as schools let out for the summer, we become more and more hungry for reports for our Phenology Talkbacks segment. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with your observations, nature tales and insights! Get in touch with me (smitchell@kaxe.org), John Latimer (jlatimer@kaxe.org), or text "phenology" to 218-326-1234.
The Good Dog Deets
Upon being alerted to the hermit thrush, John followed it a short distance to make sure it wasn’t hurt or in trouble. After ascertaining it was just a fledgling learning how to fly, he sat back and watched it from a distance using his binoculars. It was an exciting sight for him and Mila!
As for the skunk, John is doubly grateful at Mila’s excellent recall, as the skunk ran directly into his garage. Can you imagine having not just a skunky dog, but a skunky car AND garage? It would take forever for that smell to dissipate! The skunk, as it turned out, was out roaming John’s yard in search of turtle eggs, which are quite abundant now.
It’s baby-raising time
On that note, keep an eye out as you drive along; there are lots of turtles on land as they search for a good spot to lay their eggs. If you can help them out, please do! Here’s a good video on the subject:
Trumpeter swans and loons are also mid-nesting season: John found his resident trumpeter swans on the nest near Crooked Lake. Early in the week, he was concerned to see both adults feeding at the same time — an indicator the nest may have failed.
However, he passed the nest a few days later and found the momma swan on the nest. After spotting John, she hunkered lower in the cattails so John could no longer see her, but he was relieved the nest was still active.
John investigates roadkill
Imagine you’re driving down a remote road and you spy an old fella standing on the shoulder staring at a dead raven.
“Odd,” you might think. “I wonder if he accidentally hit it.”
After all, while this is certainly odd behavior, it’s hardly nefarious: plenty of people are known to take the opportunity presented by roadkill to take a good look at local wildlife. But then, you see him stoop, grab the roadkill and pry its beak open. Think you might stop wondering and just drive a bit faster? I’d certainly get out of there!
Well, that old fella is John Latimer, and despite his disregard for societal taboos, he’s not up to anything nefarious! As it turns out, he was just checking to see if the dead raven was a juvenile: they have distinctive red patches on the inside of their mouth to aid their parents in getting food to the right place.
Without further ado, here’s John’s assessment of his find. The bird was healthy, fat and well-feathered, which rules out disease. The fact it was dead on the road points to a vehicle as the cause of death. However, an adult raven is extremely unlikely to get hit by a car: they’re too smart and experienced. Prying open the beak was the final test, and it confirmed John’s guess.
Unfortunately for our corvid comrades, John's observations show this sort of thing quite common in mid-June. Fledgling crows and ravens have not yet gained the street-smart ways of their parents. It has to make you wonder if parent crows are just as worried about their “teenage” kids on the road as human parents are!
What do dragons, fire, and butter have in common? They’re all flies!
Next, John turns his attention to dragonflies, fireflies and butterflies. Monarch butterflies are harder to spot these days, as the migratory adults have performed their long journey, laid eggs and gone to their well-deserved rest in the Great Milkweed Fields in the Sky. Their grandkids will be the ones to migrate back south: the intervening generation lives its entire life up here in the Northwoods.
The equally beautiful (but far more predatory) dragonflies are also transitioning through the generations. Adult pondhawks are emerging: look for the sky-blue males and electric-green females mowing down mosquitoes like tiny fighter jets. Adult emerald dragonflies and chalk-fronted corporals are also part of June's insectivorous air force.
Adult chalk-fronted corporals have developed pruinescence, a dusty white coating caused by wax particles. They get the “corporal” part of their name from the two white lines on the thorax in front of the front wing, much like a corporal’s two stripes on the shoulder. They also have some white behind the wings on the beginning of the abdomen.
Twelve-spotted skimmers are another common and easily identifiable dragonfly. As their name suggests, they have twelve dark spots, three on each of their four wings. Males have an additional 10 spots, two white spots on each wing in between the dark ones (plus an extra two white spots where the rear wings meet the body). Long story short: see a big dragonfly with a bunch of dramatic spots on the wings? Chances are, it’s a twelve-spotted skimmer.
Smaller dragonflies include the Hudsonian whiteface and the dot-tailed whiteface. These are just 1-1.25 inches long, compared to the larger sizes of the pondhawks (2-2.5 inches) and emeralds (2.75-3 inches).
Meadowhawk dragonflies and darners fill out this speedy ensemble. Darners are the largest dragonflies you’re likely to find, with blue or green bodies and blue or purple tails. (The epically named dragon hunter dragonfly is larger, but much rarer in the Grand Rapids area.)
Finally, John points out that June is a great time to admire the fireflies! Enjoy their calm, blinking lights around 10 p.m.
A fine-looking fella in the mirror isn’t always a good thing
John’s heard from his friend Lisa in Biwabik that a particularly pugnacious warbler has returned. This warbler’s nemesis lives in their window: throughout last season it battled with its own reflection and has returned to continue the fight this year.
Lisa has tried everything to dissuade the ferocious little fella, but he is bound and determined to defeat himself. He’s not alone in the fight, though: Robins, Yellow-rumped Warblers and even the occasional Sandhill Crane will also get a bit feisty with their reflections. (Humans are guilty of this as well, though perhaps less literally.)
Plant progression
Fruiting
- Forbs: Cottongrass.
- Shrubs: Hazels.
Done flowering
- Trees: Oaks, horse chestnuts, black locusts.
- Shrubs: Black chokeberries, chokecherries, pin cherries, June berries.
- Forbs: Starflowers, Jack-in-the-pulpit.
Peak flowering
- Shrubs: Raspberries, blackberries.
- Forbs: Poison ivy, bunchberry, columbine, maiden pink, white campion, daisies, tall buttercup, lupine.
Begun flowering
- Shrubs: Downy arrowwood, bush honeysuckle.
- Forbs: Goatsbeard, orange hawkweed, hoary alyssum, blue flag iris, hounds tongue, false Salomon’s seal, Philidelphia fleabane.
Not yet flowering
- Trees: Basswoods (average bloom date July 4).
Blackberries are visible from the roads: look for large patches of 3- to 5-foot canes with big white flowers. Patches of blackberries vary widely in fruit quality: if you find a good one, make note of it! (Just don’t tell John, since he’s threatened to come by and eat all of them.)
John found a hounds tongue flower in his woods this week. These plants prefer sandy prairie soils, and sport large, broad leaves covered in hairs. The flowers are small, blue cups with five petals. Well worth the search to find them!
The Philadelphia fleabane is a small flower, about three-quarters of an inch across. Despite its diminutive size, it has almost 50 rays (petals) coming out of the center. John found it blooming seven days earlier than average this year.
That does it for this week! For more phenology, subscribe to our Season Watch Newsletter or visit the Season Watch Facebook page.
Funding for this project was provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR).
