We have two student reports and two listener reports to close out the wonderful month of June! (Bonus: John Latimer tells us which animal he’d choose to become in his next life.)
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.
Long Lake Conservation Center near Palisade
Finn and Sawyer report from summer camp at Long Lake Conservation Center:
“Hello, we are Finn and Sawyer reporting from summer camp at Long Lake Conservation Center, June 18 through 23.
“Here are some of the things we noticed during our adventures. Seen in bloom in the waters and the boggy sphagnum edges of Long Lake were: common bladderwort, yellow pond-lily, small white water-lily, dragon’s mouth orchid, grass pink orchid, purple marshlocks, sundew and blue flag.
“The bird report includes; loons, the hooting of a Barred Owl, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, Pileated Woodpeckers, American Robins, male and female goldfinches and a bluebird.
“Lots of ticks were noticed along with tiny spittlebugs protected by their slimy spittle bubbles, mosquitos, horse flies, deer flies, paper wasps, very busy ants, small orange butterflies and so many monarch caterpillars (one or more caterpillars on almost every milkweed plant we looked at)!
“A pheasant and deer were hanging out together on the edge of the forest. There were several raccoon sightings around campus. Many painted turtles were seen sunning on logs and laying eggs.
“And two spotted fawns were spotted, with two does close by. It was a great week and we want to remind everyone to unplug, get outside, and LIVE CONNECTED!”
John is thrilled the campers could find dragon’s mouth orchids and grass pink orchids: he never found species like that when he was a kid. (Neither did I — having a Long Lake naturalist along would have been helpful in my childhood wanderings!) Likely, John and I were too busy chasing frogs and toads to properly appreciate the orchids, but we’re making up for lost time.
The campers’ mention of common bladderwort reminded John of last week’s Phenology Report. He left the station last week curious about the etymology of the word “wort,” and discovered that it is an Old English word for “plant.” Thus, bladderwort suggests “plant with bladders,” spiderwort suggests a plant that looks like a spider, and so on.
Newstok family near Grand Rapids
Axel and Pearl Newstok report from their cabin near Grand Rapids:
“Hi, this is Axel and Pearl Newstok. Last night, as we were coming in from the sauna, we encountered a huge spider spinning its web.
“While we were swimming, we saw an Osprey dive down into the water to catch a fish.
“I saw a wolf spider with an egg sack. We saw four otters on our lake today and white waterlilies are blooming on our lake.
“Last week we enjoyed a visit to Long Lake Conservation Center, where Beth and Dave gave us a tour. We saw sundew and drank bog water.
“Bye bye!”
John is always happy to hear from Axel and Pearl and was particularly enthusiastic about their sighting of an Osprey fishing. John has seen this exciting phenomenon a number of times but hadn’t fully appreciated the complexity of the behavior until he saw it on film.
“Your eye doesn’t gather all of the ... unbelievable actions that the Osprey goes through as they go in. Their wings are sort of tucked and streaming behind their body, and their feet are out and nearly touching their chins as they plunge into the water,” John exclaimed.
“In some cases, some of the videos I saw, these guys are going 3 or 4 feet down to grab fish, and try to recover and then get out of the water and fly off with that bit of nourishment.”
To make the Osprey’s life a bit harder, it then must dodge thieving Bald Eagles as it carries its meal home to its nest.
John was thrilled to hear about the Newstok’s sighting of four otters.
“I don’t know if I believe in reincarnation or not, but if it were to happen and I were to come back as an otter, I’d be perfectly content with that,” he said. “They look like they have way too much fun. I think the otters are among the happiest little animals on the planet.”
Dave near Remer
I hope you’re ready for a powerful simile, because John had a whopper for us.
"Dave down in Remer sent a picture of a spider eating a June bug. That’s a bit like you or me tucking in to eat a cow. Plenty of food there for something as small as a spider!”
(For those interested, the spider was an unknown species of orb weaver.)
Art and Karen in Warba
John also received a note about a pair of goldfinches trying to invade Art and Karen’s house in Warba. While John attests that Art and Karen are great hosts, he suspects the goldfinches have some other motive for trying to enter. What that motive might have been remains a mystery!
As always, we hope to hear from you, dear reader. Let us know what you find out there.
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).
