This week, we have the last report of the school year from Long Lake Conservation Center. Soon, we’ll be hearing from summer campers! We also hear from Charlie Mitchell, KAXE’s phenology coordinator, and the Season Watch Facebook group.
Please share your observations, nature tales and insights! Send them to me (cmitchell@kaxe.org), John Latimer (jlatimer@kaxe.org), or text us at 218-326-1234.
Long Lake Conservation Center near Palisade
This report is brought to you by Elsie, Sebastian and the students from Madison Elementary in Blaine.
“We had a hot and muggy visit to Long Lake Conservation Center this week! The high temperature was 84 degrees. Here is our phenology report.
“There were so many mosquitos that joined us on all of our adventures. We noticed that the more people there were in our group, the more mosquitoes there were too. Dragonflies were seen hunting in groups and solo. We saw wasps flying and forest tent caterpillars crawling.
“A deer was sitting in the grass near campus, we got pretty close, it didn’t move, we left it alone.
“In canoeing class we noticed loons, lily pads, blue flag iris, fish and a few painted turtles sunning themselves on the beaver lodge. Beavers and muskrats were also seen in the lake. The pink lady’s slipper flowers are in full bloom in the bog.
“We had a great end of the year nature field trip, and we want to remind everyone to unplug, get outside and LIVE CONNECTED!”
Charlie Mitchell near Marine on St. Croix
“This week, my wife and I have been enjoying the extremely high water on the St. Croix River. The river, which usually has sizeable islands and large, shallow backwaters, was flooded from bank to bank this weekend. We were able weave our canoe through the silver maples and ash that dominate the island forests, and we found a robin’s nest with one egg sitting just a few feet above the water in a small shrub.
“The highlight of our week was seeing five otters swimming and diving in one of our favorite backwaters! We often see tracks and signs of otters, but in 33 years, I had never actually laid eyes on one here on the St. Croix. They swam past us at a distance of about 10-15 feet, then spotted us and were gone.
“The other fun sighting was a gigantic polyphemus moth that was fluttering against our screens one evening. After quickly checking on safe moth handling techniques, we carefully captured it in a large glass container and left it in the fridge overnight. With its body chilled, it moved much more slowly and we were able to get some great photos, before bringing it back outside to warm up and fly away.
“The chickadees have disappeared from our bird feeder, so we suspect they are quite busy harvesting caterpillars and little inchworms. We’ve been finding a lot of those small green inchworms dangling on strands of silk from the treetops – John, do you know what those are? I assume they’re some sort of moth or butterfly, but I’m at a loss.
“This has been Charlie MItchell, going hither and thither on the St. Croix River.
P.S. I forgot to include this in my report, but I saw my first twelve-spotted skimmer dragonfly this week! I’m still working on learning dragonflies, but the twelve-spotted skimmer is one that’s really stuck in my memory. It was fun to recognize it this year without having to look it up.
Season Watch Facebook Feature
On the Season Watch Facebook page this week, we’ve seen lots of posts about moths and butterflies. Butterfly expert Allison Barta captured a great photo of the harvester butterfly. The harvester butterfly is famous for being the only carnivorous butterfly in North America. Its diet is composed of various aphids.
Other great insect observations included a tiny monarch caterpillar in south Grand Rapids, a hummingbird moth west of Bemidji, a tiny white-striped black moth near Cass Lake, and a dazzling eight-spotted forester moth near Bemidji.
Sean Dunham posted a spectacular photo of pink trilliums blooming against a backdrop of yellow lady slippers.
Don Kontola photographed two tiny loon chicks swimming on North Twin Lake on June 10. Sue Keeler spotted five young woodchucks emerging from their den in SE Itasca County.
Monica Hansmeyer had a question about jack-in-the-pulpits. Within the same cluster, she found some plants whose spadix was pink, while the others were not. Is this caused by some difference between male and female flowers, or just natural variation within the species?
What have you seen out there? Let us know: email us at comments@kaxe.org or text us at 218-326-1234.
That does it for this week! For more phenology, <b>subscribe</b> 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).
