Evening Primrose

Evening primrose is a family of flowers native to North and South America. They come in annual, perennial and biennial forms. Many are yellow in color and only open their bloom for less then a minute in the evening. This is how they got their name but it is not true for all of the evening primrose family. Evening primrose is most easily identifiable by its stigma which has four branches which appear like a cross in the center of the flower. This evening primrose was photographed in Texas.

Canada Geese

It's that time of the year when babies are popping up all over the place. One of the earlier nesters here in the north are the Canada geese. Many of them are already off of the nest and are leading around 4 to 10 little yellow fuzz balls.

At one point the Canada goose was on the verge of extinction. The giant subspecies was actually thought to be extinct in the 1950's until a flock was discovered in Rochester Minnesota in 1962. Today the Canada goose has made an amazing recovery. In some places they are even considered a nuisance but when you see the little down covered chicks race to keep up with mom and dad it is hard to think of them as anything but cute.

The Lighthouse by Mathew Welch

 Into the night like a cold staring eye

It lights the way for the crew

Up on the cliff it sits so high

Creating safe passage and view

All through the night

Into the harbour the ship lays at rest

Unscratched and afloat

The work of the house was at its best

To give guidance to the tiny boat

In the dark, it was the light

Painted Turtle

God Save the Queen

 At first glance this butterfly may look like a monarch butterfly to a casual observer. This is actually a photo of a queen butterfly. The queen butterfly is found in the south United States, Mexico, Central and South America. It is in the same brush-foot family as the monarch, which is common through out most of North America. The queen caterpillar feeds on milkweed just like the monarch so that it to is toxic to most predators that might try and eat it. This photo was taken in the gardens of the Edinburg Scenic Wetland in south Texas.

Northern Cardinal

This time of the year is fun and exciting, if you happen to live in a northern climate. After several months of winter, with very few birds to photograph, you get an explosion of life. Each morning you wake up to birds singing outside the window. Most of those birds are males. In most species it is the male that does the singing. However both the male and female northern cardinal sing. Even when on the nest the female will sing. Her song is often longer and more complex then her male counterpart.

Tuesday Tweets

The pied-billed grebe is a small grebe that can be found through out most of North America, Central America and parts of South America. Here where I live in Minnesota pied-billed grebes are here breeding during the warmer months. They are most often seen in the water and hardly ever seen in flight. When they migrate they usually fly at night. When potential danger is near they will sink under the surface of the water, sort of like a submarine, and swim to safety.

Welcome to Tuesday Tweets. To join in the fun, just post a photo of a bird on your blog then come here and enter your information in the inlinkz tool down below. Don't forget to put a link back to here on your blog and the pretty little banner photo. Then visit all of the sites that participate to see a lot of cool bird pics.

European Skipper

In North America this butterfly is known as the European skipper in Europe however it is called the Essex skipper. It is an invasive species to North America, introduced in Ontario Canada in 1910, it has quickly spread through out much of the north East and Great Lakes regions of North America.

Texas Lantana

 While we were in Texas I spent most of y time photographing wildlife, but I did stop to take some pics of interesting flowers that we found. Texas Lantana is a flowering shrub that is sometimes called the calico bush. It is a member of the verbena family and native to parts of Texas.

Killdeer

Its spring time, soon we will have baby birds all over the place. Already many of the early nesters have already hatched their broods while other species, like warblers, have just made it back to the area. I have been asked to help out this year on the Minnesota Breeding Bird Atlas. I have not volunteered in the past because of time constraints but I decided to help out this year when I found out that they were not getting much data back from the area that I live in.

The killdeer, like the one in the photos above, probably have not yet laid their eggs. These pictures were taken at the Sherburne NWR in July. This bird nested in the loose sand and gravel on the side of the wildlife drive. Not a very safe place to nest. Staff at the refuge did flag off that part of the road to make life a bit easier for mom. In the top photo you can see the empty egg sitting in front of the killdeer. In the second photo I managed to get a chick.

Oceanside Sunset by Betty Kulawik

 The ocean is aglow as the sun

starts to set,

Sending an artistic pattern as

God's creations met.

What a glorious experience to

behold such a sight,

Knowing full well it will bring

on the night.

Savoring the moment ere the sun

sets behind the sea,

Inhaling all the beauty which

God gave us for free.

So calming, so serene, is this

moment in time,

The ultimate of beauty, the apex

of sublime.

As darkness descends and the sun

is no more,

The waves rolling in, lapping at

the shore,

An evening of splendor was mine

for the taking,

As will be the sunrise upon

awaking. 

Halloween Pennant

Pelicans

There are two different species of pelicans that can be found in North America. The brown pelican is primarily found in coastal habitats along the East, West and Gulf Coast. The American white pelican breeds on fresh water lakes in the north central plains of the continent. Here in Minnesota white pelican breed on some of the lakes in the northern and western parts of the state. Here in the south eastern part of the state, where I live, we often see them while they are migrating to their wintering grounds in Mexico, Central America and along the southern coast of the United States.

White pelicans are large birds, one of the largest found in North America. Their diet consists mainly of fish which they catch by dipping their beak into the water as they swim across the surface. The bottom portion of the beak expands allowing them to capture a large volume of water. They then sift out the water and swallow the remaining fish and aquatic invertebrates. Often groups of white pelicans will hunt cooperatively swimming in circles to round the fish up. 

Tuesday Tweets

The black-necked stilt is a shorebird that is found in shallow wetlands of the western United States, Mexico, Central America and parts of South America. They inhabit both fresh water and salt water habitats. They use their long legs to wade through the water looking for fish, shrimp, and aquatic insects. Proportionately their legs are longer then those of any other bird except for flamingos.

Welcome to Tuesday Tweets. To join in the fun, just post a photo of a bird on your blog then come here and enter your information in the inlinkz tool down below. Don't forget to put a link back to here on your blog and the pretty little banner photo. Then visit all of the sites that participate to see a lot of cool bird pics.

Broad-winged Bus Katydid

 Katydids are part of the Order Orthoptera which also includes crickets and grasshoppers. Like grasshoppers katydids have strong hind legs which they use to propel them selves. Like crickets, katydids are nocturnal singers. During mating they call to each other by rubbing the base of their forewings together. A ridge on one wing rubs across a file on the other creating different clicks, chirps and buzzes. The potential mate hears these calls with their ears which are located on their front legs.