Barn Swallow Feeding Chicks

White-tailed Deer Fawn

It's that time of year again when all of the super cute babies are out. Last weekend when I was heading back from St Croix State Park a white-tailed deer fawn came running down the dirt road that I was traveling on. I stopped when I saw it but it kept on going and I was a bit concerned that it might run straight into my car. When it was about 25 feet away it finally realized that I was not mom and skidded to a stop. We sat looking at each other for a few minutes and then I took a few pictures from my open car door. When I finished shooting and shut the door it turned and ran back the direction that it came from at beak neck speed. I have not had the opportunity to process those pictures yet. This shot was taken this time last year at the Necedah Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin..

 For those of you who, like I, live in the northern hemisphere welcome to summer. Yesterday was the northern Summer Solstice. Because of the tilt of the Earth on its axis there are two summer solstices each year. The southern Summer Solstice, which is when the South Pole is closest to the Sun, and the northern Summer Solstice, when the North Pole is closest to the Sun. The Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year and it traditionally marks the beginning of Summer.

Racket-tailed Emerald

 

Whoopers

 The whooping crane is one of the tallest bird species in North America. They are also one of the most endangered bird species in the world. Because of loss of habitat and excessive hunting there were only 23 whooping cranes left on the planet in early 1940's. Sixteen of the birds belonged to a flock that migrated between the Buffalo National Park in Canada, where they breed, and the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas, where they spend the winter. The other six birds belonged to a non-migratory population in Louisiana. By the 1950s the whoopers were gone from Louisiana leaving only the Aransas -Buffalo flock.    

By the 1940's the whooping crane was protected from hunting by the Migratory Bird Conservation Act of 1929. In 1966 the Endangered Species Preservation Act was passed by Congress which was replaced by the Endangered Species Act in 1973. The whooping crane was included in both lists which helped in saving some of the remaining critical habitat that these birds required. Because of these new laws and other conservation efforts the Aransas-Buffalo flock had over 100 birds by 1986 and today they are up to 278, as of 2010-2011. A small flock of non-migratory birds has also returned to Louisiana, about 24 birds, and there is a small flock of about 20 non-migratory birds in Florida. There is also a group out of Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin that is working to build a second migratory flock, just in case some disaster where to kill off the Aransas-Buffalo flock. They use an ultra-light airplane to lead the cranes between Wisconsin and Florida each year. The cranes pictured above are part of the Necedah flock. The top photo was taken in Northfield, MN where a pair stopped to rest and feed. The second photo was taken at Necedah where a pair flew in right above me as I was visiting the park one fall. The Necedah population consisted of 115 birds as of 2010-2011.All the crane population numbers come from the International Crane Foundation.   

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Tuesday Tweets

The great blue heron is a common bird that is found through out most of North America. They are often seen  in ponds, marshes and other wetlands stalking their prey. They eat fish, insects, small mammals, small birds, reptiles and amphibians. They reside in both freshwater and saltwater habitats and can even be seen hunting in fields. They catch their prey with their long beak, often impaling larger prey. Although they look very large the average adult usually weighs 5 to 6 pound which is why they seem to float for a few seconds when they come in for a landing.

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.
 

Cobra Clubtail

My favorite type of dragonfly are the members of the Gomphidae family, or clubtail dragonflies. They are named because many species have a narrow abdomen which widens at the end forming a club shape. The club is usually larger in the males then in the females and some clubtail species do not have much of a club at all. It is still easy to identify species that lack a club as members of the Gomphidae family because members of Gomphidae are the only dragonflies that have noticeably separated eyes. The cobra clubtail, pictured here, has a large club. The only species in this region with a larger club is the skillet clubtail. Like many species of clubtails the cobra is found primarily around rivers. I photographed this cobra clubtail by where the Snake River empties out into the St Croix River. 

Gulf Fritillary on Thistle

 

Flowers are a great way o attract wildlife to your yard. Unfortunately living in a town home I do not have much space for gardening but there are plenty of places where I can go out to find blooming wild flowers, like this wild thistle that has attracted a gulf fritillary.

Blanding's Turtle

 This afternoon while I was out looking for dragonflies after work I came across a Blanding's turtle. Blanding's turtles are a bit larger then the more common painted turtle and easily recognized by their bright yellow chin. They are found primarily in the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada. Minnesota is on the western edge of their range.

Blanding's turtles are usually found near wetlands such as ponds, swamps, marshes. They will often use ephemeral wetlands during the summer. These fishless wetlands are usually full of aquatic invertebrates and insects which are a main food source for the turtles and the waters of these shallow pools are also usually warmer which aid in the egg development for females. During the winter the turtles move to deeper wetlands that will not freeze all the way to the bottom where they bury themselves in the mud. The peak time that they move to their summer wetlands in Minnesota is in June and July. June is also the month when females leave the water to go lay their eggs. I am not sure if this turtle was looking to nest or just moving to nicer digs but since they are a threatened species here in Minnesota I made sure that it did not stay out in the middle of the road where it might have been hit by someone who was not paying attention or worse yet someone who did not care.

Sky Watch Friday

Thirteen Lined Ground Squirrel

Violet-green Swallow

The violet-green sparrow is the most colorful sparrow that I have ever seen. Most of their feathers are a vibrant green color, similar to that of tree sparrows.The green is accented by black and purple wing tips and a mostly purple tail. They are found in the western half of North America breeding as far north as Alaska. They spend the winter in Mexico, Central America and northern South America.  

 The violet-green sparrow breeds in open woodlands.They are a cavity nesters, nesting in tree cavities, rock crevices and old woodpecker holes. They will also nest in more man made items such as under the eaves of buildings, under bridges and sometimes even in nesting boxes. Although they may nest individually they sometimes nest in colonies of up to 50 birds. They also migrate and sometimes feed communally in flocks often mixed with other species of swallow.

Tuesday Tweets

Roseate spoonbills are the only species of spoonbill found in North America. While most of the population is found in South America there are small breeding populations in coastal regions of Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean and around the gulf coast in the United States. They can be found in freshwater or saltwater wet lands, where they move their head from side to side and use their spoon shaped bill to sift through the water and mud looking for small fish, aquatic insects and crustaceans.

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.

Karner Blue Butterfly

Since I had an extra day of for Memorial Day a couple of weeks ago I decided to take a small road trip to the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in central Wisconsin. One of the main reasons that I travel to Necedah is to photograph the Karner Melissa blue butterfly. I thought about staying overnight in the near by town of Tomah, however due to the current political situation in Wisconsin I decided to take the three hour drive home that night.

The Karner blue is a subspecies of the Mellisa blue. Karners are found primarily around the Great Lakes region where the Melissa blue's are found mostly in the western half of North America. The biggest difference between the Karner blue and its relations is that the Karner caterpillar only eats one type of host plant, lupine. The amount of wild lupine, pictured with the butterflies above, has been steadily decreasing due to habitat loss and forest fire suppression. This decrease in their larval host plant has affected the Karner blue population to the point that they have been listed on the National Endangered Species List.

Red Columbine