Purple loosestrife is one of the worst invasive species in around here. Currently on the noxious weed list in Minnesota purple loosestrife was introduced to North America by the nursery industry from Europe and Asia. It spreads quickly and is very aggressive and has crowded out many native plants in wetlands all over the state.
We just got back from our trip to Colorado and New Mexico last weekend but I have already begun to look into our next trip. In 2010 we went to south Texas at the beginning of March and it looks as though we may be returning their again next year. This time we are going to go about a month later so that perhaps we can catch some of the spring migration as it goes through Texas.
One of the birds that we enjoy photographing in Texas is the golden-fronted woodpecker. These colorful woodpeckers are native to Texas, Oklahoma, Mexico, and Central America. There are four different subspecies that can be differentiated by the color of the patch on the forehead as well as their location. These woodpeckers are omnivores eating fruit, nuts, seeds and insects. These photos were taken in Bentsen State Park in Texas.
The Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado is home to the tallest dunefield in North America. The dunes rise to about 750 feet tall and cover approximately 30 square miles. In geological terms the dunefield is not very old, it is estimated that the dunes started forming less then 450,000 years ago. The dunes were formed by strong winds blowing across the San Luis Valley that picked up sand that was deposited by the Rio Grande River. When the winds reached the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range they would loss power and drop the sand. Over time the sand built up into dunes and eventually created the dunefield. This process still continues to happen today and thus the dunefield is still growing.
One of the birds that we had the opportunity to photograph down at the Bosque del Apache NWR in New Mexico was the northern pintail duck. The northern pintail is one of my favorite species of ducks but we do not get the chance to see them too often in the eastern parts of Minnesota.
They are a circumpolar species breeding in parts of northern Europe, Asia and North America. In the U.S. They typically breed as far east as the western half of Minnesota. Pintails often nest in prairie pothole habitats, prairies near to small often temporary wetlands. Unfortunately the prairie pothole habitats in North America have been shrinking, due to increased farming in the area, which has led to a sharp decline in the number of pintails found in North America. Habitat loss has also forced the pintails, as well as many other waterfowl, to gather with a higher concentration of birds with in a smaller area. This increases the potential of a large numbers of birds dying from an epidemic. This was the case in 1997 when two outbreaks of avian botulism, one in Canada and the other in Utah, killed over 1.5 million waterfowl. Fortunately the world population of pintails is stable and so it is considered at Least Concern status.
Approaching the end of the year Michelle and I both had some vacation time that we had accrued that we had to use otherwise we would lose it. Since we had never taken a vacation at the beginning of November we were not quite sure where to go. We decided to fly down to Colorado. Michelle has some family down there that we planned to stop and visit and then we were going to go to the Great Sand Dunes National Park in CO. and Arches National Park in Utah. Unfortunately a early fall snow storm decided to hit the mountains on one of the days that we were supposed to be traveling to Utah so we changed our plans and skipped Arches and headed down to the Bosque del Apache in Utah instead. I have been to the Bosque on two other occasions but this was the first time that I had been there in November and there was plenty there to see and photograph including several new species to add to my photographic life list.
One of the new species was the Gambel's quail. We spotted one on the first day we arrived at the Bosque but unfortunately it flushed before I could get any decent pictures. It wasn't until the morning of the day that we were driving back to Denver to fly home that I had another opportunity and this time I got a few shots. A small flock of the birds were at the feeders by the visitors center when I stopped to pick up some souvenirs for family and friends back home. Most of the flock were down in the brush making it difficult to photograph them but one was in a tree looking like he was standing guard for the rest. The light was not great because I was shooting east into the rising sun but I did take a few shots like the first photo above. I then attempted to move around them so that I would be in a better position in respect to the light. Unfortunately they were quite wary and they flushed but I was able to get one shot with better light before the watch quail took off into the brush, photo two. These birds are common in the southwest United States, especially Arizona and New Mexico, but these were my first photos of these species so I was kind of excited.
The red saddlebags dragonfly is uncommon here in Minnesota. Typically we only see the black saddlebags but from time to time red saddlebags do show up, typically in the southern part of the state. They are a member of the skimmer family that is found through out the eastern portions of North America as well as parts of southern California. Saddlebags get their name from the large patches on the inner wing that some what resemble saddlebags. They are very easy to identify. I photographed this saddlebag at Bentsen State Park in South Texas.
The eastern tiger swallowtail is one of the most impressive butterflies in the eastern United States. It was first recorded in 1587 when it was drawn by John White during Sir Walter Raleigh's third expedition to the new world. It was originally thought to have a range that included much of Canada but in 1991 the Canadian tiger swallowtail was separated into its own species.
Here in the northern part of its range the eastern tiger typically has two broods per year. Eggs are laid on a larval host plant, which includes wild cherry, Magnolia, tulip tree, birch, ash and willow trees. The caterpillars rest on silken mats on the top of the leaves. The eastern tiger over winters in its' pupae form, chrysalis.
Silphium perfoliatum, or cup plant, is a native member of the Aster family. It usually grows close to water and can get from 3 to 8 feet tall and produce 10 to 30 flowers per plant.
Samantha is a large female great horned owl in the education department at The Raptor Center. We are not sure how old that she is because when she was admitted in February of 1992 she was already an adult. She was hit by a car out near Deer River, MN and fractured the ulna and radius in her left wing. This permanently impaired her ability to fly so she could not be released back into the wild. Samantha graces the month of January in the 2012 Raptor Center Calendar. I took most of the pics in the calendar and put it together to help raise funds to care for the injured raptors at The Raptor Center. The calendar is available to order at The Raptor Center's online store.
The black-necked stilt is a common sight at wetland in the western United States. Their long reddish legs help them walk through mud flats and shallow water in search of aquatic invertebrates and small fish. In coastal areas, such as along the West Coast and Gulf of Mexico they are found in salt water estuaries, ponds and shallow lagoons. Inland they are typically found around lake shores, ponds, flooded fields and sewage treatment ponds. They can also be found in Mexico Central America and parts of South America. I photographed this stilt in south Texas.
The peregrine falcon is the fastest animal on the planet. Their aerodynamic shape allows them to reach speeds of over 200mph when in a dive, called a stoop. The peregrine uses the stoop to catch their prey, other birds, in mid flight.
Peregrine falcons were extirpated from most of the eastern half of the United States by the mid twentieth century. The reason for their decline was mostly due to the chemical insecticide DDT. DDT was originally used to kill mosquitoes and stop the spread of malaria in the 1950's. Later in the 1960's it was used as an insecticide on crops. The DDT worked its way up the food chain, peregrines eating passerines or other birds that had eaten an insect, seed or fruit that was covered with the poison would then have the poison in their system. The DDT would not kill the bird but it did effect the egg that the birds produced. The shells of the eggs of birds poisoned by the DDT were so thin that when the 2 to 3 pound birds went to sit on the eggs to incubate them most would break. This severely effected the number of new peregrines that were being hatched and the over all population of the birds plummeted.
In 1972 DDT was banned in the United States. Later groups like the Peregrine Fund, out on the eastern coast of the United States, and the Midwest Peregrine Foundation began programs to release peregrine falcons back into areas where they had once existed. Here in Minnesota many of the birds were released from hack boxes on skyscrapers. Nesting platforms, like the one pictured above, were placed on building, bridges, smoke stacks and other tall man made objects. This has helped the peregrine falcons in the area expand their range beyond the few natural cliff areas in Minnesota and increase their population beyond what it was prior to DDT. The pergrine was taken off the endangered species list in 1999. The birds pictured here were hatched from the nest box at the Ford Damn on the Mississippi River in 2010.
The red-bellied woodpecker is a common woodpecker in the eastern half of the United States. Here in Minnesota you find them mostly in the south eastern part of the state. I most often see them in the summer foraging in the trees for insects. They use their long tongue with its barbed end and their sticky saliva to catch insects and spiders. During the winter I often see them at bird feeders. They are usually feeding on the suet at the feeders but they will also eat seeds and fruit especially during the winter.
