Minnesota Valley NWR Darners

Here is a collection of some dragon shots that I took back in September.
All of these dragons where photographed in one afternoon at the Minnesota Valley NWR.
They are all members of the blue darner family.
These first ones appear to be green-striped darners.
Green striped darners have a shallow notch on the front thoraxic stripe.

These last two pics appear to be a shadow darner, the thoraxic stripes look like two 7s.
I apologise for the lack of info in today's post. Unfortunately I spent a good portion of the day rebuilding my photo PC because of a bad hard drive.

Tropical Waterlily Director George T Moore

As you may have realized, if you have been following along, the Como Zoo has a small but wonderful water garden during the summer. They grow a large variety of different water lilies. I photographed all of the lilies that I have been posting in one sunny afternoon but decided that it would be nice to save them and post them during the winter when everything here is white or gray. Their color and light always remind me of summer and it makes me smile. Hopefully they have the same affect on you.

Acorn Woodpecker

One of the birds that I was the most excited about photographing when we visited California, back in 2007, was the acorn woodpecker. Acorn woodpeckers can be found in parts of California, New Mexico, Arizona, Mexico and Central America. They got their name because of their tendency to collect and store large numbers of acorns. The acorns are stored in holes that the woodpeckers bore, usually in a single specific tree which is called a granary tree. This bird was in the process of caching food at a granary tree when I photographed it. Acorn woodpeckers do eat other things besides acorns including bugs and fruit.

Fall Rainbow

As I was on my way way home one day this fall I noticed that a partial rainbow had formed. Since I had my camera with, as I most often do, I stopped to take a shot to share with you.

Wordless Wednesday Burrowing Owl

American Wigeon

The American wigeon is a bird that we usually only see in Minnesota during spring and fall migration. I typically see them in parts of Fort Snelling State Park, Black Dog Lake or near the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge, which is where I photographed this pair, in the fall.

Minnehaha Falls

Not far from downtown Minneapolis, the Minnehaha Creek winds from Lake Minnetonka, east across south Minneapolis until it reaches Minnehaha Falls where it plunges 53 feet down a gorge on its way to the Mississippi River. The falls is another iconic Minnesota Landmark. The falls is also famous world wide because of its reference in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem, "The Song of Hiawatha." Longfellow referred to the Falls of Minnehaha as the "Laughing Water" however the name Minnehaha came from the Dakota name Mnigaga which translated is Mni meaning 'water' and gaga meaning 'curling' or 'waterfall'. The falls was originally name Browns Falls in the early 1800s.

In the winter the falls becomes a magical palace of ice.

Butterflies

Life for butterflies is hard here in Minnesota. The butterflies that live here need to find a way to survive the harsh winter climate. They accomplish this in a variety of different ways.
For example the eastern tailed-blue, pictured above, will over winter in its larval form. It will usually find a seed pod to crawl into for cover. When winter is over the caterpillar already has a food source at hand.

The cabbage white butterfly, on the other hand, survives winter in its pupae state. Because it has already begun to change over the winter we usually see these types of butterflies emerging from their chrysalis as early as the beginning of May. Other types of butterflies will over winter as eggs or as adult butterflies.

Hardy Waterlily: Texas Dawn

This is a fitting photo since we just returned from south Texas. We took a lot of great photos which I will begin to share with you as soon as I get them organized and Internet ready. This photo was taken at the Como Zoo water garden in the summer of 2009.

White-tailed Kite

We do not typically see very many members of the kite family here in Minnesota except for the northern harrier or an occasional migrant. That is why I was very excited to have the opportunity to photograph white-tailed kites at the Elk Horn Slough in California Monterey area back in 2007.

The white-tailed kite is typically found in open areas such as fields, marshes or savannas. Their range includes the west and gulf coast areas in the US as well as Mexico, Central America and parts of eastern South America. The prey that they eat and the way that they hunt is similar to the smaller American kestrel. Their prey includes rodents, small birds, reptiles and amphibians which it catches by ambushing them from flight.

Sky Watch Friday: Yellowstone

This is the last sky pic from last years Yellowstone trip. It was a great trip that provided us with a lot of fantastic pics. I am not sure if we will be traveling back to Yellowstone this year or not because we are taking a trip to south Texas. If we do it would have to be in the fall which is a great time to photograph moose.

Wordless Wednesday: Butterfly

Pied-billed Grebe

The pied-billed grebe is a common site on lakes and ponds during the summer. They breed on ponds and other wetlands with a lot of emergent vegetation. Pied-billed grebes will breed in this area but during the winter they migrate to the southern half of North America, Central America, or South America where they mingle with the populations that stay in these areas year round.

Split Rock Lighthouse 100 Years Old

The Split Rock Lighthouse, perhaps one of the most iconic landmarks in Minnesota, is celebrating its 100th birthday this year. Located on a cliff 130 feet above the north shore of Lake Superior this lighthouse protected ships from crashing on the rocky shore until 1969 when it was decommissioned.

In the early 1900s ships carrying iron ore from the iron ranges of Minnesota would sail down the Great Lakes to the east coast of the United States. Storms and the rocky coast line of Lake Superior often made it a perilous journey. After a single storm in 1905 damaged 29 ships representatives from the shipping and iron industries lobbied congress for funds to build a lighthouse on the shore of what some people referred to "the most dangerous piece of water in the world."

In 1907 Congress appropriated $75,000 to purchase the land and build the lighthouse and its compound. Construction on the lighthouse began in 1909. Most of the supplies and labor came from the port city of Duluth, MN. Supplies and building materials were delivered by boat and then had to be hoisted 110 feet up the cliff by a steam powered hoist and derrick. It took about 13 months to complete and began operations on July 31st, 1910. The lighthouse has been restored back to its 1920s appearance and is now managed by the Minnesota Historical Society.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

One of the larger butterflies that we see here in my little corner of the world is the eastern tiger swallowtail. It is so named because of its yellow color and the four black tiger stripes on each wing. I found this swallowtail at the Carpenter Nature Center in September.

In this area the range of the eastern swallowtail crosses that of the Canadian swallowtail this can sometimes make identification difficult. The Canadian swallowtail is smaller and has a continuous yellow band on the trailing edge of the forewing as compared to the eastern where the band is interrupted by black. Occasionally giant swallowtail come north making identification even trickier.

This is a male eastern tiger swallowtail. The female of the species has orange and blue spots mixed into the black border of the wings, particularly near the tail. Females can also come in a dark form that appears similar to a black swallowtail. This dark form is not very common, especially this far north, and I have yet to see a dark form female.