Twelve-spotted Skimmer

One of the larger and easy to recognize dragonfly is the twelve-spotted skimmer. These dragons are common through out the lower 48 states and up into southern Canada. They are usually found around ponds, lakes or other slow moving bodies of water. They are named for the 12 brown spots on the wings, 3 on each of the 4 wings. This picture was taken in August at Crex Meadows. At first glance I believed that this was a female, because males usually have a powdery white substance called pruinose which covers most of their abdomen. Since this one is missing the pruinose it definitely can not be a mature male. However their are white spots in between the brown on the wings, which is rare to see in females, so it is most likely an immature male.

Bird's-foot Trefoil

Here are some pictures of bird's-foot trefoil that I took out at Purgatory Creek back in the summer.

Birds-foot trefoil is an invasive member of the pea family which was brought to North America from Europe.

What a Difference a Week Can Make

A week ago I was in the vets office with Michelle, tears in my eyes as I said goodbye to our baby girl. Today, one week later, I returned to the vet for a much happier occasion.

Putting Misty to sleep was an extremely anguishing decision, especially considering that she was only two years old. We felt pretty helpless watching her health decline and in the end we did what we thought was best for all of us.

Afterwards we talked it over and decided that it would be a good thing to get a new cat right away. We thought that getting a new cat would help us get over some of our grief but more importantly we were worried about our little boy, Magic, who had lost his companion.

So last weekend we headed out to one of the adoption events held by Last Hope, a local no kill shelter, and found this adorable little girl to take home with us.

This is peanut. She is a beautiful brown Tabbie. Not only is she extremely cute but she is very affectionate. She will often curl up and sleep on Michelle or I. She is not all angel though a part of her is a wild cat and loves to run around and play. After a few tense hours at first, Peanut and Magic have now become close and are often sleeping or playing together or grooming one and other.

Today was her first visit to our vet and so far she seems to be healthy and happy. I pray that things will stay that way and that we will be able to share our lives together for many years to come.

Yellowstone Sky

Here is another example of blue sky from Yellowstone that I took back in May. We were lucky to have really good weather most of the time that we traveled this year.

Wordless Wednesday: Butterfly

Watery Wednesday: Turtles

I do not see many turtles out any more at this time of the year but with sunny skies and temps up in the 60s I would not to surprised to see turtles out basking in the sun. Most turtles hibernate during the winter. They swim down to the bottom of a pond and burrow in the mud, where they can spend several months. The cold temps help them to go into a type of suspended state that slows down their metabolism. At this time they do not need to eat and are able to absorb oxygen from the water through the skin on their necks and the base of their tale. As long as the pond does not completely freeze and they are not found by predators they can survive this way through out the winter.

Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge

On my way to bird out on Park Point in Duluth I get the pleasure of riding across Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge. This bridge is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and it is the center of the Duluth Harbor and tourist area.

Duluth sits on the tip of Lake Superior near the mouth of the St Louis River. Through out its history it has been a major port in the Great Lakes. Back in the late 1800s a channel was dug into the long sand bar that is Minnesota Point to allow small boat traffic closer to the city.

However people began to settle on Minnesota Point and they needed a way for people to cross the channel. So back in 1905 they built the Aerial Ferry Bridge. This was one of only two bridges of this type that was built in the US. People, animals, wagons and later cars would load into a gondola which would ferry them across the channel suspended from a high span.

By the 1920s traffic to Minnesota Point had increased so much that the aerial ferry could not adequately handle the load so in 1929 they began a major bridge remodel. The gondola was removed and a steel mesh lifting platform was added. The top span had to be raised in order to lift the span high enough for larger ships to pass beneath and the support column on the sides were modified for the addition of the counter weights used to lift the span. The bridge is still used today and it is the only way to access Minnesota Point, except by water. Currently they are doing some work on the bridge with money provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. So at least they are doing some good with our tax money.

Meadowhawks

This weeks Macro pics were taken near the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge in the Minnesota Valley NWR in September. Both of these dragonfly are meadowhawks, smaller dragonflies that are usually seen more often in late summer and fall.

I am not sure which type of meadowhawk is featured in the first pic, perhaps a ruby or cherry-faced meadowhawk. There are several types of meadowhawks that can only be distinguished when they are in hand under a magnifying glass. The second pic appears to be a white-faced meadowhawk which can be identified by the bright white face.

Tropical Waterlily Nymphaea Colorado

Taken at the Como Zoo water garden earlier this summer.

Snow Buntings

I took part of a day of off work Thursday and headed up to the North Shore to do some birding. Things are kind of quiet in the southern part of Minnesota, where I live, since many of the birds have left the area and gone south. So I was hoping that by going north I could find some of the northern species that sometimes spend the winter in the northern portion of the state.

My target species where northern hawk owls, black-backed and three-toed woodpeckers, crossbills, grossbeaks, bohemian waxwings or even just some simple snow bunting like the ones pictured above. Unfortunately it was pretty slow up north also so the best bird that I found was a red-breasted nuthatch, which are fairly common up north but a bird we don't see as often in the south part of the state. I photographed these snow buntings up in Duluth last October.

Tribute to Misty

Today was a rough day. Today we had to let go of our two year old little girl named Misty.

Misty developed an unknown illness over the past few months. She had lost half of he weight and was down to about three and a half pounds. She spent most of her time sleeping and was beginning to have a hard time walking and using the litter box.

Several trips to the vet and numerous test revealed nothing. Today we were scheduled to bring her in for an exploratory surgery. Unfortunately they determined that she was anemic and would require a blood transfusion before they could move forward. Things did not look good. We were facing over a couple of thousand dollars worth of vets bills and they still had no idea what was wrong. Worse yet there were doubts that she was strong enough to make it through any surgery. So we made the hard decision and ended her pain. We only had her a couple of years but she was a very special little girl and I will miss her. Tomorrow we will head out to the shelter to see if we can find a new family member to share our life with. Nothing will replace Misty in our hearts but giving an unfortunate cat a new home and family will help to ease the pain a little and help our little boy feel less lonely.

Sky Watch Friday: Yellowstone

This is a photo of Electric Peak reflected in Swan Lake in Yellowstone National Park.

Butterfly

White Water Lily

Water lilies and other aquatic plants are very important to the health of lakes, ponds, and wetlands. Under the water flexible stalks reach down to a thick stem, this provides excellent habitat for many different types of invertebrates and aquatic insects which in turn become food for many different types of reptiles, amphibians, and waterfowl. The leaves are great hiding places for frogs, turtles, crayfish and other wildlife and also make a nice perch for hunting dragonflies. Even after they die the plants decompose and become food for many of the aquatic invertebrates. I took this photograph at Wild River State Park.

The Raptor Center Clinic

As an education volunteer over at The Raptor Center I spend most of my time interacting with the public or helping to take care of our education birds but the week before last I was helping at the annual Care and Management of Captive Raptors Workshop and I got to spend some time down stairs in the clinic.

I have been down in the clinic on several occasions in the past, to drop off an injured bird or watch them work on some of our ed birds, but I try not to go down there to often because I do not want to get in the way. However on this occasion my task was to get some pictures during the workshop which meant some time in the clinic with my camera.

The Care and Management of Captive Raptors Workshop is intended to educate and give some basic hands on experience to people who are working with captive raptors. Participants came from all over the United States and had various degrees of experience. During the workshop participants spent part of their time upstairs working with the education staff on subjects such as operant conditioning, food preparation and raptor handling. The remainder of their time was spent down in the clinic learning basic techniques such as cropping beaks, trimming talons, hydrating a bird and more under the supervision of the veterinary staff.

I found the work in the clinic very interesting, since I do not see this side of The Raptor Center every day, and I took quite a few pictures, including one of this barred owl. It is obvious that this owl is suffering from some problems with self esteem. Most likely none of the other reindeer will let him play in any of the reindeer games. He was found in the far north accompanied by an elf that wanted to be a dentist. His injuries are most likely the result of an attack from an abominable snowman.