Maplewood Dragonfly Workshop

When I began this blog my subjects were mainly birds with a few mammals that I photographed mainly while we were on vacation. After a while I found myself getting kind of bored in the middle of summer because I was mostly seeing the same types of birds each time I went out.

That was when I began to photograph other things that I found interesting. At first it was butterflies, which seems to go natural with birds, but then I started getting interested in dragonflies like the big green darners featured in the photographs above.

I remember catching dragonflies by the tail in the long grass when I was a kid but I did not really know a lot about them. So I started reading about dragonflies on the web and came across the website for the Minnesota Odonata Survey Project. I found a lot of good info on Minnesota dragonflies on their site and also found that they sponsored some workshops. So I took my first dragonfly workshop in August of 2008 at the Maplewood Nature Center. By this time I already knew that I had really been catching damselflies, like the one above by the abdomen when I was a kid.

Damselflies are typically smaller then dragonflies, however some of the larger damsels are bigger then the small dragons. All four of the damselflies wings are the same size and shape where a dragons hind wing typically differ in size and shape from the forewing. When perched damselflies will hold their wings together up over their abdomen while dragons rest their wings out to the side. The exception to this are the spreadwing damsels that rest, as their names suggest, with their wings spread. The photo above is a slender spreadwing damselfly.

Damselflies also have separated eyes, like this spotted spreadwing. Most dragonflies have eyes that touch each other at some point. Again there is an exception to this rule because clubtail and snaketail dragonflies also have separated eyes. All of these photos were taken at the dragonfly workshop in August 2008.

Prairie Rose Purgatory Creek

I took these pictures of Rosa arkansana or prairie rose at Purgatory Creek this summer.

Eastern Phoebe

The eastern phoebe is a common flycatcher that can be found in most of the eastern half of North America at one time of the year or another. During the summer their range extends north into the upper region of Canada. During the winter they head south to the Gulf Coast, Mexico and even parts of Central America. The reason for their annual migration is due to the availability of food, as with most birds. Like most flycatcher the eastern phoebe's diet consists primarily of flying insects. During the summer there are a lot of insects in the north where the days are longer. Come winter they must leave areas that can no longer support insect life due to the cold.

Eastern phoebes are not very social birds. They usually stay clear of other phoebes. Even during the mating season they only spend a short time together as a mated pair. They do not seem to be as antisocial with humans though. Their ability to adapt to man, such as nesting on building or under bridges has helped them to thrive while other less tolerant species have declined.

SKY IS THE LIMIT by dr. ram sharma

SKY IS THE LIMIT

All birds,

Fly

In the sky

Sky

Is

Not

The

Limit

For them

They

Fly

Near

Heaven.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Wood Duck

One of the more colorful ducks that you can find in North America is the wood duck. These ducks can be found year round in most of the eastern half of the US as well as the west coast. They inhabit rivers, lakes, ponds and other wetlands where they dabble on the surface of the water in search of seeds, fruit and insects. They are also one of the most popular game birds in North America.

Wood ducks got there name because they are one of the few ducks that nest in trees. As a cavity nester they make their nest in a hole in a tree, often those made by piliated woodpeckers, and line the cavity with down from the female. The trees are usually located next to water but if good nesting sites are scarce can be located over a mile away. Wood ducks will also use nesting boxes to build their nest. After the young wood ducks hatch, their mother calls them and they have to jump down from the nest, with out mom's help, to follow her out to the water.

National Eagle Center

On Saturday I took a trip down the Mississippi River to the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, MN to attend a workshop on golden eagle identification. This is a prelude to the golden eagle survey that is held in south east Minnesota and Western Wisconsin each January.

The survey is sponsored by the National Eagle Center. The purpose of the workshop is to help those people interested in participating in the survey distinguish between golden eagles and immature bald eagles, both of which can be found in the same approximate area. I have participated in the survey the past two years. I have also taken the workshop in the past so I knew most of the info but a refresher never hurts and Scott Mehus, who runs the survey and the workshop, always ends the program by taking people out to a location where he knows golden eagles can be found

The Eagle C enter is a great facility located on the banks of the Mississippi River at the northern end of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge. Since the Upper Mississippi River NWFR hosts the largest number of wintering bald eagles in the continental US, the National Eagle Center is an a perfect location. With a number of decks, like this one outside on the river, lots of windows, marked with decals to prevent birds from flying into them, and plenty of scopes and binoculars to use it is tough not to see an bald eagle here. If you happen to visit at a slow time when there are no eagles around outside you can always check out one of the four resident bald eagles at the center. The bald eagles include Angel, pictured above, Harriot, Columbia, and the newest arrival Was'aka an three year old immature bird from Florida. On my way down to the eagle center I spotted about 35 eagles on the river, much of which is now frozen unlike in these pictures which I took at the end of October.

Over the past few years the center has been branching out to look into the golden eagle population that spends winter in southeast Minnesota and western Wisconsin. After watching the golden eagles in the winter for several years Scott, who works at the center, put together a survey in 2005 to try and get an idea of the number of golden eagles wintering in the area. In 2005 25 people participated in the survey and they counted 21 golden eagles. Over the past five years the number of participants in the survey has increased, 2009 was the largest group with 100 people, which has helped to find an increasing number of eagles each year, 88 in 2009.

In 2008 the National Eagle Center went a step further and procured a golden eagle education bird from the California Raptor Center. This allowed visitors to the center to see a golden eagle up close. In 2009 a golden eagle inadvertently caught in a coyote trap in western Wisconsin became the first bird in a joint research project between the center and Audubon Society of Minnesota, with support from the Minnesota and Wisconsin DNR and a couple other groups. Golden eagle 42, nick named Whitey, was fitted with a satellite tracking pack when he was released, he was rehabilitated at The Raptor Center. The project hopes to discover where these golden eagles spend their summer as well as general research on behavior and migration. Whitey traveled from Wisconsin up into Canada and spent his summer up at the arctic circle north of Churchill. Currently Whitey has returned to western Wisconsin to spend the winter. The project hopes to tag a couple more eagles this winter if possible so that they can learn more about these magnificent winter visitors.

For more information about the Golden Eagle Project check out this website at Audubon Minnesota.

Robber Fly

When I began photographing wildlife I started by mostly photographing raptors and mammals. As time went by I branched out and began to photograph all sorts of birds, not just raptors. After I started the blog and my interest branched out again and I began to photograph butterflies and dragonflies, but I did not stop there. I now stop to photograph any interesting insect that I find while I am out shooting, like this robber fly that I photographed at Wild River State Park back in August of 2008.

Robber flies are part of the Asilidae family which contains over 7000 species world wide. Robber flies all have two large compound eyes, bristles protruding from their face, and a stout beak like mouth. They use this beak, proboscis, to inject their prey with neurotoxin and proteolytic enzymes which paralyze the prey and break down its insides so that the robber fly can drink the protein though it's proboscis. Typical prey includes flies, grasshoppers, beetles, moths, dragonflies, damselflies, butterflies, bees and other insects.

Tropical Waterlily Pink Passion

Photographed at the Como Zoo water garden during the summer.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

One of the first warblers that we see here in Minnesota each spring and last ones that we see in the fall is the yellow-rumped warbler. This is because they have a more northern winter range then most of the other warblers, stretching as far north as northern Indiana and Illinois.

One reason that they can survive in harsher northern climates may be the fact that they are more of a generalist, when it comes to eating, then many other types of warblers. They eat plenty of insect, and will often catch them in the air, but they will also eat seeds and berries when there are no insects available, including wax myrtle and bayberry which they can digest and other warblers can not.

In The Sky... by Katherine Sessor

In the sky I see

Clouds, black and grey

In the sky I want to be

A bird and fly away

In the sky I see

Stars so bright

In the sky I want to be

The Moon and shine my light

In the sky I see

The sun's blinding rays

in the sky I want to be

A cloud to comfort my days

Cedar Waxwing

Pied-billed Grebe

The pied-billed grebe is a common water fowl seen on many ponds and lakes through out North America, as well as part of South America. At first glance many people would classify them as a small duck however since it is a grebe it does not have webbed feet like a duck does. Instead it has three individual toes, each of which is lobed at the end which helps the grebe to swim.
Pied-billed grebes spend most of their lives in the water. They hunt by diving under the water in search of crustaceans, frogs, aquatic insects and small fish, as seen in the pictures above. When predators are in the area the pied-billed grebe will most often sink under the water to escape rather then flying away. Nesting also occurs on the water. They form an open bowl shaped nest made of floating vegetation which is usually anchored by cattails. When the young are born they soon leave the nest, riding on their parents back for several weeks until they are able to swim on their own.

Bell Museum of Natural History

This weekend I attended the annual Minnesota Ornithologists' Union Paper Sessions. The Paper Sessions is a day long event where MOU members, as well as other people who are interested in birds, get together and talk about birds. There are seminars and vendor booths just like there are at most other events of this kind.

Each year the Paper Sessions is held at the Bell Museum of Natural History, which is located on the East Bank Campus of the University of Minnesota. The James Ford Bell Museum of Natural History was established in 1872 to collect, preserve, display and interpret Minnesota's diverse flora and fauna for research and teaching purposes as well as for public enjoyment and enrichment.

This was the third time that I have attended the paper sessions and my third trip to the Bell Museum. During lunch I spent much of my time looking around the museum and snapping a few pictures to share with you.

The Bell has almost four million specimens of mammals, birds, fish, plants, mollusks and insects. Most of the collection is stored and used for scientific research however the museum is home to several floors of dioramas depicting the natural life of Minnesota. Above are just a couple of examples. If you are ever in the Twin Cities and have a few minutes to spare I would definitely recommend a trip to the Bell.

Carolina Locust

The Carolina locust is a large grasshopper that can be found through out most of North America . It is called a black-winged grasshopper in Canada which is a more appropriate name since the Carolina locust is actually a grasshopper and not a locust. It is often found in sandy areas or on dirt roads where its color helps it to blend in. I photographed this Carolina locust at Crex Meadows in August.