Yellowstone - Bison

 Bison are the largest land mammal in North America. Males can weigh over 1,800 pounds and females over 1000. At one time there were over 30 million bison roaming the western plains of North America. Then in the 1800's European settlers began to slaughter the bison herds in order to make room for farms, cattle and horse grazing and the railroads. By the early 1900's the bison herds which once numbered over 30 million were down to several hundred.

 Yellowstone National Park is the only place in the lower 48 states of the US where a population of wild bison have continued to exist. In 1902 the bison population in the park dropped to a low of 50 animals. At that point the park imported 21 bison from private herds and began to captively raise them at the Buffalo Ranch in the Lamar Valley.  By the 1920 the captive raised bison began to mix with the wild herd. In the 1930's bison were transplanted into the Hayden Valley and around the Firehole River. By 1954 the Yellowstone Bison population was close to 1500 animals.

Today around 3,500 bison roam Yellowstone. Typically you find them in open valleys, such as Hayden Valley and Lamar Valley but you can find them almost any where, including crossing bridges as in the pic above. During the winter they usually stay near the thermal areas of the park where the snow is not as deep. They use their large heads, swaying them from side to side, to clear the snow and get at the grasses below. Winter is hardest on pregnant females who carry the calf over the winter. Breeding takes place in July and August and the calves are born in April and May. We usually visit the park late in May so their are plenty of calves frolicking in the fields or snoozing curled up next to mom.

Silver Garden Argiope

Argiope spiders are a genus of spiders in the orbweaver, or Araneidae family. As with most orbweavers, argiopes construct large webs which they use to capture their prey. The web is constructed beginning with a basic Y shape. Then a series of non-sticky threads are added to produce a foundation for the web. Lastly the spider will add a spiral of sticky capture web. Sitting in the middle of the web, or sometimes hidden, the spider will scurry across the non-sticky webs and inject the marooned prey with venom. With more dangerous prey they may wrap it before biting it for safety reasons.

The silver garden argiope is found in tropical and sub-tropical climates in North and South America. Since most adults can not live through a frost you find them in the southern US, Mexico, Central America, and northern South America. Most of the silver garden argiopes spotted, including this one, are females. Females get much larger then males. They spin their webs in gardens and fields typically between plants or grasses. Their webs often have an X shaped stabilimentum in the center. There are several theories for this pattern such as a means to help camouflage the spider, a warning to larger creatures that the web is there so they do not accidently destroy it, or a lure for prey. These pictures were taken down in south Texas. Here in Minnesota you can find the banded and garden argiope but it is too cold here for the silver argiope to survive.

Fox Sparrow

 The fox sparrow is a North American Sparrow. They are usually seen kicking up leaves and other ground cover searching for insects. They breed in the western United States and in Northern Canada and winter in the southern United States, primarily the south east. We usually only see them here in Minnesota in the Spring or Fall while they are migrating. During migration fox sparrows will sometimes get off course and have been seen in Europe, although some may have hitched a ride on ships that took them across the ocean.

Western Scrub-jay

The western scrub-jay is a non-migratory bird that lives in the western United States and Mexico. There are three subspecies of western scrub-jays, California, Woodhouse's, and Sumichrast's. The California subspecies lives allow the west coast. They usually have a thicker beak which is good for breaking up acorns. The Woodhouse's subspecies is found in the western interior of the US and northern Mexico while the Sumichrast's subspecies is found in the mountains of southern Mexico. These two subspecies have thinner beaks which help to get to the pine nuts inside of pine cones. The bird pictured above was photographed in Colorado which would make it a Woodhouse's western scrub-jay. All of the western scrub-jay's are very smart. They are a member of the Corvidae family which has some of the smartest birds on the planet. They plan for the future by caching food and can remember the locations of many different cache locations. They also are good at finding and stealing from the caches of other birds.

Sunset at Merrit Island NWR

Tonight's Sky

Tonight will be a good night to go out and take a look at the night sky. You probably will not see the moon, at least not if you are in North America, because it should set soon after the sun does. The dark sky will be perfect for viewing the annual Geminid meteor shower. At around this time each year the earth passes through the remnants of the asteroid Phaethon. These pieces of space rock light up and burn as they hit the earth's atmosphere becoming shooting stars hurtling through the night sky. The show may be even more spectacular this year as space dust left in the area by the comet Wirtanen may add additional shooting stars to tonight's performance. So get outside and take a look this opportunity only comes around once a year.

Karner Blue Butterfly

 Its always a treat when you get to photograph something that is rare. Most of the time this is something that is out of place, like the Inca dove that was in Two Harbors, MN a couple of years ago. If you go to Texas though Inca doves are pretty common. The most rare nature subjects to photograph are plants or creatures that are on the Endangered Species List. You do not make the ES list unless you are rare pretty much every where in the US. There are 9 species of butterflies on the North American Endangered Species List. One of the 9 is the Karner Blue. The Karner blue is a subspecies of the Melissa blue that is found around the Great Lakes. Unlike the rest of the Melissa blues the Karner blue larva, caterpillar  only eats the lupine plant. This plant has been decreasing in the wild because of human encroachment and fire suppression. As there is less lupine there is less food for the developing Karner blue larva and so their population has declined. I am fortunate that one of the largest remaining populations of Karner blue lives at the Necedah NWR in Wisconsin. So a couple of times a year I make the 3 hour drive each way so that I can photograph a butterfly that many people may never get to see in their life time.

Clay-colored Sparrow

Varied Thrush

The varied thrush is a robin sized bird that breeds in western Alaska, Canada, and the northwestern United States. On their breeding territory they typically forage for insects on the forest floor. During the winter birds that nest in Alaska and Canada migrate south down along the Pacific Coast primarily to California. During the fall and winter they forage in loose flocks eating berries, fruit, acorns and nuts. Once in a while one of these birds gets mixed up during migration and ends up here in Minnesota. This bird spent a winter in Roseville, MN where it mixed in with a small flock of robins. It was very popular with the birders here in Minnesota. 

Welcome to Tuesday Tweets! To join in the fun just post a photo of a bird and then link it by here by using the handy dandy link below. Then make sure you visit other sites to do a little bird watching.

Caesar

 Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's. Well yesterday Caesar rendered unto us. Winter storm Caesar, they name winter storms like hurricanes now, hit the Twin Cities and rendered us with 12 to 18 inches of snow in less then 24 hours.

Most cities in the US would shut down for days if they got dumped on like that but this is Minnesota. Some schools delayed their start for a couple of hours this morning but otherwise life goes on as usual. Except that it takes at least twice as long to get any where. I went out for a walk around Lake Como for lunch and brought my camera so that I could get pictures of Caesar's wake.

Dobsonfly

 One of the largest insects that we see here in Minnesota is the eastern dobsonfly. The male dobsonfly measures around five and a half inches from the tips of their pincers to the ends of their wings. It is easy to tell the difference between male and female dobsonflies by the length of their mandibles. Males, like the one above have long mandibles, up to an inch long, where the females have short mandibles. The males use their long mandibles as a display in mating. Finding a mate quickly is important to a dobsonfly as they only live about seven days as an adult. Eggs are laid in groups of 1000 near the water on a rock or over hanging vegetation.

After a week or two the larva emerge from the eggs and crawl of fall into the water. They move to an area of fast moving water with a rocky bottom. Hiding under the rocks they feed on the larva of other aquatic insects. Hellgrammites, as they are called live 2 to 3 years under the water and can grow to 2 to 3 inches long. As they grow the hellgramites shed their skin with about 10 to 12 instars before they are ready to pupate. When the time comes they crawl out of the river and find a spot under a rock, log or some leaves and make a cocoon. Here in Minnesota they will stay in the cocoon over the winter and the following spring will emerge and dig their way to the surface where they will have one week to find a mate and reproduce. This hellgrammite did not appear to make it.

Baltimore Oriole

The Baltimore oriole is a new world oriole that nests in the eastern half of the United States and southern Canada. They winter in Florida, southern Mexico, Central America and northern South America. Although they look similar, new world orioles are genetically different then old world orioles and are in the family Icteridae, which also includes blackbirds, bobolinks, grackles, cowbirds and meadowlarks. They primarily eat insects during the summer, fruit, ripe fruit in the spring and fall, and insects, fruit and nectar on their wintering grounds. The Baltimore oriole is not named after the city in Maryland, however both the city and oriole got their name from the English Baltimore family who's crest was black and orange.

Have you ever heard crickets in the springtime? You may think so but what you were probably hearing was really American toads. American toads are common in the eastern United States and Canada. In the spring males look for a mate. They call out to receptive females by expanding the pouch on the underside of their throat called a dewlap. The mating call sounds similar to the sound of crickets. The easy way to distinguish between the two is that frogs and toads croak in the spring while crickets sing in the fall. So the next time that you think you are hearing crickets in the spring look around the water and you might see a toad like the one above.

Winter Wonderland

Things here have not gotten to this point yet, but the snow is supposed to begin tonight and continue on through out most of the weekend. This picture was taken in Yellowstone near the Mammoth Hot Springs.

Sunset Palms

Palm trees have been important to man since the early ages of civilization. Archaeologist have found evidence that the Mesopotamian culture cultivated the date palm over 5000 years ago. Ancient religious texts such as the Bible and the Quran also mention palms on numerous occasions. There are over 2600 different species of palms. All of them belong to the family Arecaceae in the order Arecales. They are found in tropical, subtropical and temperate habitats. Today the palm is used primarily in landscaping but palms are still used to produce dates and coconuts and harvested for palm oil and other uses.