Spring Returns to the Skies

A huge snowstorm blew into MN this week – it certainly still feels like winter, with so much snow on the ground.  But since I spent all that time outside shoveling, I counted 3 flocks of   canada geese flying overhead in just half an hour. I’d nearly forgotten about the geese, but when I heard their familiar honking I realized how few birds there have been around here; especially waterfowl.  Well, they’re back, along with budding maples and daylight lasting until past 6 o’ clock.

SNOW!!!???

Well, I guess we’ve officially begun our 6 months of winter – it snowed yesterday. At least it’s not looking like last winter, with no snow at all. But it’s not even halloween yet… (I predict of lot of hockey player costumes.) The snow’s melted by now, though. *keeping fingers crossed for nice long indian summer* Ahh, Minnesota. 😉

Summer Birds

During winter, wildlife generally stays about the same, but now that summer’s here, I’ve seen all kinds of new animals. Mostly birds. In the last couple of weeks there’s been this red-headed woodpecker hanging around. He was attracted by some suet we put up, and started to visit our yard regularly, but at the same time the grackles found the suet and pretty much devoured it. Once it was gone, he stopped coming. We got some more, but I bet the same thing will happen.

I saw one of the eagles from the nest a couple of days ago. It was flying to its nest with a giant fish locked in its talons. Pretty cool.

I also spied an oriole hanging about by the river. They’re hard to miss, what with their bright feathers, but I haven’t seen them here before. I’ll have to get my oriole feeder up.

In other news, I’m going to be gone for a few weeks, so no more posts for a while. But I’ll have things to tell when I get back! 

Flowers!

It’s been warm here for a couple months already, which has gotten the plants all confused. They’ve been sticking more to their usual schedule. So in the past several weeks, they’ve blossomed with beautiful flowers, although some of them have already shed their flowers for thick leaves. The lilacs smell wonderful, although in early spring there was a kind of magnolia that made the air smell like cinnamon. The apple trees are magnificent – they are covered in delicate flowers, and each tree has its own shade, from pinkish-white to magenta.

There are plenty of flowers on the ground, too. Dandelions (of course), bluets, violets and white violets. The tulips aren’t wild, but they are everywhere anyway, and they  come in every color imaginable.

apple blossom (left) and white violet

Winter is Here!

Well, in just about two days it has turned from sunny and warm to freezing with snow. Woke up this morning and snow was falling thickly, and it hasn’t stopped yet. It’s pretty thick, too. Guess it’s time to put away the rakes and get the snow shovels out!

Leaf Art

Oaks don’t turn any brighter in the fall. Just a dull brown.

The trees have dropped most of their leaves now, & it’s interesting to see all the shapes and colors nature comes up with.

The leaves end up in the most interesting shapes. I found these two stuck together.

 

Elms turn an orange/yellow color. They’re one of the most common trees.

Wild Rodents

As fall comes, the rodents start getting crazier, hurrying to get ready for autumn. Squirrels bustle back and forth between yards, or running across the streets. They get hit by cars a lot, but the crows like it (ugh). Other animals  are more active too. Raccoons and mice are stocking up on nuts, fruit, and seeds. Soon several of them will be settling down to hibernate, but for now some new wildlife is exciting.

Fall Flowers

It’s easy to think of autumn plants as dying, brown, or gone. But when all the showy bright flowers of summer stop blooming, a whole new variety of beautiful plants comes to life. These are often smaller flowers, usually in pale or duller colors, like the autumn joy Sedum, which is a dusty pink. I recently noticed a new autumn-blooming plant that has become very common – the large-leaved aster. These tiny lavender flowers look like a miniature daisy, with a yellow center that turns red-brown as it matures. Some of them are planted in gardens, but most are just growing wherever they haven’t been weeded out. There are over 20 types of asters in MN.

Tiny Wonders

Hey!  I know I haven’t posted for a while, I recently came back from a trip to Massachusetts & Rhode Island. The weather’s a whole lot warmer there. (It’s in the 50’s here – brrrr.) I saw a bunch of new animals, mostly birds (salt water means a lot of species I don’t normally see), such as mute swans, sanderlings, & common terns. But surprisingly, some of the most interesting species were also the smallest. Getting closer to winter, caterpillars are becoming active. In the holes in tree trunks and other little cozy & protected spots, it’s easy to find wooly bears. These fuzzy orange & black caterpillars live a long time, wintering underneath bark & in hollow logs. When spring comes they spin cocoons & transform into the yellow & black Isabella tiger moth. It used to be thought that you could predict the harshness of the coming winter by the thickness of the wooly bear’s orange stripe: the thicker the stripe, the milder the winter. There’s a lot of skepticism over this, but there’s also some good evidence. There are also monarch caterpillars – not-fuzzy yellow & black caterpillars you almost always find on a milkweed plant. Since it’s September, these caterpillars are eating up for their long flight to Mexico when they become butterflies. There are several generations of monarchs born each year – the fall generation lives the longest: 6-8 months! It’s pretty cool the things you discover when you pay attention to the smallest things in life.

Spring is Finally Here!

The weather has finally warmed up! temperatures are above freezing, & everything is melting. (However, as soon as I start to believe that, we’ll probably get 6 feet of snow.) The birds & the animals are loving the weather. I saw a few goldfinches recently, feasting on some thistle seeds. Starlings have started to show up too. There are puddles on the sidewalks several inches deep. Water is everywhere, & even the snow on the river is washing away!

Winter/Spring Wildlife

As winter turns into spring (or begins to, anyway – we still have a good month to go) the wildlife begins to change. The cardinals are becoming more common. Their bright colors & distinct song (wheet, wheet, wheet – click on the link to hear it: http://www.birdjam.com/birdsong.php?id=3) make them easy to spot. I’ve also seen quite a few white-tailed deer. But as the weather gets warmer, some of the variety of birds & other animals begins to get smaller. Many animals go back to forests or parks where they can find easier food without having to risk coming near people.  

Autumn Poem

AUTUMN
by Christopher Brennan

Autumn: the year breathes dully towards its death,
beside its dying sacrificial fire;
the dim world’s middle-age of vain desire
is strangely troubled, waiting for the breath
that speaks the winter’s welcome malison
to fix it in the unremembering sleep:
the silent woods brood o’er an anxious deep,
and in the faded sorrow of the sun,
I see my dreams’ dead colours, one by one,
forth-conjur’d from their smouldering palaces,
fade slowly with the sigh of the passing year.
They wander not nor wring their hands nor weep,
discrown’d belated dreams! but in the drear
and lingering world we sit among the trees
and bow our heads as they, with frozen mouth,
looking, in ashen reverie, towards the clear
sad splendour of the winter of the far south.

This was such a pretty poem I wanted to post it here, especially since it correlates so perfectly with fall in MN.

Leaves

I’ve always thought it was interesting how trees are all so different in the way they during the fall. The Elm trees are already half bare,while the ash trees are still mostly green. Even trees if the same type can drop their leaves at different times, depending on how much sun they get, whether they have a building acting as a wind block, & other things.

Autumn

The leaves on the trees are changing their color & dropping to the ground. The maples changed first, into a bright red & yellow color, but everything else is beginning to shift color too. Everything except the oak trees. Instead of changing into a bright shade of yellow, orange or red, they just turn brown & crispy & fall off.