Carlos Avery is Ridiculously Dry

Hopefully we get some rain this evening.

Canoeing on Sunshine Pool

Loads of various aquatic plants, including white water lily. Loads of swallows spotted eating the dragon and mayflies (who were in turn feeding on the mosquitoes and gnats.)

Sandhill Crane Track in Carlos Avery

Dry Spell on the Sunrise River's Pretty Well Over

Sandhill Cranes Spotted in Carlos Avery

Sandhill Cranes

The Sunrise River Prairie Smoke growing in native garden.

1.5" of rain early Friday morning, drizzles this morning, but not enough to register in the gauge. Sun appeared later in the day, pitching temps into the upper 80's in the late afternoon with high humidity.

Several roads were closed off in Carlos Avery WMA. Spotted a Heron and Egret in Pond 6. Not much left in bloom in Carlos Avery, but the Oaks are finally starting to turn.

Some video of a Sandhill Crane pair we took in Carlos Avery. Amazing set of lungs on them; their call is almost prehistoric, and reminds me strongly of the Great Blue Heron or Great Egret.

Monarch Project, Day 13



Monarch #3 spun its cocoon around 5:30 AM Saturday morning. I have a much better time lapse (at 1 frame per 6 seconds) of it I can post in a few days. He is on the right above. Unlike the others (also shown above) his gold dots have not appeared yet. Can't see much difference between #2 (on the left) and #1 (on the right), other than a slight bulge on what I can only assume is the back of #2.




Some progressive shots of Monarch Caterpillar #4. Not sure what is with his darker coloration, but it seems to have faded this morning..



A word to the wise: Monarch caterpillars poo. They poo a LOT.

Went for a drive in Carlos Avery yesterday. Saw a number of wild flowers in bloom (including the Turk's Cap Lily shown above), and a pair of Sandhills Cranes that gave us some great video; will have it posted within the week.

On an amusing note, we started out in the Forest Lake portion of Carlos Avery and somehow wound up in East Bethel.

Native Flowers in Bloom in Carlos Avery WMA:

• Bergamot
• Brown-eyed Susan
• Compass Plant
• Goldenrod
• Turk's Cap Lily

Native Flowers Blooming in Garden:

• Bergamot
• Brown-eyed Susan
• Butterfly Weed
• Common Milkweed
• Daisy Fleabane
• Dragonhead
• Harebell
• Purple Coneflower
• Spiderwort
• Swamp Milkweed

Wildlife Spotted in Carlos Avery WMA:

• Sandhill Cranes

Wildlife Spotted in Garden:

• American Toad
• Baltimore Oriole
• Black-capped Chickadee
• Blue Jay
• Brown-headed Cowbird
• Cedar Waxwing
• Cottontail Rabbit
• Eastern Bluebird
• Eastern Chipmunk
• Goldfinch
• Grackle
• Green Frog
• Grey Catbird
• Grey Squirrel
• Grey Tree Frog
• Monarch Butterfly
• Monarch Caterpillar
• Mourning Dove
• Northern Cardinal
• Nuthatch
• Pileated Woodpecker
• Red Admiral
• Red-headed Woodpecker
• Red-winged Blackbird
• Robin
• Ruby-throated Hummingbird

I just read a passage in Weird Minnesota (Mark Moran et all) about a plague of locusts averted when a strong frost wiped out the eggs. It got me wondering if the rising temperatures over the weekend were the spark in the boxelder bug powder keg that's left many Twin Cities houses and business fronts coated in a teeming skin of the small black and red-striped beetles. Fortunately, unlike locusts, these native insects are unlikely to wipe out our crops or cause blood poisoning in livestock. The only real damage involved is the nuisance of cleaning up the thousands of brittle insects carcasses.


Finally polished off the patio blocks. Had to add a bit of color to the first set I poured out over three weeks ago, as the rain was already fading the red and turning the surface fo the brown stones to salt-and-pepper. Also added a coat of sealer to cure and weatherproof. Hope to get the sand packed in by Wednesday.

The other weekend big project, replacing the West pond basin, is at least half finished in that the pond has been drained, the plants, frogs and fish fry relocated to the East Basin, and holes punched in the bottom. Over the week I'm planning to take out some righteous IT-related rage ("you did WHAT to your work computer?") on the unsuspecting rigid liner with an axe and sledge hammer. But not tonight. Tonight's' my anniversary, which I PROBABLY would have remembered on my own, even if my beautiful Irish wife hadn't taken it upon herself to casually remind me for the last month and a half.

Her: Isn't it amazing we'll have been married for two years?
Me: It sure is.
Her: Two years as of five weeks and three days.
Me: Wow, I didn't know you had it down that far.
Her: Has it felt like two years?
Me: It sure has.
Her:
Me: Uh, I mean, NO, it hasn't.
Her:
Me: I mean --

At any rate, here's some fall color from our jaunt out to the Forest Lake/Wyoming side of the Carlos Avery WMA.

Click the thumbnails to see larger versions.

Last weekend offered gray skies, a cold mist, and a near-hopeless rush to get the fence and pond finished before the snow flies, but that didn't rule out a trip to Carlos Avery WMA, one of the first parks we've been able to visit since early summer.

As we set out, we saw that Autumn color was already creeping along mid-Minnesota's backroads. There were yellow explosions of goldenrod, the rich burgundy of sumack, and fiery orange and yellow creeping into the green mantle of the maple trees like stray grey hairs. Some cherry trees were already bare. We saw the first purples as we drove in Carlos Avery; stands of vetch, an invasive weed often used as livestock fodder, ground cover, or for its nitrogen-fixing roots, thriving along the roadside or sending vine-like tendrils up along the forest edge.

If there's something that sets Carlos Avery apart from the other parks in the area, it's the lack of the human element. Picnickers with noisy children, cyclists with Ipods and sunglasses filtering out the world, cutesy couples asking you to take their photo, you won't fine any of these metro park mainstays in Carlos Avery. Washboard roads aren't just the only way in or out; they're also the only human facility in the WMA. The hiss of wind scratching through the white pines, or animals of the deep woods and marsh seem enough to compel you to talk in whispers.

We didn't hike far out into the park this time, just enough to watch a pair of swans pass overhead, and hear the distant, high, laughing call of some unidentified bird.