Carlos Avery is Ridiculously Dry

Hopefully we get some rain this evening.

Wife saw a young black bear along 61 between Stacy and Wyoming.

Over 90 degrees in the shade today. Thistle feeder draining faster than my 401k.

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.)

Hazy summer weekend.   Sandhill Cranes and ravens both very vocal this week.  Also heard loons  and wood ducks and spotted mallards nesting in the flooded roadside ditches.

Ravens

Hearing more and more ravens north of the cities.  Saw one perched by the concrete plant by Stacy, MN.

Wild Rose, Carlos Avery

A shot of one of the several humminbird moths hanging out, sipping nectar, and pairing off in the native garden out back. They seem particularly drawn to the islands of swamp milkweed blooming in the sea of bergamot, boneset, and joe pye weed.

The mosquitos in Linwood Forest moved like cumulus. Must be all the standing water.

Canada Anemone
False Indigo

False Solomon's Seal, a woodland plant known for its spiky 'crown' of star-shaped white flowers. Bears speckled berries in mid/late summer. 'True' Solomon's Seal is closely related, but has hanging, bell-shaped flowers. Not sure how it got its Biblical-sounding name.

Prairie Smoke, a rather unusual native named for its pink, filamentous bloom

The leaves are already starting to turn due to the recent cold snap that has temps overnight in the 50s. Mostly it's just the sugar maples turning; Sumac are already almost gone.

Monarchs sometimes choose odd places to coccoon.

Humid again -- and rainy. Low 80's. Butterfly weed and Wild Berhamot have both petered out. Milkweed beetle eggs and young seen on Swamp Milkweed. Turtlehead and Showy Goldenrod almost ready to pop. Sandhill Cranes heard in the fields.

Rainy most fo the past few days, then windy Saturday and today. Cooler temps... almost like fall. Goldenrod in the woods exploding into bloom, and the Red Admirals are all over them. Counter seven on them at once point.

Warm, 70s, a bit humid, patches of fog. Counted three Monarch caterpillars in the front garden this morning.

High 80's, very muggy. Almost like a broth outside. Storms yesterday, light rain today.

Lots of Monarch caterpillars on the milkweed outside, and loads of small, plain yellow butterflies seen all over the cities. Glade Mallow finally petered out, while Butterfly Weed is still holding on.

Loons heard on the local lakes, and wife spotted our first hummingbird. Counted eight young tree frogs on the window in the evening.

Both Creeping Charlie and Crabgrass are rampant this year. Have had to use chemicals to try to get rid of them.

Like a rain forest this morning; oppressively muggy with a cumulus cloud of fog over everything north of Hugo. Rain much of Sunday and all but a few hours yesterday. Temps in the 90s yesterday with the dewpoint in the upper 70s towards evening. Expected to be in the 90s today as well.

Muggy, raining. Woodland Goldenrod coming into their own; the golden clusters blazing into bloom and rolling like a fire slowly inwards towards their tall stems.

Saw turkeys out with their young along Stacy Rd, and several Sandhill cranes out in the fields along 61.