Winter Rye and Rattlesnake Bluff
With records for November warm weather being shattered on a daily basis, the growing season continues. The winter rye planting from earlier this fall is continuing to grow and thrive. It is a common sight at dusk to observe numerous deer taking advantage of the lush green foliage as they bulk up for the coming winter season.
Monarch Butterfly feeding on Blue Silvia
On November 1st, I was able to photograph a monarch butterfly in our yard. This monarch was feeding all afternoon on some blue Silvia still in bloom. According to Wacouta resident monarch expert Diane Mueller, this monarch was a very late hatch. Evidently the northward migration this past spring was very delayed because of severe weather events down south. This resulted in the late hatch. Diane feels the chance for a successful migration south for this monarch is very bleak because of a lack of food resources along the way so late into the season.
Cattle Egret
Also on November 1st, I received a phone call from Maren Holst who lives on a farm just south of Lake City. Maren informed me that a very rare bird to Minnesota was being observed in their cow pasture for the past two days.
Cattle Egret
These birds are much smaller than the great egret we more commonly observe in this area and are usually found along the Gulf coast areas in Florida and Louisiana. They typically are observed in small flocks often near livestock and are feeding on insects.
Blackbird
In recent days, it is quite common to observe early in the morning flocks of several thousand blackbirds getting up out of their roosting areas in the bottomlands of Wacouta and flying to nearby feeding sources.
Flock of blackbirds
The most common birds in these huge flocks are common grackles, red-winged blackbirds and brown-headed cowbirds. In the evening there are reverse migrations of these flocks overhead as they travel from feeding areas back to the roosting sites.
White-breasted nuthatch
On November 5th, the Minnesota firearms deer season opened statewide. This is an experience I look forward to every fall and have taken part in almost every year since 1958. Where else can a person be content sitting in one place in the woods for hours on end just observing an amazing diversity of activity? Because of the abnormally warm weather this year, deer movements were greatly diminished. As a result to pass the time away without falling asleep in my deer stand, I took advantage of the opportunity to feed sunflower seeds out of my hand to black-capped chickadees and white-breasted nuthatches. At one point, two chickadees were perched on my gun barrel!
Black-capped Chickadee