Black Squirrel
With the plethora of rabbits and squirrels surviving our most recent non-winter season, you may have missed observing the two black squirrels residing around the Wacouta Town Hall. They have been very active the past few months.
Unfortunately, we usually observe them crossing back and forth over Wacouta Road and Grace Trail. It is believed these squirrels have a much higher tolerance to cold winter weather. The black coloration is thought to be a result of a variant pigment gene.
Cedar Waxwings
As the seasons change from summer to fall, food sources for birds change as well. The ripe fruit from area mountain ash trees contain high levels of vitamin C and A. It is not uncommon for a flock of robins or cedar waxwings to discover and consume all the berries from a single tree in just one day.
Dragonfly Migration
In the late afternoon of September 20th, Kathy and I had the good fortune to observe a major green darner dragonfly migration. There were literally hundreds of dragonflies circling above the ground hunting for and feeding on insects hatching and rising from the Wacouta Prairie. It is not uncommon for them to migrate up to 20 miles in one day.
The widow skimmer dragonfly pictured here does not migrate, but was observed along the trail most of the summer. In the early summer, they emerge as adults from the nearby Wacouta Pond and backwaters.
Gulls Pelicans
On an early morning solo canoe tour in mid-September, I observed a variety of birds resting on a sandbar at the Head of Lake Pepin. Because of the current low water levels, this sandbar made for an attractive resting area. Birds in this gathering included Herring, Franklin and Ring-billed gulls as well as white pelicans and a lone Canada goose.
Gulls Feeding
In the late afternoon of September 11th, This Franklin gull along with the other gulls mentioned previously put on quite a spectacle out over the Wacouta Prairie.
There must have been at least 75 birds circling, swooping and diving in a feeding frenzy catching hatching insects rising from the prairie. This went on for close to an hour. Despite fish and crustaceans being their main food source, gulls will eat insects given the opportunity.
Blue Herons
September and October provide a wonderful opportunity to observe migrating Great Blue Herons along the shoreline of Wacouta Bay and adjacent backwaters. Many days, I will observe dozens of these fish eating birds by mid-October.
Arrowhead
Recent summer droughts and low water levels have exposed backwater shorelines allowing a native aquatic plant to re-establish itself in Wacouta bay. The flower of arrowhead "Duck Potato" blooms in late summer and has become a dominant vegetation now.
This plant was once an important source of food for Native Americans. "Wapito" is the name given to the edible tuber and is also a desirable food for swans and muskrats. In the 1970's and 80's, Environmental Learning Center participants harvested these tubers to serve at our annual wild edible foods banquets.
Round-headed bush clover
The newly established Wacouta prairie contains an amazing number of colorful forbs that appear spontaneously in the most unusual locations. One such plant showing up late this summer was round-headed bush clover. It stands above the rest of the prairie and is easy to locate.
Monarchs
Throughout the summer of 2024, it was most unusual to observe monarch butterflies in the Wacouta Prairie. With decreasing day length and lower night time temperatures, more monarchs began arriving around September 20th.
Their fall migration also coincides with aging milkweed plants and declining nectar sources. With a tip from neighbors Steve and Sue Betcher on September 23rd, I was able to observe a fairly large gathering of monarchs along the trail adjacent to Lakeview Ave. Twelve to fifteen monarchs were feeding on a large patch of New England asters. With our persistent warm weather, I was still observing a few monarchs as of September 28th
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