Red Wing Nature Notes

The recent abundant rains have not only produced a bumper crop of hungry mosquitoes in our yard, but on the positive side an abundance of colorful wildflowers and butterflies along the new trail.  When fighting with mosquitoes becomes too much of a challenge, I opt out for a bike ride on the nearby trail.  Part of the enjoyment derived from that experience is observing the new prairie wildflowers that seem to be showing up on a daily basis. 

The only exception is the white daisy fleabane which has been blooming for several weeks and will continue throughout the summer.

Shortly after the trail was constructed, the shoulders were seeded down with a mixture of various colorful prairie species.  Some of these prairie plants require a couple years before they begin to reveal themselves.  I have included photos of the four most colorful and abundant of these new prairie plants ; Black-eyed Susan, Gray-headed coneflower, Orange coneflower and Upright prairie coneflower.

Other colorful wildflowers not included in the seed mix, but still providing interest along the trail include the wild bergamot a native plant in the mint family which has just started to bloom in the past couple days.  Native Americans used this plant for flavoring meats, making beverages and several medicinal uses.

The wild red raspberry is now ripe and follows on the heals of the black raspberries which were a couple weeks early and very numerous.

The final wildflower photographed was the musk mallow a member of the hibiscus family in which the seeds are used in making perfumes.  In addition, this plant yields fibers which are used locally for clarifying sugar.

On this morning’s bike ride, I observed three different species of butterflies feeding on nectar from the pink blooms of a single Canada thistle.  There butterflies included the well known monarch as well as the painted lady and clouded sulphur butterflies.

I also observed numerous dragonflies which no doubt are having a banner year given the fact that their primary source of food is mosquitoes.  Dragonflies are ancient insects and look very much like they did 300 million years ago, except much smaller.

As a follow-up to my last post on the Peregrine falcons, I would like to report that this past Saturday morning I observed my first young falcon chick at the Rattlesnake bluff nest site.  It was fully grown and the only easy indication it was a young bird were the numerous downy feathers that were still fluttering in the breeze.

I will conclude this post with a colorful sunset at the head of Lake Pepin taken over the holiday weekend.  In addition to the lake providing a spectacular ending for the day it also coughed up a massive hatch of mayflies.