THE HUMMERS HAVE ALWAYS LEFT OUR PLACE BETWEEN SEPT. 20 AND SEPT. 28

The Great Blue Heron hunts for frogs, snakes, fish, etc. in our rivers, ponds, and backwaters. They too will soon leave us.

Found this Inch worm on a Stiff Goldenrod. This one demonstrates how they can stiffen their body and reach out to move. They are so named because they are indeed about 1 inch long. We usually see these dangling by a single long thread from trees.

Found this Katydid on a blade of grass and gently placed it on my arm for this photo. Katydids are named for thier night song that sounds like thier name repeated.

The bumblebees, honeybees, and many other insects often feed on the blooms of thistles.

MANY BUTTERFLIES ON STIFF GOLDEN ROD AND ASTERS

Photographed this spectacular Painted Lady butterfly on the late blooming Stiff Goldenrod.

The Milbert"s Tortiose Shell is a butterfly we only see at our place in the later summer.

At times there are hundreds of Yellow Sulfer butterflies on the Frost Asters this time of year.

Our white Frost Asters bloom by the hundreds in early September and provide food for butterflies such as this fitillary.

Spent the whole summer trying to get a photo of this Giant Swallotail butterfly. Finially got the photo in our garden, but it is quite beat-up this late in the season. We do not often see this species in our area.

LATE DRAGONFLIES PHOTOGRAPHED AT LAKE LOUISE ST. PARK NEAR LEROY, MN

Some afternoons we would have as many as 30 Green Darner dragonflies cruising our prairie for insects to prey on.

This blue darner is one of many species in that family of dragonflies.

There are several species of red meadowhawk dragonflies. This one is sitting on my wife's genes.

Still have not been able to identifly this species.

Our Humming birds and this tree frog have something in common. Our Hummer feeder hangs out side of our living room window and the sweetness of the feeder attracts insects. About a 1/2 hour after dark we often see the tree frog on the picture window hunting small insects. He tends to hunt for less than an hour each night an then moves on.

HUMMERS AND MONARCHS GETTING READY TO HEAD SOUTH

The Monarch butterfly and the approaching honey bee both love the late blooming Stiff Goldenrod.

In early September the Monarchs need to put on fat for the migration to Mexico. The prairies like this one at Lake Lousie St. Park by LeRoy, Mn. provide this food in the form of pollen and necter from plants like the Rough Blazing Star(blue) and the Stiff Goldenrod(yellow).

Monarchs will gather, sometimes in the hundreds, on particular trees and bushes late in the day this time of year. We call these trees "Butterly Trees", and Lake Louise St. Park has many of these. These Monarchs are the 4th and last generation of monarchs and are migrating to the lowland mountains of Mexico to overwinter.

Found this small monarch catipillar feeding on Sept. 1.

It is in a race to make maturity and get south before winter-not likely to do so unless we have a long fall.

Milkeweed tiger moths catipillars also feed on the milkweed plant.

The swallows are now gathering in larger and larger flocks to prepare to head south before their insect food supply is gone..

The Cream Gentian is now blooming on the prairies and quality road ditches. Note the small bee the is inside the flower.

About 10 years ago we bought a packet of "grandpa Ott's" morning glory seed from the seed savers exchange of Decorah, Ia. and have never had to replant these since.

Wild grapes provide food for everthing from birds to coyotes. This has been an exceptional year for grape production.

The coyotes are much like us in that they often take the easy path. The coyotes at our place often use our ski trails as thier trails and we therefore find thier scat. In the last few weeks they have been eating grapes, apples, and acorns. Other times of the year we find more mouse bones and fur in thier scat deposites.

Evening Primrose is so called because the blooms are open late in the day.

Pale or yellow touch-me-not flower. The flower is so called because when the seed pod is touched in the fall the seeds will shoot outward. It is also call jewel weed and is actually safe to touch. It has a close relative called spotted of orange touche-me-not.

Note the small bee that is pollinating the flower.

Male Widow Skimmer dragonflys are common in this area during late summer.