THE PRAIRIES ARE PUTTING ON A SHOW RIGHT NOW

Yellow Coneflowers.  Technically they are "Gray-Headed Coneflowers", but the heads are actually more brown than grey.  A wildflower of prairies, ditches, and old pastures.

Silver-spotted Skipper on clover.  Skippers are an odd group.  They have the hairy stout body of a  moth but in other ways look like a butterfly, and are therefore given their own group-the skippers.

Shield Bug on Black-eyed Susan.  The name comes from the shape of the bug.  Most shield bugs are smaller that this one and most are green.  They are also called "stink bugs" because they supposedly stink if smashed-I can not verify this as I "live and let live".

Wild Bergamot, also know as Wild Bee Balm.

Great Spangled Fritillary on Bergamot bloom.

Cup Plant (6 feet).  They catch water, even dew, with thier cup shaped leaf structures shown at the bottom of this photo.  I have seen water in the "cups" even after a two week dry period.

Yellowthroat (male) hunting for insect on our prairie yesterday.
TO VIEW MORE PRAIRIE FLOWERS AND WILDLIFE PHOTOS GO UP AND TO THE RIGHT AND CLICK ON JULY 2014 OR ANY OTHER MONTH DESIRED.

Small species of bee(not a honeybee) pollinating coneflower.  Note the yellow pollen on its back legs.

Yellow Coneflower and pollinating insect I have yet to ID

Purple Prairie Clover, unmowed ditch southeast of Spring Valley, Mn. 

White Prairie Clover, Hayden Prairie.

Thimbleweed.  A small white flower that has a seed head that resembles a thimble.

Purple Coneflower.  Not a true prairie flower this far east but still a nice plant to have in our 1 acre prairie plot.

Swamp Milkweed, likes wet ditchs and damp prairies.

Turk's Cap Lily, also called the Michigan Lily.  Ditch S.E. of Spring Valley, Mn

Sweat Bee on Black-eyed Susan

Monarch on Purple Cone flower on our prairie.

Tall Milkweed (left) and Rattlesnake Master (right).  Hayden Prairie west of Lime Spring, Iowa.

Compass Plant.  A tall sunflower-like plant of true prairies. The leaves do tend to point north and south to catch more sunlight.

Butterfly Weed.  Does attract butterflies but not near as well as the blazing stars which are not as of yet blooming.

Deer Fly on Prairie Coreopsis

Culver's Root

Wild quinine.  Hayden Prairie.

Bobbie ran into a mother with twin fawns while photographing  butterflies. We have caught glimpses of them several times, and they seem to be living at the lower end of our little valley.

One of the twins and mother, the other twin was hiding farther in the brush.

VICEROY BUTTERFLY.  The Viceroy looks like a monarch but it has a small black line on its lower wing about 1/2 inch from the bottom of the wing.  It also has a SINGLE row of white dashes contained in its black border.  The Monarch has a double row of white in its black border.  The Viceroy seems to mimic the colors of the supposedly foul tasting Monarch.

We have several Monarchs that have just hatched at our place.  They are more colorful than the old ones and these will probably move farther north to lay eggs and produce a later summers hatch.

12-spotted Skimmer dragonfly  (female) at our place. 

Giant Wolf Spider (3 inches) northern Minnesota.