BUTTERFLIES AT OUR PLACE JUNE 30, 2015

Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly on our prairie today.

Meadow Fritillary.  This butterfly is smaller than the Great Spangled Fritillary.  Both were on our prairie today.

Butterfly of the angle wing family.  Note how it resembles a leaf.

Coral Hairstreak butterfly on goldenrod leaf.

White-lined Sphinx Moth feeding on common milkweed flower.

Least Skipper on Canada Thistle. The Least Skipper is about 3/4 inch long.

Rattlesnake Master started blooming on our prairie last week.

Hysop blooming on our prairie.  Hysop leaves have a anise odor.

TIGER SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLY ON LILY

In spite of too much rain we have had a decent hatch of Tiger Swallowtail butterflies.

The Robins really enjoy our birdbath.

JUMPING MOUSE & DOG

Note the very small baby Jumping Mouse about 6 inches from the tail of our mighty dog.  Mighty  dog never did notice the mouse and it eventually went back under the deck.

Closeup of the 1 inch long baby Jumping Mouse.

The House Wrens are nesting in the end of our swing set.

 Foxglove blooming on our little 1 acre prairie.

YELLOW LADY'S SLIPPER ON HAYDEN PRAIRIE

Yellow Lady's Slipper, Hayden Prairie, 4 miles west of Lime Springs, Iowa.   Most of us think of these as only a woodland wildflower but they also bloom on rich virgin prairies. Hayden Prairie now has several hundred of these spectacular flower blooming.

Lady with the 400 acre virgin prairie as a background.

Cream Indigo and yellow Pucoon, Hayden Prairie.

The Shooting Stars are winding down their blooming cycle at Hayden, but they are still impressive.

HOUSE WREN & EGG

House Wren.  We have a pair nesting in the end of our swing set, another pair in a brush pile, and a third pair nesting in the hollow of a tree just outside of our screen porch.  We have others also, but have not found those nests yet. They are very busy with their young right now.

House Wren egg with a Roosevelt dime for size comparison. (Franklin Roosevelt was a birder).
Bobbie found this laying on the yard-probably a bluejay had snatched it.  

Barn Swallow on our deck.

LOST 40

Large  White Pine is the "Lost 40", about 1/2 hour east of Blackduck, Mn.  The "Lost 40" is actually about 140 acres of virgin White and Red Pine that the lumber surveyors accidentally missed.  Some of the largest of these trees were seedlings when the Pilgrims landed. It is worth seeing.

Even on a gray day the huge pines in the Lost 40 reminded us of the Redwoods we visited last year.

White Pine and Red Pine grow to well over 4 feet wide and 100+ feet tall in the lost 40.

Typical Northern Minnesota bog river scene.  No mosquitoes as of last week-soon to come.