Kathy, Judy & Arlene

Mike made a new path through 3 Finger Valley this year, so I see different views.

The old path through 3 Finger Valley - lots of Canada Goldenrod but it's still beautiful.

Rough Blazing Star is in full bloom in the Knife Edge Prairie.

We found a wonderful spider - very large - its body was an inch long.  It had just caught a fly, so we watched it wrap it up and stash it away to eat later.  I think it's a Shamrock Orbweaver.

Here's the spider, hidden in a nest of leaves near its web.

Western Prairie is looking especially good this year.  It's our biggest planted prairie - about 60 acres.  There were lots of grassland sparrows nesting there this summer, and this fall the prairie grasses are putting on a good show.  The asters are just starting to bloom.

We found Great Plains Ladies Tresses blooming on Big View Prairie.  It's an orchid that grows on dry prairies, and blooms in the late summer and fall.

Close up, the flowers really do look like orchids.

I tried an experiment on Big View Prairie this year.  The area right in front of the bench was all Smooth Brome (Bromus intermis) - a non native pasture grass that's left over from when the land was grazed.  This spring, when the Brome grass was a few inches tall, but before most of the prairie plants had come up, I sprayed with glyphosate.  It was very successful!  All the Brome is gone, and now the area is all Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii - a native prairie grass).  The only problem is that the Bluestem is so tall that there's no view from the bench.  There are other prairie plants coming up too - Violets and Ground-cherry (Physalis sp.) - so I'm hoping the area will become a little more diverse - and maybe a little shorter - next year.

I'm still seeing plenty of butterflies.  There are still lots of Clouded Sulphurs on the driveway and fluttering over all the fields.

Mike took a video of some Clouded Sulphurs clustering along a roadside near here.

Monarchs are migrating now - they're flying higher and definitely in a southerly direction.  This is one of the ones I raised this year - just after I released it.

Monarchs seem to especially like nectaring on flowers in the composite family while they're migrating.  These two were on Joe Pye Weed.

Western Prairie was full of Monarchs today.  I think the south wind was slowing down their southward movement, and they were taking advantage of all the flowers to get some nectar.  The newest part of the prairie has lots of blooming Stiff Goldenrod, and there were Monarchs everywhere - we saw more than 100 as we walked the length of Western Prairie.  The wind was blowing, and every time a gust swept across the field, Monarchs would sail up from the flowers.

Western Prairie with Stiff Goldenrod

Monarch on Stiff Goldenrod

Monarch on Field Thistle (Cirsium discolor - a native, non-invasive thistle).

And a few more butterflies...

Leonard's Skipper - also called Blazing Star Skipper - on Hoary Vervain

A Common Buckeye - these butterflies appear at the end of the summer.  They're migrants from farther south - they don't overwinter here.

A very tattered Eastern Black Swallowtail nectaring on Field Thistle.  It looks like a bird took a bite out of his wing.

And, of course, I've been seeing moths at my lights at night.  Here are a few of the best ones.

Rigid Sunflower Borer - its caterpillars eat sunflowers and related plants

Spotted Grass Moth

Reticulated Sparganothis - this moth is less than 1/2 inch long

Goldenrod Flower Moth - its caterpillars eat the flowers of Goldenrod and related plants

Another Flower Moth - an Arcigera Flower Moth. The caterpillars of this one eat aster flowers.

Thue and Uttara came to visit last week - it was a very hot day so we took the tour in the pickup truck.  It was even too hot for the traditional photo on the bench.  This is the closest we came to the bench - standing in the shade where we could still see the view.

We had 6 inches of rain one night, and our creek flooded and washed out part of our road.  Phil - one of Richard's friends - had come by to deliver some of Richard's stuff, and got trapped by the rushing water and the washed out road.  We finally got him out - and I think we can get out - but our road will have to be rebuilt.

The creek filled up to the top of its banks, and then overflowed, creating several new channels.  Mike did a video that gives a better idea of the rushing waters.

Here are some still photos:

Phil - trapped behind the washout.  This used to be a driveway.

View of the creek from Sumac Prairie - it's a bit wider than normal!

Rushing over the road

Just above the culvert.  Usually the creek is about 5 feet below the level of the grass.

Looking downstream, below the culvert

More road washing away - this is a whole new route for the creek.

After the waters went down - this is the part we have to fix before Phil can get out.

Phil working on the road

Phil is ready to drive across...

He made it!

This is our little frog pond.  It's a small pond behind an earthen flood control dam.  Usually, by this time in the summer, the pond has nearly disappeared.  After 6 inches of rain, it filled up to the highest I've ever seen it.

The neighbors also have a pond behind their dam.  Theirs is high too.

I went on a tour of some bluff prairies in Buffalo County a few days ago.  I like seeing new prairie places and meeting the folks who own them.  Each bluff prairie is different - different plants, different management schemes.  I always learn a lot.

This is the biggest prairie area we visited.  It's several huge south-facing hillsides.  The owners burn it every few years, so it's very open - not many trees or brush. It's surrounded on all sides by corn and bean fields.

Here are some closeups of the hillsides.

Most of it is incredibly steep - hard to walk on.

There was lots of blooming Rough False Foxglove - an unusual plant that I've only seen a few times.  We used to have it on one of our prairies, but I haven't seen it there for several years.

I also saw  White Wild Four-O'Clock - a dry prairie plant that I've never seen before.

The flowers are small and not very showy.

The other prairie we visited had only been burned once, and was still quite brushy and weedy.  But it has a wonderful view, and does have lots of good prairie plants growing among the weeds.

The owners at this last prairie drove us there in a couple of wagons - nice of them since it was a very hot day.  Here's our wagon, with Scott Mehus at the front.

Back at our place, Mike and I found a Redbelly Snake.  They're very small snakes - not more than 8 or 10 inches long.  From the top they're hard to tell from Brown Snakes, so I picked this one up, and it definitely had a red belly.

A better view of the belly

The prairies are looking beautiful right now.  Usually by this time of the summer, they look a little dried out - but not this year.  This is 3 Finger Valley.

3 Finger Valley flowers - Stiff Goldenrod, Switchgrass, Monarda

Only a few moths this time - I'll save the rest for another post.

This is a Scarlet-winged Lichen Moth.  Their caterpillars do eat lichens.  I don't usually see them with their wings spread like this - it makes it easier to see the back wings.

Pink-patched Looper Moth - also called a Pink-tinted Beauty.  It's one of two specimens on Bugguide, and the only one in the eastern part of the US.

As we were driving along some of the country roads near the farm, we saw hundreds of these small yellow butterflies fluttering over alfalfa fields, across the roads, and along the gravel roadsides.  In one spot, where there are wide gravel edges on the road, there were dozens of butterflies clustering on the gravel.

And a closeup with one flying butterfly.  When they're resting, these butterflies hold their wings together.  When they fly you can see the black border that gives them their name.  (Cloudless Sulphurs don't have the black border.)

This is a different kind of yellow butterfly - a Little Yellow.  Little Yellows don't overwinter here - they fly up from the south every summer.  Some summers I don't see them at all, but this summer there are quite a few.  Their caterpillars eat the leaves of Partridge Pea - which grows on the hill right beside our house.  They're very small butterflies - about half the size of the Clouded Sulphurs - and very hard to photograph because they keep moving all the time.

I've seen more moths this week - lots that I haven't identified yet.   Here are the ones I've figured out so far.

Red Twin-spot.  This moth often rests like a butterfly, with its wings folded.  It makes it hard to see the tops of the wings.

This one had its wings down - much easier to see.

This one is called "The Gem"

American Idia

Sharp-angled Carpet

A very small moth - about 1 cm long  - Filbertworm Moth.  Its caterpillars eat nuts, and can sometimes be pests on nut trees.

Blackberry Looper - its caterpillars eat blackberries and other kinds of berries

Reniform Celaena

Yellow-headed Cutworm

The farm looks beautiful right now.  We've had lots of rain, so everything is lush and green, and all the prairie flowers are in full bloom.

Center Valley, looking toward the house

Western Prairie - our biggest planted prairie - almost 60 acres

Western Prairie

Buffalo Ridge Prairie

Pat's Prairie

The view from Big View Prairie

Mike just took some beautiful panorama photos of the farm - they give a much better idea of the way it really looks.  Check them out here - on his blog.

We took a boat ride yesterday - our first long boat ride of the summer - and nothing went wrong!  We drove up to Pepin, to go to dinner at the Harbor View Cafe - one of our favorite restaurants. It was a beautiful, quiet evening, with no wind and a colorful sunset.

The river is dotted with small sandy islands, mostly made from material that gets dredged up to widen the shipping channel.

The bridge from Nelson, Wisconsin to Wabasha, Minnesota

The National Eagle Center

We parked the boat at the marina right in front of the restaurant.  It's tiny compared to all the bigger, fancier boats.

Sailboats in the marina

Gulls on the rocks by the marina

Bald Eagle posing on a snag

Bluffs at sunset

We had good weather for the count.  Some past years have been rainy or cool or both, but this year it was comfortably warm and sunny.  Mike Reese, Ann Thering and Allen Blake Sheldon came to help count.

Here's our list.  We saw 37 species, 598 individuals.  That's the highest number of individuals we've ever had on a count, and one less than the highest number of species.

Here are Ann and Al taking pictures of a hairstreak.

Then they realized I was taking a picture of them taking pictures.

Dueling photographers - this is Mike Reese.

Al looked for snakes - especially on the rocks behind the house - but didn't find any.

Hoary Vervain - this just started blooming in our planted prairies.

Thirteen-spotted Lady Beetle - one of the native lady beetles that's found in Wisconsin.

Now for the moths

This is a Primrose Moth - named because its caterpillars eat the flowers and flower buds of primroses.  This one hatched from a cocoon I got from Ian last fall.  It overwintered in the refrigerator, and finally hatched last week.

These are some of the moths that came to my lights during the past week.

Chestnut-marked Pondweed Moth - its caterpillars eat Pondweed (Potamogeton sp.).  I'm amazed that caterpillars can eat an aquatic plant - I'd like to know how they do it.

Painted Lichen Moth - its caterpillars eat lichens

Black-dotted Maliattha - and a little green guy - I'm not sure what it is.

Serpentine Webworm Moth

Dimorphic Eulithis

Two-lined Hooktip

I think this is in the genus Clostera - one of the prominents - but I don't know the species.

This is one of the Underwings - Ultronia Underwing.  All the underwings have drab, brownish upper wings and beautiful bright scarlet back wings.  It's such a treat to see the back wings.  Sometimes, if the moth is sitting quietly, you can gently pull the upper wings apart to see that bright scarlet.  This one was showing off without any help from me.

This is the way it looked with closed wings - a beautiful wood-grain pattern.

Ailanthus Webworm Moth - the caterpillars of this moth eat Ailanthus leaves - and probably other kinds of leaves too since the nearest Ailanthus in Wisconsin is in the far southeastern counties.

This is a very small day-flying moth called an Orange Mint Moth - wingspan about 1/2 inch.  Its caterpillars eat Monarda species.

My Promethea caterpillars hatched a few weeks ago.  They spend their first few instars feeding communally - I like the way they line up on the leaves.

So this post is mostly moths, but a few flowers and butterflies too.

This first series of photos is of some caterpillars that I found a few weeks ago on Black-eyed Susan.  I thought they must be a checkerspot butterfly, but I wasn't sure which one.

I took them home and raised them in an aquarium - even though they were small, there were so many of them that they ate dozens of Black-eyed Susans.  This is one of the older caterpillars.

When they made chrysalises, they liked to make them in the tight little corners of the lid I had on the aquarium.  I was afraid they'd get squashed, so I carefully pulled them off and glued them on to a piece of paper towel.

Today they started hatching, and they're Gorgone Checkerspots -  beautiful little butterflies that are on the "Special Concern" list for Wisconsin.  The whole aquarium was filled with fluttering little orange and black wings.

The only way I could get a photo of the underside of their wings was through the glass.

I released them, and they immediately started nectaring on nearby Black-eyed Susans.

Now for a few moths.

Common Gluphisia

Barred Macaria

I love this bright scarlet moth.  It's called a Raspberry Pyrausta - because of the color.  It's caterpillars don't eat raspberries - they eat Monarda and Horsemint - both Monarda species.

I've seen several slug moths in the last week.  Slug moths have caterpillars that look like brightly colored slugs.  The adult moths are small - less than an inch long - with striking color patterns on their wings.  This one is a Skiff Moth.

Another slug moth - Yellow-shouldered Slug

Last year I found a Yellow-shouldered Slug caterpillar.  It's less than an inch long, and looks like it's made of colored glass.

The last slug moth I've seen lately was one that hatched from a cocoon that I got from Ian - a Spiny Oak Slug Moth.  It seems to like this position - head down and "tail" up.

This is a very small moth - about .5 cm long.  It still amazes me how complicated the color patterns can be even on these very small creatures.  It's a Waterlily Leafcutter Moth.  Its caterpillars eat various aquatic plants.  I'm not sure what they're eating here - we don't have many aquatic plants.

Another very small moth called a Small Bird-dropping Moth

This is a large moth called a Common Lytrosis.  The wingspan is about 2.5 inches.

Bristly Cutworm moth

Orange-barred Carpet moth

White Eulithis moth

Bent-line Carpet

Hops Vine Moth - caterpillars eat Common Hop and fortunately (because there aren't many Common Hop plants on our land), also Stinging Nettle

The milkweeds are blooming and they're full of nectaring butterflies. These are Aphrodite Fritillaries.

Wild Iris in one of the planted prairies.

Turk's Cap Lily in the wetland

Sunset on a misty evening

First some flowers.

Shinleaf is a lovely little woodland flower that's fairly common in our woods, but usually each stalk has only a few blossoms.  This year the stalks are full of flowers.

A closeup of the flowers

Butterfly Weed

Another milkweed - Whorled Milkweed

Our lower prairies are filled with Spiderworts this year - they must like lots of rain.

More blue flowers - these are Harebells in one of the bluff prairies.

Silvery Checkerspot

Mating European Skippers - a new species for the farm

Silver Bordered Fritillary - a fritillary that likes wet meadows

Some friends came over one day to hunt mushrooms.   There was a whole hillside of Chantarelles, which was really what they were looking for.

We also found lots of other interesting mushrooms - some they could identify, some they didn't know.

This is a bolete - with pores instead of gills

A different view of the same mushroom

They didn't know this one, but I like the pattern that the gills make.

A Purple-gilled Laccaria

It does have beautiful purple gills.

I've seen these mushrooms before and have never known what they were.  They grow in large groups on rotting logs.

A few more mysterious fungi.

These were orange inside, and very rubbery - maybe some kind of jelly fungus?

Many of these

And many Coral Fungi

I visited MJ in Iowa last week.  We talked bugs for nearly 24 hours without stopping.  Here are her rearing jars.  The carrot is for a burrowing moth larva.  The larva is inside the carrot - all that shows on the outside are some flakes of carrot that it has pushed out of the hole.

A large snail we found in her woods.  It was over an inch in diameter - she says it's a common one.

One of MJ's planted prairies - she calls them her "faux prairies".  How nice to live in a place where Pale Purple Coneflowers are native!

Mike and I finally went on our first boat ride of the season.  We stopped in this quiet backwater to have lunch, and watched a mink run across the log and swim the rest of the way across the stream.

There were damselflies skimming over the water and resting on the patches of duckweed.  Blackbirds and Catbirds were hopping along the logs and snapping them up to feed their babies.