So far the end of the summer has been warm and wet with lots of flowers.

The wetlands are especially flowery this year.   This is Parsnip Meadow – one of several areas we’ve named after plants that aren’t there any more.  This is the difference after years of mowing and pulling Wild Parsnip, and planting wetland seeds.

 

 

Our driveway through the wetland – Cup Plant and Saw-tooth Sunflower.

 

Saw-tooth Sunflowers

 

Joe Pye Weed, Great Blue Lobelia, Boneset, Flat-topped Aster and Swamp Betony

 

The wet end of East Center Valley.  The south end of this wet area, near the willows, used to be all Reed Canary Grass.  After several years of mowing it began to get more diverse.  There’s still some Reed Canary Grass growing there, but now it’s dominated by wetland flowers and sedges.

 

This is a nest of Baltimore Checkerspot caterpillars on a Turtlehead plant.  A little later in the summer the caterpillars will make a nest closer to the ground where they’ll spend the winter.  In the spring they’ll emerge from that nest and spread out to eat from several different plants including Plantain and Swamp Betony.  The adult butterflies emerge in late June and July.

 

This is the old farmyard – between the remains of the old farmhouse and the barn.  It’s very wet, so there are lots of sedges and beyond them I’ve planted wetland flowers.

 

Grassy top of a large beaver dam near the eastern end of our wetland

 

The creek flowing through the culvert that goes under our driveway.

 

In the drier prairies, the flowers are completely different.  Whorled Milkweed has been blooming on Hidden Oaks Point.

 

More Whorled Milkweed

 

Volvo Meadow flowers – Yellow Coneflowers, Monarda, Prairie Sage, and Giant Purple Hyssop

 

Sheep Hill Meadow’s 3rd summer – Oxeye and Yellow Coneflower

 

The Narrows Prairie with Stiff Goldenrod

 

The Knife Edge Prairie – my favorite remnant – with Rough Blazing Star, Showy Goldenrod and Stiff Goldenrod

 

One of our frustrations this year is that in the last few weeks the tall prairie grasses have bloomed and in many places are taller than the flowers.  Indian Grass and Big Bluestem are taller and thicker this year than they’ve ever been – maybe because of all the rain we’ve had.  We can still look underneath and see the flowers but we have to look harder.  This is Stiff Goldenrod in Buffalo Ridge – under flowering Indian Grass.

 

We had a rock retaining wall built in front of our porch a few years ago, and I planted prairie seeds in the soil that was packed in behind it.  The soil was packed down so hard that I wasn’t sure anything would grow but this is what it looks like now – Spotted Bee-Balm, Monarda, Hoary Vervain, and Partridge Pea.

 

The edge of Volvo Meadow looking up into Buffalo Ridge Prairie

 

And of course there are butterflies….

Tiger Swallowtails on Purple Joe Pye Weed

 

Mated pair of Monarchs on Rough Blazing Star

 

Monarch Caterpillar on Whorled Milkweed

 

Giant Swallowtail on Swamp Thistle

 

I’ve been doing several different kinds of projects this month – working in the shade if it’s hot, and in sunnier places on cool or cloudy days.

Several of our planted prairies have areas which have been invaded by aspen sprouts.  Mike has been mowing them at the end of every summer but we’d like to find a way to get rid of the sprouts that would last longer and wouldn’t involve mowing all the prairie flowers.  I’ve had some success cutting and treating the sprouts with herbicide so I’m expanding that experiment to more areas.  This is the way one of those areas looked before I started,

 

and after I finished.  We’re hoping there will be more flowers and fewer aspens next summer.

 

A few other finds….

Goldenrod Hooded Owlet caterpillar on Canada Goldenrod

 

This is called a Swamp Milkweed Leaf Beetle, but I find it on many different milkweed species.  This one is eating Whorled Milkweed.

 

White Rattlesnake-root flowers in the woods

 

American Bellflower

 

A very small Tree Frog

 

A Wild Turkey feather that shone in the sun if we held it just right

 

A tree fell next to the driveway earlier this summer and now the Wild Clematis vines have nearly covered it – first with blossoms,

 

and now with seeds.  When it’s going to seed it’s often called Old Man’s Beard.

 

Storms on the horizon

 

Monarchs seem to be migrating late this year.  Journey North‘s recent post and a few other articles that I’ve read are suggesting that unusual weather may have delayed the migration by a few weeks.  We’ve been counting the ones we see on our afternoon walks, and there have been many fewer than in other years.   Today, finally, we saw more than just a few.  We counted 33 today – hopefully there will be more tomorrow.