Megan's Nature Nook
Nature Notes, Phenology, Photography, Fun Facts, Trips, Maybe Even a Bad Joke or Two... and More!
Going on a walk through the prairie you’ll most likely come across one of these, which are easiest to spot once the leaves and grasses start to die down. You may have stopped to look and wondered: gall, what is this? Well, it’s an insect home! This gall is formed during the Goldenrod Gall Fly’s life cycle. Here’s a quick rundown of all that happens inside that little gall: Female Goldenrod Gall Flies lay an egg on the tip of an emerging Goldenrod in the spring. When the egg hatches, the larva burrows its way down to the inside of the stem. The action of chewing and saliva from the larva stimulates the plant to produce more growth hormones, and as a result the gall starts to form. This gall will then provide food and shelter for the growing larva throughout the summer, fall, and winter until it is ready to emerge in the spring. In fall, as temperature decrease, the larva will produce a glycerol, an anti-freeze. This allows a majority of the body tissue to freeze, but keeps the cells from freezing - even on chilly days like today! They spend the winter as little larva popsicles, just hanging out and waiting for spring to arrive. Something else they do in the fall in preparation for their escape from the gall in the spring is to dig an exit tunnel right up to the outer layer of “skin” on the gall. They leave this outer layer so that they will still have protection from the elements throughout the winter. Once spring finally rolls around, the warmer temperatures signal the larva to go into a pupa stage, and then finally transform into the adult fly. This is where things get interesting. In order to get out of the gall, the fly must break through the outer skin of the gall. The fly anchors itself at the end of the exit tunnel, then pumps a special part of its head full of body fluids, inflating it like a balloon. The “balloon” causes the outer skin of the gall to break open and then the fly can pull itself out. The fly will rest and give time for its wings to inflate and dry. Then it is off to find a mate and start the process over again. The adult flies live for only about two weeks and don't eat during that time. They are not very good fliers, and mostly walk as their mode of transportation. Who knew so much was going on inside of that little gall? This was even the condensed version! If you would like to learn more in depth about the galls, and the life cycle of a Goldenrod Gall Fly, take a look at this article, Bug-sicles in the Class Room: Demonstrating freeze tolerance with larvae of the Goldenrod Gall Fly! by Doug Collicutt. He even talks about an interesting little freezing and thawing experiment you can try with Gall Fly larva! The gall is a pretty safe place for the larva to hang out for almost a year of its life, but there are some dangers they can still endure. Some insects, like wasps, will lay their eggs in the gall and the wasp larva will eat the gall fly larva. There is a beetle that will burrow in the gall for a tasty treat. Black-capped Chickadees, Downy Woodpeckers, and some other small birds can peck into the gall to get a tasty little snack. I have also heard that the larva can be used for ice fishing bait, but I have yet to test that theory myself. Maybe they would be a good protein packed snack for humans, too..?!! You can try it and let me know how that goes! Next time you’re out for a hike in the prairie, keep your eyes open for galls. Check to see if any of them have been pecked at by birds, or if they’re still safely awaiting the arrival of spring. Goldenrod Gall Fly Galls are not the only galls out there. There are different kinds of galls that can look very different in size and shape because they are created by different species. Not only are they on Goldenrod plants, but they can be found on other plants too, including trees! Who knew that something so small could have something so complex going on inside of it? Little natural wonders like galls often get overlooked. So, go out and enjoy the Great Outdoors! See what you can discover!
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For those of you who aren’t a big fan of the shorter, darker days we have this time of year, you can start rejoicing because the Winter Solstice is near! The Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year; the day with the least amount of daylight. Since June 21st (Summer Solstice), the amount of daylight has been decreasing day by day. Now that we have reached the Winter Solstice, we can start looking forward to the amount of daylight increasing, and our days getting longer! For those of you like my mom, who don’t enjoy the dwindling amount of daylight, this is a welcome change! The Winter Solstice also the official first day of winter – let the snow begin! The Winter Solstice will occur at 10:28 am (Central Time) on Thursday, December 21, 2017. It will happen at this same instant all over Earth. At this exact moment, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted the farthest away from the sun. The Winter Solstice is most often on the 21st of December, but can occur on the 20, 21, 22, or 23rd. The time of day changes depending on the year. On Thursday, December 21, 2017, Red Wing, Minnesota will have eight hours and 49 minutes of daylight compared to Thursday, June 21, 2017, when Red Wing had 15 hours and 34 minutes of daylight. That is 6 hours and 45 minutes difference of light!! Ever feel like you are more productive in the summer? Maybe that’s why! Here is a neat Yearly Sun Graph that shows the day lengths for the year: https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/usa/red-wing Climatologist Brian Brettschneider has some really cool weather maps on his Climate Blog, two of them are shown below. It really is quite amazing to think about the difference in daylight that six months can make! Starting on Thursday we will start making our way to those brighter, longer (maybe more productive) days! In the meantime, happy winter!
Woodpeckers seem to be one of the easiest backyard birds to identify with their black and white coloration (with some red) and distinct behavior. But, at times it can be hard to tell the different species apart – especially Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers. These birds look almost identical with their black and white checkered wings, and facial patterns. If they’re next to each other they can be pretty easy to tell apart just by size, but what do you do when there is only one at your feeder? Here are a few things to look for to help you correctly identify a Downy vs. Hairy Woodpecker. General Size Downies are Down-sized and Hairies are HUGE Downy – 6 ½ inches Hairy – 9-13 inches, about the size of a Robin This is easy to tell when they are next to each other, but can be challenging if only one is present. Beak Length Again, the size saying applies here; Downy = Downsized, Hairy = HUGE Downy – beak is about 1/3 to half the length of their head, shorter; Dainty Hairy – beak is as long as the length of their head Outer Tail Feathers Downy – white outer tail feathers usually have some black on them making them appear like they have spots, or Dotted. (Most easily seen from below) Hairy – Completely white outer tail feathers With these few tips, you’ll easily be identifying Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers in no time! Now if you’re up for the challenge, try identifying just by sound. Believe it or not, you can even tell a species of woodpecker by its drumming, but for today let’s just stick with their main calls.
Call BirdNote has an interesting way of describing the different calls: Downy – "soft and downy, like a duvet." Another way to remember the Downy is the call goes Down in pitch, or decends Hairy – "loud and hairy, like a heavy metal band" Hear them for yourself on BirdNote’s Podcast (less than 2 mins). Hopefully these little fun sayings and letter connections (D’s for Downy, H’s for Hairy) will be helpful for you in the correct identification of Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers. To attract these two birds to your feeders try offering suet, peanuts, sunflower seeds, safflower seeds, and meal worms. Happy birding! For about the last two years, basically since I graduated college and started to have more free time, I’ve been into reading non-fiction animal and nature related books. While looking through the library at work, I came across Kingbird Highway: The Biggest Year in the Life of an Extreme Birder by Kenn Kaufman. It has been on my to-read list for a while, so I figured now is as good a time as ever to read it. I enjoy bird watching and started my own Life List a few years ago, so I found this book quite interesting. Although it says it in the title, you don’t have to be an extreme birder to enjoy this book. Ever since Kaufmann was a boy, birds were his passion. So much so that at the age of 16 he dropped out of high school to pursue his dream of birding. In 1973, at the age of 19 Kaufmann embarked on his Big Year with the hope of seeing 600+ bird species in North America during the span of one calendar year. What makes Kaufmann’s Big Year journey unique is that he spotted all of his birds by hitch hiking across the country multiple times, spending only $1,000 for the whole year by eating dried cat food to save money, and camping wherever he could find a place to roll out his sleeping bag. Throughout Kingbird Highway, you’ll hear about the many people Kaufmann met, the experiences he had, and the bigger meaning to his Big Year. If you’re looking for a fun read and to maybe learn a thing or two along the way, find a copy of Kingbird Highway, a comfy chair, and start reading! Make sure your binoculars and field guide are nearby, because by the end of the book you’ll be wanting to start your very own bird list! I gave Kingbird Highway 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads, rating it as "Really liked it." Click here for more information about the book. August 11 - 13, 2017 This summer, while we were working in Montana, Tony and I took advantage of being so close to the mountains. Tony had been talking about Grayling and really wanted to do some alpine lake fly fishing! He was really hoping to backpack in and camp a few nights at the lake, but we didn’t have all the right equipment with us out in Montana, so we changed up the plans a little. The weather also threw a wrench into our plans because it was supposed to rain all weekend where he wanted to go for Grayling in Wyoming. Since we were running out of time, we decided to do a mountains trip to the Red Lodge area in Montana so we could at least fit in one trip to the mountains before I headed back to Minnesota. In about two days, we quick threw together a plan. I looked for a place to camp (and some geocaches nearby), and Tony figured out where we should fish. It was quick planning, but everything fell into place and the trip was great! Day 1 Tony was eager to get going so we left at 6 a.m. and headed southwest to Red Lodge, MT. I had found a campground in the Beartooth Mountains that had free camping! The catch was that it was on a first come, first serve basis; so, we figured we would take our chances and if we couldn’t get a spot there, there were a few other campgrounds nearby we could try to get a spot at. We arrived at the campground around 10 a.m. and snagged one of the last open spots! We got lucky! It was on the edge of the “campground,” (13 sites, no water, and a vault toilet – but great location!) so we only had a neighbor on one side, and had the creek behind us for Tony to fish in, and lull us to sleep at night. We were at about 7,000 ft. elevation, surrounded by conifers, had a view of some farther off mountain peaks, the creek, and fresh, cool mountain air – a perfect vacation spot! We set up camp to mark our spot, then checked out the creek behind our site. Tony was able to catch a few fish while I enjoyed the scenery. After that we headed to a nearby lake, Greenough, to see what else we could find! There were some nice open spots so I got some good fly fishing practice in and caught my first fish of the trip! We saw two new bird species to add to our Life Lists: Clark's Nutcracker and Mountain Chickadee (in case you were wondering). There were also some very friendly ducks that were entertaining to watch. After we had our fill for the afternoon, we headed back to the campsite, made some supper, and enjoyed the view. It even started snowing a little while we were cooking! First time I had seen snow in August! We went to bed early in preparation for our big hiking day, and fell asleep to the roaring of the creek. It got down to the upper 30’s during the night and even with my multiple layers, wool socks, winter hat, and mummy sleeping bag I was still chilly, but Tony with his broken-zipper sleeping bag was toasty warm… typical! Ha. Day 2 We woke up at 5:30 a.m. to make some oatmeal for breakfast to warm up and get our day packs ready before driving to the trailhead. It was in the low 40’s when we woke up, and around 50° when we started our hike. The sun coming up over the creek through the trees was a beautiful way to start the day! We followed the Lost Lake Trail. It was a nice trail that followed along Rock Creek most of the way, with beautiful sights. We even got to see an American Dipper in the creek; a new bird for my Life List! Coming up on mile 5 we were starting to wonder where the lake was, surely it had to be close! I had my Fitbit on, so we were able to keep track of how far we had gone, and how much more we had to go. We pulled up a map on Tony’s phone and figured out there should be a spur trail soon to cut over to the lake. It took a little searching but we found it and started our final assent to the lake! We were both happy that after 7 miles (which was supposed to only be 5…) we had finally made it! Tony was eager to start fishing and I was ready to have a snack and just take in the beautiful view. We walked along the edge of the lake looking for an open spot to fish and found plenty of moose tracks and scat. We ended up doing some bog walking and boulder climbing to head to the other side where we set up shop for the rest of the day. Tony spotted a Cutthroat that he was trying for with all sorts of different flies while I sat nearby perched on a boulder and just tossed my trusty mosquito fly out, let it sink a little, and then repeated the process. I was looking over at Tony, then glanced back at my line and excitedly exclaimed, “Tony, I see a fish! Tony, I think I have a fish! Tony, I caught a fish!!” Tony just about fell off his boulder because he was so excited and ran over to me to help me with my fish. I caught a beautiful 19.5 inch Cutthroat! Which turned out to be the only fish we caught from the lake. After all that excitement, we cooked some lunch and continued to fish. In the early afternoon, we figured we better start making our way back down the mountain since we were planning on stopping at Broadwater along the creek to try for some Brook trout. It was a success! We fished for a bit, had a snack, then continued on our merry way. I was even able to find a few geocaches on our hike, too! By the end of the day we had hiked over 14 miles; a bit more than we bargained for, but definitely worth it! Early to bed tonight! Day 3 After breakfast, we packed up our campsite and headed to Greenough so Tony could get a few more fish under his belt while I found another geocache. Then we headed up the Beartooth Pass to Rock Creek Vista Point for a beautiful view of the area! There were also some pretty friendly, and fat chipmunks running around! Tony and I like going to zoos and aquariums, so we couldn’t pass up the opportunity of stopping at the Yellowstone Wildlife Sanctuary in Red Lodge before grabbing some well-deserved, delicious pizza and heading back to Glendive. At first, I wasn’t too sure about this trip since we very quickly threw it together and I am the type of person that likes to plan. We didn’t even have a campsite booked for goodness sakes! But, Tony does a good job of getting me out of my comfort zone once in a while, and I can say that this was one of the best trips we have taken together. The hike was longer than expected, and you could feel the elevation taking its toll, but it made the fish we caught that much more worth it. We had some unforgettable views, caught some beautiful fish, and made some great memories! How many others can say they hiked 14 miles in a day, up a mountain to an alpine lake to fly fish? Towards the end of our long hike, Tony was “joking” that since this trip turned out we may as well do it again the next weekend, just in a different place. We may be crazy, but that is just what we did – back to back mountain trips, and I wouldn’t trade those trips for anything. If you haven't noticed, I'm a bit of a Shutter Bug. Here are a few more pictures from the trip. And thank you, Tony for your pictures, too! |
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