Naturally

I watched a flock of American white pelicans flying overhead. The flock twisted as it moved through the sky. That movement caused them to look like white birds, then black birds and then disappear. It was magic.
Chickadees look ratty as they go through a molt. August is a common time for the replacement of feathers.
The Carolina grasshopper is a banded-winged grasshopper with mainly black hindwings and could be mistaken for a mourning cloak butterfly as it flutters. It’s also called the Carolina locust or butterfly grasshopper, it congregates in areas of bare ground and is commonly seen on school playgrounds, ballfields, dirt roads, gravel driveways, vacant lots and similar conditions where its coloration allows it to blend in. It crepitates, making a crackling sound as it flies.
The yard’s feeders were busy. In the movie “Field of Dreams,” Iowa farmer Ray (Kevin Costner) hears a mysterious voice in his cornfield saying, "If you build it, he will come." Despite taunts of lunacy, Ray builds a baseball diamond on his land, supported by his wife, Annie (Amy Madigan). The ghosts of great players started coming from the field to play ball, led by Shoeless Joe Jackson. When it comes to birds, if you feed and water them, they will come.
The striking orange and black painted lady is one of the most common butterfly species in the world, inhabiting every continent except Australia and Antarctica. Unlike many butterflies, it doesn’t become dormant during the winter and cannot survive heavy frosts. It migrates to warmer climates in winter. Host plants for the caterpillars include thistle, mallows, hollyhock, legumes and others. This charismatic butterfly feeds on nectar from the flowers of thistles, red clover, asters and many other plants. The painted lady is called the thistle butterfly and is known for its impressive migrations, which unlike many other migratory species, don’t follow a seasonal pattern. Perhaps their migratory patterns are influenced by heavy rains like El Niño, which impact the abundance of their larval host plants. In North America, the painted lady butterflies migrate in a northwestern direction in spring and sometimes a second migration back southward in the fall. Their migrations span multiple generations.
I’m seeing wild cucumber, a native, annual vine with star-shaped leaves. In August, conspicuous small white flowers on long stalks grow skyward, turning the plant into a conspicuous large vine noticeable along roadsides.
I’ve seen crab spiders. They are usually yellow or white, but can be brown. Their first four legs are longer than the back four and are held out to the sides, giving a crab-like appearance. They are most common on yellow or white flowers and are beneficial predators of insects. They don’t harm people.
Joe Pye weed is blooming beautifully. Remember, it’s the ragweed and not the goldenrod that activates your hay fever.

Q&A

“What eats grape jelly?” It’s enjoyed by orioles, catbirds, woodpeckers, house finches, tanagers, robins, yellow-rumped warblers, grosbeaks, Cape May warblers, brown thrashers and mockingbirds. Hummingbirds will drink the juice. Chipmunks, raccoons and squirrels will eat it.
“Do opossums dig and can they use their tails to carry things?” Opossums have soft, delicate paws with nails that are easily damaged. They aren’t capable of doing a lot of digging. Opossums den where it’s dry, sheltered and safe. This includes burrows dug by other mammals, rock crevices, hollow stumps, wood piles and spaces under buildings. They gather twigs, leaves, grass and trash with their mouths and pass the items through their front legs and pack them into their curled tail for transport to their dens.
“When do the loons leave?” In September, Minnesota's adult loons travel to their winter home along the Atlantic coast from North Carolina south to Florida, or on the Gulf of Mexico. The parents leave before the chicks can fly. The young loons follow about a month later. In Minnesota, the peak is in mid-October. The bones of most birds are hollow and light, but loons have solid bones. The extra weight helps them dive as deep as 250 feet for food. They can stay underwater for five minutes. Because their bodies are heavy relative to their wing size, loons need a long runway to take flight from a lake. Minnesota supports the largest U.S. breeding population south of Alaska.
“How much honey can a honey bee produce?” According to The American Bee Journal, the average honey bee makes one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime and honey bees fly up to 15 mph.

Thanks for stopping by

“Neither great poverty nor great riches will hear reason.”—Henry Fielding.
"It is not half so important to know as to feel."—Rachel Carson.
Do good.

©Al Batt 2022