When it Rains...

Orange and Clouded Sulphurs

(Colias eurytheme and philodice)

As the old adage goes...it does pour.  Everything to excess this summer it seems!  Too much rain!  Too much work to wade through (much because of the rain).  But who could ever say too many butterflies?!  Don't look at me!

It has been a busy summer for the Sulphurs...for a couple weeks there they seemed to commit a mass amount of lives to highway traffic.  But on the rural roads and yards every where they are adding a great deal of color.

I'm just stepping off a busy weekend from a bio blitz at Lost Island Lake.  It was a great time to see butterflies, dragonflies, mammals, birds, prairie plants - you name it!  I was in charge of the prairie plant inventory process.  

A Bio Blitz is when a bunch of folks get together in organized groups and methodically walk through specific locations and list species they find.  This is an exciting process but very intense, especially when you are trying to determine species closely related to others or which may be new to you!  I am still going through the listing process but getting closer to the end...it'll be interesting to see what we found as an event!

Get out if you can and enjoy what's going on right now...it's pretty amazing out there!

June! Where Ya Goin'?!

Daisy Fleabane

How's it happen? Is it just me?! June finally came and now it's about gone! Well, we have till next Tuesday but it still looms as a past deed about to be retrospect.

I'm finally rapping up a long job here and am hoping for some real prairie time and even easel time (!) fairly soon. Meanwhile everything has no regard for my absence and continues full steam ahead.

The prairie remnant pasture here is a good example...during this week we've had more plants come into bloom...just to name a few there's the almost weedy Daisy Fleabane shown at the top of this blog. It's not a particularly attractive plant but the blooms are quaint and from a distance they bring an air of fun.

Butterfly Milkweed

A real favorite, the Butterfly Milkweed is just now blooming here...it is a drop dead gorgeous bloom...unlike other milkweeds, this Asclepias does not have a milky discharge if broken...the Monarch caterpillars love to eat the seed pods on this plant, almost preferring them over leaves.

Pale Penstemon

Our smaller Penstemon, Pale Penstemon is in bloom now, just coming on after it's larger brethren has finished out (the Large-flowered Beardtongue). I like the tubular flowers and so do the Hummingbirds and the Bumble Bees.

"July Afternoon, Compass Plant"
oil on mounted canvas

And now summer must really be here as the Compass Plants have just begun their colors...we waited 5 years for our first bloomers here a couple years back; there's more each year now. This was a small oil painting I did of a Compass Plant last year...ya the title won't fit for a week yet but they bloom through July.

I wanted to mention an event this weekend near here if you have either Saturday or Sunday free. The nature center at Lost Island in Palo Alto County is having a "bioblitz"! The public is welcome and encouraged to participate.

It's a 24 Hour Snapshot/Inventory of Animals & Plants and the public is invited to join scientists as they survey over 7,000 acres of prairie, wetland, lake and timber. Teams will inventory mammals, birds, insects, fish, prairie & wetland plants. Fun stuff!!

I volunteered to help out so am looking forward to it.

You can join us for all or part of this event - it starts at noon on Saturday and goes through Sunday. Register by calling 712-837-4866.

Keep cool out there!