tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25285885025272060902024-02-21T01:17:15.268-06:00Urban Nature: Duluth, MNSonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426854940221973070noreply@blogger.comBlogger57125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528588502527206090.post-33238661451720890072011-08-21T12:45:00.006-05:002011-08-21T13:43:59.963-05:00not Duluth and not quite urban eitherLast week I went to Wisconsin Point with some friends. It is technically possible to get there with bus and bike, but it is a lot easier with a vehicle, so as a result I generally don't get out there unless somebody else drives me. It was more peopled than any of us would have liked, but that is to be expected on a beautiful summer evening. Although there was easily more dragonflies than Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426854940221973070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528588502527206090.post-50590414931984126662011-07-10T17:30:00.003-05:002011-07-10T17:43:04.053-05:00Why did the bear cross the road?Maybe he was headed to Taste of Greece up by Marshall.I was walking along Central Entrance when I saw what I thought at first was somebody's dog in the field downhill from the Coppertop Church but then realized it was a yearling black bear. I managed to snap a couple crappy cell phone pictures as he crossed the street (luckily there wasn't much traffic, just one car that slowed down as the bear Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426854940221973070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528588502527206090.post-30818707415898900142011-07-03T22:57:00.007-05:002011-07-04T00:05:52.245-05:00you can call me flower if you want toI was on the side of the road in the Antennae Farm, taking pictures of the viburnum (ain't it purty?) when I heard a rustling from behind me on the other side of the road. A few minutes earlier a raccoon family had crossed the road about 100 feet in front of me, and although the mother raccoon had stopped to glare at me until I turned away and pretended to be graze on vegetation so that she Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426854940221973070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528588502527206090.post-67858466298976551082011-06-26T21:13:00.006-05:002011-06-26T21:58:01.305-05:00wild orchidsI have been so busy hustling to make ends meet and trying to get my garden in in the few scraps of spare time that I have that I ended up missing a lot this spring/summer. But at least I did not completely miss the ladyslippers.I have three ladyslipper spots out east within walking distance of each other. The first two were a complete bust--no ladyslippers at all, not even any evidence that Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426854940221973070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528588502527206090.post-23430680243832315032011-01-28T13:18:00.004-06:002011-01-28T15:27:13.970-06:00getting political: PolyMet and sulfide miningLast weekend I attended a meeting organizing a grassroots movement against sulfide mining. I think I'm probably too undereducated and hermitish to be of much help, but I figured at the very least I could blog about it.PolyMet is proposing open-pit mines in northeastern Minnesota near the communities of Babbitt, Hoyt Lakes, Biwabik and Aurora. This part of the state has a long history of iron Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426854940221973070noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528588502527206090.post-66843841956949007292010-12-19T19:39:00.005-06:002010-12-19T20:09:12.274-06:00ice, iceGreentangle's been posting so many lovely pictures of ice that have been reminding me that I haven't gotten down to the lake much at all this winter, so today I went out for a quick foray through Lester Park and then down to Kitchi Gammi to visit the lake. Today the high was around 20 and down my the lake there was a sometimes biting wind, but I brought a thermos of hot tea and wore a lot of Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426854940221973070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528588502527206090.post-4141395238673957602010-12-05T19:09:00.006-06:002010-12-05T20:12:21.248-06:00Antenna Farm updateClarkhouse Creek is still flowing, albeit only marginally, but the pond is completely frozen over, although I didn't try walking on it to test the thickness. The forest was mostly quiet except for a few crows and chickadees, plus two dogs that came barreling down a long driveway to bark at me, which doesn't really count. There were also a few deer browsing on shrubs, and lots of deer and rabbitSonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426854940221973070noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528588502527206090.post-47109598113568153452010-11-22T14:53:00.004-06:002010-11-22T15:27:49.601-06:00sick day with chickadeesIt looks very picturesque out there, with temps in the 20s and softly falling light, dry snow. Unfortunately there will be no frolicking for me today because the only reason I'm not shut away in a near-windowless factory is because I am getting over the worst cold I've had in years. My walk to the compost pile earlier is probably all the outdoors time I get today.So instead I am browsing Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426854940221973070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528588502527206090.post-79821896243263684152010-09-28T20:16:00.007-05:002010-09-28T21:32:31.335-05:00golden fall dayIn town the maples are starting to turn and are flaming up the boulevards, but in Lester it is mostly birch and aspen coloring the landscape in warm yellow. Smaller plants like ferns and sumac are also preparing for autumn.Lester is one of my favorite city parks. I like the rivers, and the landscape seems more deep woodsy than a lot of other parks, and it seems like I fairly consistently find Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426854940221973070noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528588502527206090.post-57778585144540928352010-09-14T17:32:00.003-05:002010-09-14T18:14:24.590-05:00nature in the Friendly West EndNature, of course, continues. I've been busy with a new job that is otherwise good except that I'm stuck in a windowless basement all day, and I have never really mastered the skill of balancing a 40 hour work week with having a life, so I'm not getting out as much as I'd like (although I do have a recent Antenna Farm jaunt to write up).Today I overslept just enough to miss my usual bus, and I Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426854940221973070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528588502527206090.post-59362907348981170702010-08-09T21:42:00.003-05:002010-08-09T21:54:11.995-05:00swimmin' againToday the high temp (according to my thermometer) was 88 and the humidity level was around 70% most of the day, and if that isn't a perfect day to go jump in the lake, I don't know what is. This time I didn't want to make the trek to a specific "swimming beach" so I just found some little cove in the hillside where the shoreline is rocky and the rocks are kind of slimy once you're more than a Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426854940221973070noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528588502527206090.post-79508324945507202662010-08-03T12:28:00.006-05:002010-08-03T12:56:56.691-05:00thimbleberries and more in ChesterThe thimbleberries in Chester are ripe now, and while they are not as abundant as they have been in years past, there is enough ripe fruit just off of the trail for a sizable snack without quite gorging myself. (Although it is also somewhat early in the season, and there might be more substantial yields in a week or two.) Wild raspberries are ripe now, too, but in Chester they are much less Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426854940221973070noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528588502527206090.post-63613437787488965902010-07-27T16:31:00.008-05:002010-08-03T12:54:52.043-05:00park point, late julyI used to live on South Street and 16th, literally just a block from Lake Superior. The shore there is not a sandy beach, but I did have really easy access to the water and I could usually find a little stretch of lake all to myself and go swimming a couple times every summer. Since I moved from that apartment five years ago, I haven't gone swimming once, so I was long overdue. It's been Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426854940221973070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528588502527206090.post-27646488551507643662010-07-24T21:51:00.002-05:002010-07-24T21:54:47.055-05:00black swallowtail pupation picsI'm raising black swallowtail butterflies again this year, and tonight I got to watch one of them pupate. I wrote about it in my other blog. Go check it out!Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426854940221973070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528588502527206090.post-46261099070960437422010-07-19T18:58:00.007-05:002010-07-19T19:47:38.580-05:00rush of summerOkay, wanting to post stuff on the day that I observe it obviously isn't working, because the result more often than not is that I don't post at all, and in the middle of summer when there is so much happening--even if I'm not getting out enough to see it all--I really don't want to go back and post date entry after entry. So from here on out I officially switch to slapdash summaries and Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426854940221973070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528588502527206090.post-40414474667310218112010-07-05T18:22:00.007-05:002010-07-05T18:53:09.207-05:00inflated and exploding fabaceaeMowing the lawn with an electric mower is a pretty hateful task, but mowing the lawn with a reel mower is almost enjoyable. You can hear the birds sing, watch butterflies (I had to wait a few times for cabbage whites to finish nectaring at the hawkweed; luckily for the butterflies the reel mower tends to just roll over some of the taller, wirier plants like hawkweed, so even after I mow there's Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426854940221973070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528588502527206090.post-40013168462556771122010-07-02T22:47:00.006-05:002010-07-02T23:14:27.717-05:00Chester tonightCells phones are annoying and horrible inventions, but I have one anyway because there's always the possibility I might fall into a ravine and break my legs and have to call for help (anti-spoiler: that is not what happens in this entry). My very old, decrepit cell phone was finally starting to die, so I got a new one, and the new one has a crappy camera. The camera is very crappy, and the Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426854940221973070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528588502527206090.post-42951395358873076832010-06-29T21:54:00.008-05:002010-09-28T21:35:57.888-05:00pyrolas and damselfliesI've barely gotten out this June--the weather, my schedule and my mood did not often happily align--and I've missed so much. Missed the ladyslippers, missed twinflowers, missed coralroot, barely saw any clintonia and columbine and sarsaparilla and mertensia. So today I set aside silly things like job hunting and housework and went and walked around in the woods for a while.June has turned out Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426854940221973070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528588502527206090.post-26543765799164871362010-06-16T17:18:00.002-05:002010-06-16T17:32:48.673-05:00rodent omensThis must be my week for meeting new mammals. Today I was running errands out west, and I can't say I was really paying much attention to the scenery, when all of a sudden a groundhog runs across the sidewalk, moving much more quickly than I would have expected a groundhog to move. I've never really given groundhogs much thought, and was somehow under the impression that they lived Somewhere Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426854940221973070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528588502527206090.post-40302513481254008732010-06-10T20:53:00.004-05:002010-06-10T21:37:01.113-05:00a real live weasel!In my backyard this evening, I saw what I can only guess is a weasel. There was a small mammal back by my neighbor's shed, and I thought, "Well, huh, that's a funny looking squirrel." So I got out my binoculars. The animal in question was about the size of a gray squirrel, but with reddish brown fur, larger ears, a longer snout, a thin weaselly body, and a skinny dark tail. Consulting my Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426854940221973070noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528588502527206090.post-39959644894193944032010-06-08T20:33:00.003-05:002010-06-08T20:47:28.901-05:00botanical transitionsLupine are blooming already, despite the cold and the wet. My cultivated spiderwort has been blooming for about a week, and now the native spiderwort is blooming, too. Some volunteer rough cinquefoil in my yard is just starting to flower, and the volunteer wild strawberries are still putting out a few flowers but are mostly concentrating on making tiny fruit. Chokecherries are long done Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426854940221973070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528588502527206090.post-51729793863004794122010-05-20T23:44:00.004-05:002010-05-21T22:32:00.133-05:00Hartley frogs, revistedAs nice as my last trip to Hartley to monitor the frogs was, even nicer is going on a similar hike with a friend who is smarter and more observant than me, because that way I see things like a spotted sandpiper on the rocks by the big pond and an osprey fishing overhead (okay, I probably would have noticed the osprey on my own). She was also able to identify that the flutey hooting noise that I Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426854940221973070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528588502527206090.post-73603674652059268462010-05-16T17:22:00.005-05:002010-05-16T17:47:24.611-05:00house finch updateThe baby house finches, meanwhile, are getting really big, really fast. I only noticed the babies for sure a week ago on the 9th (there was some activity on Friday the 7th, but I couldn't clearly see what; that was also the day of the freak blizzard). And then today suddenly they are big enough that one of them accidentally fledged. The babies hadn't previously been bothered by me using the Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426854940221973070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528588502527206090.post-16301767889048995082010-05-14T12:47:00.003-05:002010-05-14T13:05:59.919-05:00more predator dramaI was fixing breakfast for the cats when there was suddenly a ruckus outside, a flock of robins attacking some predator near the nest (from the angle of the kitchen window, I cannot see the nest or the predator). This was more than just the nesting pair, this was at least eight robins all swooping and squawking. Soon, a crow flies off with what I am assuming is one of the baby robins in his Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426854940221973070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528588502527206090.post-88716408830735806832010-05-09T21:02:00.005-05:002010-05-11T18:50:08.339-05:00hikes not spent aloneI took my friend C. out to the Antenna Farm today, and at her encouragement we walked down an ATV trail that I hadn't previously explored, which went through a very pretty birch woods with several small hills and valleys. At the pond, C. heard a pied-billed grebe (something I certainly wouldn't have been able to recognize by sound alone) and later saw a swamp sparrow. In the woods, there were Sonyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426854940221973070noreply@blogger.com0