Someone on NextDoor caught a great video of a coyote casually trotting along on frozen Diamond Lake. I don't know if you can see it if you aren't subscribed to NextDoor, but here's a link.

Go, nature. 

Kilauea Volcano says HELLO for the solstice. Jupiter and Saturn kiss. And look what I saw out my kitchen window this morning!!

This is, of course, a Pileated Woodpecker. They used to be a rare and elusive bird, but in recent years people have been seeing them all over the Twin Cities, frequently in nesting pairs. But this is my first sighting. I've wanted to see one for 50 years, since  I was a camp counselor in 1969 in rural New Jersey. The old lady who ran the camp was an intense birder, and used to take us all on early-morning birding expeditions. It had been her lifelong goal to see a Pileated, and we were constantly instructed to keep an eye out for them, but we never saw one (as if you could miss them). Besides the flamboyant coloration, they are a foot-and-a-half tall! And noisy! 

 So, yesterday Eileen and I were hunting Pokemon. Parked on Nicollet Island, walked across the bridge to St. Anthony Main and turned right along the  walking path. We were immediately hailed by a frantic looking young guy in a bike helmet sputtering, "Wait! Don't go that way! WASPS!!" At first I thought it was somebody who had accidentally encountered a nest of some kind.  Scary, but it happens. Turns out it was much much worse than that. This guy had stopped at a picnic table by the bike path for a little picnic lunch when a few yellow jackets started going after his banana. One stung him on the leg, another on the back of his neck. He looked up from his lunch and realized that a HUGE SWARM OF WASPS had descended on the picnic table and was MOVING INTO HIS BACKPACK as he sat there!!  He ran for it, and they didn't follow. But there were literally hundreds of them swarming the picnic table, the backpack, and his bike. He had a long branch in his hand and seemed to think that he could chase them off or maybe rescue his backpack with it... but that really didn't seem like a good plan. We talked him out of attacking them with a stick, and suggested that what he needed was wasp spray. The guy wouldn't leave the area because he felt responsible for warning everybody that came near. And sure enough, as he was talking to us a jogger came along and got a little too close to the table, then looked alarmed and started swatting at the air, then turned around and ran. 

Eileen and I weren't sure what to do to help. We walked a ways upstream and attacked a gym while trying to think of someplace to buy wasp spray. Really, St. Anthony Main isn't the best place to look for useful stores, so we would have to walk back to our car. We headed back to Wasp Central to ask him if we should do that and saw that reinforcements had arrived. The poor guy couldn't get to his phone (we hadn't realized this, but it was in his backpack!) but a passerby had thought to call .... well who DO you call in this situation? 911? Animal Control? 

It turns out that the right call is the Park Department. Amazingly enough, a truck had showed up already and a guy in a Park Department vest was bravely emptying a can of wasp spray at the picnic table. Then he pulled out a long telescoping pole with a kind of double hook on the end, snagged the backpack, pulled it out and tossed it out of the way. Then he did the same thing with the bike. The spray didn't seem terribly lethal, but I think it slowed the wasps down considerably. There were still some buzzing around the backpack for a little while, but they eventually emerged and sort of staggered away (only flying). I asked the park guy if this happens often and he said (sounding a little shaken), "First time I've heard of." But they did seem to have the right equipment for the job, so kudos to the Minneapolis Park Department.

It seems like I've been seeing more monarch butterflies than usual around town this year, but this is the first time I've seen anything like THIS. Are they gathering for migration already?

And does anybody know what that blue/purple flower is that they are clustered all over? It's a huge favorite with both monarchs and honeybees (which also seem to be more numerous than normal this year, although still heartbreakingly rare).

The annual St. John Soldier Crab march has commenced! Actually, they are hermit crabs. But on St. John they call them soldier crabs. Probably because they keep putting on their little helmets and doing this.

http://www.on-stjohn.com/2013/08/28/the-hermit-crab-march/

Woke up feeling kind of logey and cranky, but the sun came out and I just had to try out the new snow on Hiawatha Golf Course. I can't believe how it perked me up! It was a beautiful day for skiing; I'm surprised there weren't more people out. But fortunately there had been enough eager beavers to lay down a fine set of volunteer ski tracks. I had originally planned to turn around after 20 minutes but I was having so much fun I went all the way around the loop. That is probably 2-3 miles, although it took me an hour. (I'm not the world's fastest skier.)

Sorry I missed the chance to say goodbye to you at the airport, ambertatge. (I guess I'm not the world's best mother either.) It was great having you home for Christmas! Good luck making it through the Houston airport!

Skiing on Hiawatha Golf Course, New Year's Day, 3:16 p.m Beautiful day for skiing when the sun came out in the afternoon.

So there was this big ol' turtle mama crossing the road just south of the QLogic parking lot yesterday morning as Sue and I car-pooled in. Of course I stopped the car and jumped out to look at her. A really big turtle - probably 8" long, very clear-eyed and vigorous. A lot more aggressive than my little one - she made a valiant effort to bite my finger off when I picked her up. It kind of amazes me that the wildlife in these horrid looking little drainage ponds is so thriving. Heck, I'm surprised anything lives in them at all. Probably no fish. But TONS of frogs and turtles and waterfowl.

Anyway, I picked up mama turtle, looked her over, and then put her down on the side of the road she was heading towards. In another month or so there should be a line of brave little baby turtles heading across the same road towards the pond on the other side. I hope a few of the little buggers make it.

Male painted turtles have extra long claws on their front feet. Apparently they are used as some sort of *ahem* turtle sex toy. Bucky's foreclaws are definitely not long enough for a mature male. It's possible that the claws don't elongate until puberty. But there are also some differences in the tail, and I think Bucky's looks more feminine. So I'm pretty sure Bucky's a she.

Male turtle forefoot Downloaded from Internet. Note super-long claws on middle toes.	Bucky's left forefoot The claws would be longer on a male, especially the two in the middle.

Bucky the turtle continues to thrive. She's living in an aquarium in the backyard where she gets maybe 3 hours of sun a day for basking. She's never been exactly cowed by people, but she's definitely getting tamer. According to online info, hatchlings of her species are almost entirely carnivorous. As their growth slows they become gradually more omnivorous (e.g., eating more plant material in addition to insects, fish, and anything else that happens to fall in the water and die). Bucky is at least a couple of years old, but still seems to be in the carnivorous stage. She gobbles up worms and bits of raw meat. She's not very interested in bugs with hard shells, at least when she has softer meat to eat. So far she's shown no interest in fruit or vegetable matter, or even in fish food. The turtle we had when the kids were little was happy to eat fish food, so this may just be a matter of preference for Bucky. As long as she has juicy worms and bits of kielbasa, she turns up her nose at dry food.

( More turtle info and picture behind cut )

Yesterday I took a little midday bike ride around the nature paths and drainage ponds of lovely Shakopee and found a little painted turtle crossing the bike path from one slough to another. I took her home to Richard, who always seems a trifle forlorn without some livestock to care for. I must admit, he didn't seem quite as enthusiastic as I'd hoped when I called and asked him to prepare an aquarium on short notice ("But I have flowers to plant!"). But sure enough, when I got home there was a pretty little tank set up and waiting for a turtle occupant, with a basking platform at one end and some random foliage floating at the other end to provide a feeling of shelter.

Bucky, as I'd taken to calling her, was delighted to get back in the water after a few hours in a cardboard box. So far she's shown no interest in the basking platform and has spent all her time floating under the leaves with just her nose sticking up or scrabbling at the puzzling glass walls. She didn't seem at all interested in food. I'm not sure if she was too excited to eat or just wasn't hungry. How often do turtles eat, anyway?

She's a very lively turtle with high self-esteem. Anyway, not one of those shy turtles that cowers in her shell. She pulled in and hid for maybe 5 minutes after I picked her up, but by the time I got back to the QLogic building she was craning her neck to look around and trying to climb out of my hand. She was very active in the cardboard box, too. I picked her up and talked to her frequently and she didn't seem the least bit scared or aggressive. But if somebody unfamiliar held her she seemed to detect the difference immediately, and pulled back into her shell for a few seconds to think about it. I don't know how they do it, but turtles do seem to distinguish between one person and another. I would have expected that we all look alike to them, but we saw similar behavior with the other pet turtles we've had in the past.

I don't know if we'll keep her or not - it depends on how well she adjusts. At the moment she's in a relatively small tank sitting by the fountain in the back yard. It just seems like she'd be better off outside where she can get some actual sunshine. We don't have a lot of large predators in the city, unless raccoons are a danger. Anyway, she made it through the night.