There are certainly many signs of life. Multiple sets of deer tracks converge on and depart from an area of exposed grass just below the Ordway picnic shelter. Could a couple of deer have bedded down here the night before?
An impressive hornet nest can be seen from the boardwalk, its entrance clearly visible. Hornet queens build nests in the spring, chewing wood and mixing it with their saliva to create the paper-like substance with which the nests are made.
Chickadees call, and one goes to work extracting seeds, clutching the seedhead with her feet as she hangs upside down, her weight seemingly negligible.
As I near the end of my walk, I venture out onto the boardwalk, where I’m surprised to find marsh marigold in bloom! Usually associated with early spring, this plant can sometimes re-bloom in autumn.
Several non-native plants are thriving along the trail, including velvet leaf, sowthistle, and flower-of-an-hour (so named because each flower blooms for only a few hours on a single sunny day).
I’ve heard gray catbirds calling since arriving at the Arb, and have caught glimpses of them as they rustle about in the undergrowth. Finally one is in plain view perched in a tree, tail lifted as it calls its characteristic “mew.”
Swamp milkweed is being visited by various pollinators, including one of the cooler insects you’ll see in Minnesota—the hummingbird clearwing. This moth hovers like its namesake as it sips nectar with its long proboscis, and its wings are, yes, clear.
A great spangled frittilary bounces about in the greenery. And eyed brown butterflies (or Appalachian browns? Or both? So similar!) show up several times as I walk along.
Fun fact: jack-in-the-pulpit plants are either male or female, but they can change gender from year to year, apparently in response to successful or failed reproduction the prior year.
On the little island in the Iris Garden pond, a pair of Canada geese is caring for newly hatched goslings. One of the little ones loses its balance and tumbles down into the water, then scampers back to join the others.
Nature Notes