The corn fields are enjoying a sunny summer day after the rains earlier in the week. And more summer days are needed before a killing frost, especially for the farmers who were delayed in planting because of the wet spring.
Red Behind the Green
Picture of the Day for August 20, 2015
Hopefully the sun will peek out and shine today, otherwise the Black-eyed Susans will have to provide the sunshine. There are different hybrids from the native plant which are used in gardens and mine have multiplied quite well from the couple of plants I started with. Even giving a truckload away to a friend didn’t slow them down long but they sure add some bright color when most of the other flowers are done blooming.
Sea of Yellow Faces
Picture of the Day for August 19, 2015
With a crown of yellow, orange, or red feathers on its head (although normally concealed), the Eastern Kingbird looks rather stately in its tuxedo look. And it defends it territory like a king, harassing other birds that venture too close during the breeding season, while catching insects to eat. But its lifestyle changes during the winter months in the Amazon, where it eats fruits and travels in flocks.
Eastern Kingbird
Picture of the Day for August 18, 2015
Ducks love water so they should like the today’s rainy weather. There are many variety of ducks, even ones with a bad morning hairdo! But the bad hairdo on the White Crested duck is caused by a genetic mutation of the skull. Ducks with this mutation are born with a gap in their skull, which is filled with fatty tissue and from this tissue, the feathers sprouts.
People have continued to breed for this mutation, as early as 1600 as seen in paintings, but if a pair crested ducks are breed to each other, then about a quarter of the embryos to die in the shell because a double dose of the crested gene will cause the duckling’s brain to develop improperly outside of the skull. Half the offspring will be crested and the remaining quarter will be non-crested. When breeding a crested duck with a non-crested duck, half will be crested and the other half non-crested, with no lethal allele, although the crests are smaller than when breeding two crested ducks.
White Crested Duck
Picture of the Day for August 17, 2015
This flower (or weed) didn’t escape from gardens but most likely came as a stow-away from Europe and Asia in hay or alfalfa seed in the late 1890’s. Since then it has spread to 45 of the 50 states and has rapidly invaded Wisconsin’s prairies and barrens, as well as pastures, hay fields, ditches and other grassland areas.
Well it might look like a pretty purple flower, the spotted knapweed makes and then secretes chemicals into the soil which kill surrounding plants to aid its evasion.
Spotted Knapweed
Picture of the Day for August 16, 2015
Many of the rural churches are surrounded by farmland, like Immanuel Lutheran Church, which by its cornerstone stated it was Rebuilt in 1923, but I didn’t find any other history on the church.
With some rain moving in this afternoon, some farmers may be out baling hay on a Sunday to get it up before it gets wet.
Church Among the Fields
Picture of the Day for August 15, 2015
In the late summer, yards and ditches are filled with various types of lilies. Sometimes you notice a field with some lilies and other flowers, which at one time had surrounded a farm house, but has long been abandoned and the house was either torn down or fell down, leaving only a few indicators that something more once stood there.
Lilies in the Summer Sun
Picture of the Day for August 14, 2015
As the county fairs continue this summer, there will be people looking at the various exhibits and livestock and in some cases I think there is a bit of ‘people watching’ too and not just people watching other people but the critters watching all the weird humans. These two goats sure look like they are gossiping about the strange person with the camera even if they are really just chewing their cud, a necessary digestive step for ruminants.
Goats, like most ruminants do not have upper front teeth, so they graze by pressing their lower front teeth on the hard pad at the top of their mouth to pull the food into their stomach, or the first compartment of their stomach, with little chewing. The food is then mixed with saliva and softened. This softened small balls of food is called the cud. The cud is re-chewed slowly using their hind teeth, with a side to side grinding motion, before being swallowed again. Plants are hard to digest so this second cud chewing is required to get all of the nutrients from the food and to break the food down further for digestion.
Goat Gossip
Picture of the Day for August 13, 2015
The flower may be orange, but the fruit is a pale green pods which “explode” at the slightest touch, scattering the seeds in all directions, hence the name “touch me not”. The Spotted Touch-me-not is a native plant (and this time was transported to parts of Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries).
The plant is also known as Jewelweed and Orange Jewelweed – a reference to the way the spotted blossoms hand like a pendent jewel and leaves appear to be silver or ‘jeweled’ when held underwater. The wildflower is important nectar plants for hummingbirds and the stems also contain a juice that can relieve the sting from Poison Ivy or Stinging Nettle.
Spotted Touch-Me-Not
Picture of the Day for August 12, 2015
The cattle are enjoying a nice late summer day in the pasture and they better before they are walking in snow instead of grass as it seems summer is fading quickly this year.
Enjoying the Pasture
