It has been usually warm here this summer and this bunch of cows were hiding under the shade of an old willow tree yesterday. Normally there is a little creek next to the tree but that is bone dry right now.
There are calves in the long grass but you never know what else might be in the grass as I had a snake sunning itself on my path to the pond this morning but I didn’t get a picture since I sort of jumped so no snake picture, just cattle today.
Cattle under Willow Tree
Some of the road ditches have turned into a sea of pink. The Monarda media, better known as Purple Bergamont or Purple Bee Balm, is a native wildflower that is a member of the mint family. When I was taking pictures, there were more butterflies than bees on the flowers, or it seemed that way since the butterflies are larger. But I did spot one honey bee working hard so the Purple Bee Balm name could apply for this blossom.
Busy Bee on Purple Bergamont or Purple Bee Balm
Last evening I headed for a little creek where some little blue flowers called Forget-me-nots were blooming. But I was sidetracked with all the other wonderful things to see, including fish swimming in the clear water and this rock wall, and so the sun disappeared before I got many of the flower pictures. They are very small blue flowers and you can just barely see some in the lower left corner of the picture.
The Forget-me-nots are one flower where a close up shot is needed to see the tiny blossoms but they sure were pretty lining the creek sides. In a German legend, God named all the plants when a tiny unnamed one cried out, “Forget-me-not, O Lord!” God replied, “That shall be your name.”
Rock Wall near Creek
It is hard sometimes to pick the next picture after one of those rare spectacular scenes and I would have had a rare photo opportunity last night, but some idiot didn’t have the camera with. When I was mowing, I found three large freshly dug holes in my yard. I didn’t know if it was a woodchuck or a badger. The way the dirt was thrown back I suspected a badger and when I raced down to feed the fish before dark, two badgers came waltzing in and one came to the pond not very far away from me to get a drink. A frog hopped quickly in the pond to get away from the rather fierce looking critter.
But instead of their normal aggressive behavior, the two badgers seemed rather lovesick with each other, and the whole time I was watching them I was cussing myself out for not grabbing my camera since I had never been that close to a wild badger before.
I haven’t checked my lawn yet this morning since during the summer they normally use a new den each day and their burrows can be 30 feet long and 10 feet deep. Wisconsin got its nickname from the badger (course to me it should be the dairy cow instead). There was some lead miners in the far southwestern corner of the state in the 1830s who lived in temporary caves in the hillsides instead houses and the caves were described as badger dens and the miners were nicknamed badgers. And because of a few miners, I live in the Badger State instead of Dairy State.
I was surprised that the badgers weren’t more afraid of me since I was moving my arms when I was feeding my fish but they did seem a little love crazy as they were making noises and rubbing against each other and romping around. Mating does occur in late summer and early fall and since badgers experience delayed implantation, pregnancies are suspended until December or as late as February.
But since I don’t have a picture of the badger, because I didn’t take my camera along when I fed the fish, I guess I will have to use a picture of two other critters romping and rubbing each other.
Hereford Calves Playing
This was the sunset Friday night, in between two lines of storms, and even though there was possible destruction from the storms, there still was a ray of hope that everything would be just fine.
A Ray of Hope
I had a different photo planned for today but when I was feeding the fish in my pond this morning, I had a tree swallow coming straight for my head. While that is common if I am by their nest as they try to chase me away but what shocked me was when the swallow landed on my head. I have had other birds land on me but never a swallow as they seem like they are always on the go. I imagine it was a new baby testing out its wings and the flight across the pond probably tuckered the poor thing out.
It did seem a little creepy feeling the toes grabbing my hair and I was just hoping that it wouldn’t be potty break time too! Since it didn’t seem to be in a hurry to leave, I was going to resume feeding the fish but when I looked, all the fish had scattered since there was a bird close by (like on my head). It’s amazing the fish could pick out such a small bird compared to my big body but they did.
And since I couldn’t feed the fish, I reached up and put a couple of pieces of bread on my head to see if the bird was hungry. It didn’t take the bread but what surprised me was that it didn’t fly away when my hand was that close. So I just continued to stand there with the swallow on my head and no one else around to take a picture of it. Eventually rest break was over and the tree swallow flew off.
Tree Swallow on bird house
Since I haven’t posted a critter picture yet in this new volume of the picture of the day yet, I figured I better use a photo of my friend’s favorite critter. The chipmunk might not be on my favorite list since I am missing two marigolds and one petunia when I watered today. And several other pots are missing a lot of dirt.
The dang chipmunks are taking my sunflower seeds and burying them in the pot and the seeds sprout. So then they don’t have a stash of seeds and the birds didn’t get their seeds either. I thought I would try putting something around the shepherd hook pole they were climbing to get the seeds and I found a piece of plastic tree wrap and had it dangling down on the pole. But that didn’t stop them since it was just the right size for them in crawl through and it created a safety ladder cage instead for their climbing. I can’t win against them and you can see the nice digging toes they have. Now if I could only train them to dig the weeds instead of my flowers.
A Chipmunk on a Rock
The flowers are putting on their own type of firework show this summer, from the white, orange and yellow colors (along with the purple of the thistles I didn’t get cut). They don’t always form the perfect shape, with a petal bent, leaf missing or hole from a bug, but they still can put on quite the show. Even a show of one color can be interesting.
(I had a close-up shot of one of the blossoms with a huge daddy long leg spider on it, but I was good and refrained from posting it!)
Summer flowers
Well since there were some squishish reactions to yesterday’s spider picture, I’ll stay away from the insects today. I don’t mind the spiders so much if they are outside and I don’t get the web across my face but there is an insect I hate – those nasty mosquitoes that were biting me when I was getting the sunset last night so I didn’t venture out to take pictures the neighbor’s fireworks last night. So instead I had to use some of last year’s fireworks instead for today’s picture.
I’ll see if tonight the wind is blowing enough to chase the skeeters away and if I can get some new firework pictures.
Happy 4th of July!
There are those who don’t always appreciate my choice of subject matter. My cousin really did not care for my mouse pictures. The photographs of frogs disturbs some people and others don’t like insect photos unless it’s butterflies. A friend chewed me out for getting too close to bees (just because I’m allergic to them). But it seems the spider pictures get the most negative reaction, so I apologize upfront for today’s picture but I couldn’t resist the shot.
The dewdrops made the web stand out while the spider guards the fly caught in the web just below her.
Amazing Spider Web
