Summer means fair time, including livestock exhibits as well as a variety of other exhibits. Even smaller critters make their way to the fair, like this rabbit who seems to be keeping track of all the visitors with one ear listening backward and the other ear forward.
Bunny at the Fair
Besides bees, butterflies and hummingbirds, blossoms attract other insects or the foliage does. Although this beetle may be a bit lost as the Red Milkweed Beetle feed on common milkweed and there wasn’t any in this flower garden, but the beetle did find some orange milkweed instead. The bright red and black colors come from ingesting the common milkweed plant’s toxins which advertise that they are inedible.
Red Milkweed Beetle
The road ditches are coming alive with pink patches of wild bad hair days or little fireworks of the Wild Bergamot. The two to four foot tall native plant ranges from purple to lavender to pink blossoms and is a is a favorite of butterflies, bees and hummingbirds.
Wild Bergamot Blossoms
Taking a boat ride on a warm Sunday summer day is one way to cool down between the colder water temperature and catching the wind during the boat adventure, like to view a lighthouse on an island. Michigan Island is part of the Apostle Islands and has two lighthouses beside each other. The first was built in 1856 with an attached dwelling and the second taller lighthouse was built erected in 1929.
Michigan Island Lighthouses
A very warm summer day makes a perfect day to head to the beach and getting caught by a chilly wave would actually feel good.
Saturday Beach Time
Normally on a sunny summer day, the pond is filled with activities in the water and above, with frogs floating on the surface before diving under and dragonflies dart around the edge. The Twelve-spotted Skimmer gets its name from the three dark spots on its four wings resulting in twelve dark patches.
Twelve-spotted Skimmer
The size of the Great Blue Heron makes them easier to spot than a Green Heron, but the tendency of the Green Heron to conceal themselves on the edge of the water behind vegetation makes it hard to spot them. A few days ago I scared a Green Heron out of my pond and the following day another flew out of the cattails along the road. And again today, while I was mowing, I think I chased the same heron away. Even when I search for them, I never spot the heron until it is airborne and maybe I might get a photo if I see where it lands in a tree, where even there it is hidden by leaves.
Green Heron Hiding
Summer means lilies blooming in a range of color and shapes, like these dancing orange blossoms in a road ditch, although it is another non-native plant that has escape from gardens.
Tiger Lilies Dancing
Yesterday I spotted a male ring-necked pheasant trying to corral his chicks off the highway and back into the ditch and hopefully he was successful keeping them off the road.
Young Pheasants
Some of the road ditches and fields are showing balls of color as the common milkweed begin to bloom. More than 450 insects species feed on the milkweed, including the ant at the top of the flower. The decline in milkweed plants plays a significant part in the monarch butterfly population decline.
Common Milkweed Blooming
