Sept. 19, 2021 - End of Summer - 1

Summer is coming to an end here in Minnesota. I still have a group of photos, taken over the last several months, that I want to share with you. I usually like to have my weekly group of photos relate to a theme or tell a story. This week, however, the only thing these photos have in common is that they were taken during the past summer.

This White-tailed Deer and her two fawns were walking along the shore across the bay from our home in northern Minnesota.

DeerWhitetailedDunningLakeItascaCounty20210814

I was looking out a window of our apartment in the Twin Cities and saw a dark spot on the wall of the building across the courtyard. I used my binoculars and discovered it was a bat. It’s unusual to see a bat perched right out in the open during the day. Even though it was a long distance away, I decided to take a photo and see what I could get. This is a heavily cropped photo, but it still turned out pretty well. I have no idea what kind of bat this is, so I would be grateful for any ID help I can get.

BatWaverlyGardensNorthOaksRamseyCounty20210825TGP

We had a very pleasant surprise in our wildflower garden this summer. About a half dozen of these Bottle Gentian plants appeared and produced flowers. They were not in the original mix of seeds that we planted seven years ago. We’ve never seen them growing wild in our area and I don’t think they are a common wildflower. How they got here is a mystery, but we are happy to have them.

GentianCreamGentianaalbaWildflowerGardenDunningLakeItascaCounty20210905

When I turn on our porch light at night to see if I can attract any moths, I often see other insects as well. I submitted this photo to BugGuide.net. They didn’t identify it to the species level, but they at least told me it was in the subfamily of Short-tailed Ichneumonid Wasps.

IchneumonidWaspShorttailedDunningLakeItascaCounty20210815

Green Lacewing is another common insect attracted to the light.

LacewingGreenDunningLakeItascaCounty20210717

KinfisherBeltedmaleDunningLakeItascaCounty20210725

I was very surprised when a group of four Evening Grosbeaks appeared July 30 at our lake home in northern Minnesota. They used to be regular visitors to our yard, but this is only the fourth sighting in the last 10 years. It’s also unusual to see them in the summer; they are usually winter visitors.

GrosbeakEveningDunningLakeItascaCounty20210730