Monday, September 26, 2011

Monday Phenology Podcast: September 26, 2011

Posted by Kirk
Once again, for those of you who are too lazy to read or like to listen to my soothing voice on your commute or while you pretend to work on that spreadsheet, I present the podcast of Monday Phenology for September 26, 2011.


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Monday Phenology: September 26, 2011

Posted by Kirk 4 Comments
I, for one, am having trouble getting up in the morning. Anyone else notice how late the sun is rising? The sun rose at 7:04 AM this morning and will set at 7:03 PM  giving us almost exactly 12 hours of day and night. This brings up an interesting point. Is today the equinox?  We tend to think of the equinox as the date with equal hours of light and darkness. This isn't true. The equinox, which was three days ago, is the day when the earth's axis is tilted neither towards nor away from the sun. The day of equal light and darkness is technically called the equilux but the day this happens depends on your latitude. So, happy equilux to all of you who live on or near the 45th parallel!  We're losing about 3 minutes of sunlight per day so that means this Monday is 22 minutes shorter than last week's. Make the best use of the light.


Your Phenology week in Review:

Monday as I drove to work I counted 150 geese flying over Snelling Ave in Roseville. These birds are not technically migrating they are staging. They group up in the small lake behind the MN-DOT transportation department building at the intersection of Hwy 36 and Snelling Ave N. The lake may also be part of Cedarholm golf course. The geese spend the night on the water and then fly to the corn fields at the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus by day to fatten up. The numbers of geese seem to grow every day. At work we also had the first bird banding of the season. There were 63 birds caught and a total of 21 different species. Here's the list of what's hanging around or migrating through.

Chestnut-sided warbler 2
Magnolia warbler 1
Nashville warbler 6
Tennessee warbler 3
Common yellowthroat 2
Black and white warbler 1
Myrtle warbler 2
Orange-crowned warbler 1
Western palm warbler 10
Ovenbird 2
Eastern phoebe 2
Black-capped chickadee 8
Ruby crowned kinglet 1
Downy woodpecker 2
Song sparrow 1
Swainson's thrush 1
White-throated sparrow 7
Gray catbird 8
Rose-breated grosbeak 1
American robin 1

Tuesday was a wildly windy day. In the last hour of the day we decided to try to do some monarch tagging at work. Some readers may have seen the monarch tagging video I posted during the week. We caught about 25 monarchs in the nets but some escaped as we tried to catch more. In the end, we had 18 we were able to tag and release.

Wednesday morning I noticed that there seem to be a lot more crows around. Maybe it is because tey are staring to form their larger winter groups. It will be something to watch for. At work we had the second banding of the year and caught the following birds.

American redstart 2
Chestnut-sided warbler 2
Magnolia warbler 3
Nashville warbler 5
Tennessee warbler 3
Common yellowthroat 2
Orange-crowned warbler 1
Northern waterthrush 2
Green heron 1
Eastern phoebe 1
Black-capped chickadee 8
Ruby crowned kinglet 3
Downy woodpecker 2
Swamp sparrow 1
Song sparrow 3
White-throated sparrow 2
Scarlet tanager 1
Gray catbird 2
Rose-breated grosbeak 1
Brewers blackbird 1

Thursday
banding numbers were a little smaller.

American redstart 1
Chestnut-sided warbler 2
Magnolia warbler 1
Nashville warbler 1
Tennessee warbler 2
Ovenbird 3
Black-capped chickadee 3
Ruby crowned kinglet 3
Blue-headed vireo 1
Song sparrow 2
Swamp sparrow 3
Gray cheeked thrush 1
White-throated sparrow 5
House finch 3
Gray catbird 3

Friday I noticed my asters are finally starting to bloom in the garden. It is always so fun to have that end of the summer color arrive.

Saturday I taught a birthday party for a Kindergartner at work and decided it would be fun to try to catch some more monarchs. There were still a few hanging around. I saw four of them and was able to catch two. We tagged them and sent them on their way. I taught canoeing in the afternoon and watched three young bald eagles hanging out at the lake. A turkey vulture came migrating through and the young eagles caused a ruckus and chased it a little when it swooped too close to where they were. The trees were about 5% changed on the lake but it was sunny so hopefully we'll see more color soon. We seem behind on our colors this fall and my suspicion is that the lack of sunlight is to blame. We need sun to create the anthocyanins in the leaves that give us the bright reds.

Speaking of sunshine, Sunday was a beautiful sunny day. We slept in and then hiked along the Mississippi at Fort Snelling State Park. The trees were still fairly green down at the river but you could tell things were drying out. We ate a late lunch outside and probably finished around 3:00. It was getting chilli by then. This fall sun certainly doesn't pack the heating power it did in the summer and I've noticed it chills down pretty quick in the afternoons now.

What to expect this week:

I'm looking for color this week. We're finally getting some sunshine which is doubly important for fall color. Sunlight helps the trees produce sugar though photosynthesis. Sugar is a key component needed to make the anthocyanins necessary for the reds and purples we see in the fall. The process that creates anthocyanins is also driven by sunlight. I think this is the week we'll really start to see a big change in the trees. Keep your fingers crossed, we seem to be a little behind schedule.
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Friday, September 23, 2011

Monarch Tagging

Posted by Kirk


There's a lot happening outside this season. One of the most spectacular is the fall monarch migration. These small creatures migrate thousands of miles from as far north as Canada and they head south to the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt mountains in Mexico.

We're tagging these monarchs to help with research on survival rates and migration routes. We're not just looking for people to recover these in Mexico though, anyone along the route south that catches a migrating monarch has a chance to catch one that has already been tagged. Recaptures from along the route are just as much if not more important so take a closer look at any monarchs you see this fall.

Look like fun? You can tag monarchs too.

~Kirk
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Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Feral Honeybee Video

Posted by Kirk
Recorded September 20, 2011 at the Lee & Rose Warner Nature Center in Marine on St. Croix Minnesota. Our director first noticed this last week and at the time the comb was white. It has since turned yellow as you can see in the video. It is also interesting to watch at the end when a tree branch pushes up against the comb. It moves it around a puts a dent in it. ~Kirk
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Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Could Minnesota be a Solar Powerhouse?

Posted by Kirk


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Return of the Twin Cities Naturalist Podcast

Posted by Kirk
I'm experimenting with the return of the Twin Cities Naturalist Podcast. This is basically for those of you too lazy to read or for those of you who just can't get enough of my sexy voice.

Enjoy and let me know what you think. Should I keep recording a podcast of my weekly phenology reports?

 
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Monday, September 19, 2011

Monday Phenology: September 19, 2011

Posted by Kirk
I took a little vacation from phenology but things are back on track. What did we miss?

Back in the last week in August, there were lots of cicadas around with their constant drone. I could even seen them slowing flying from tree to tree. I watched a flycatcher chase one though the neighbors yard

Tuesday, August 30th, I went to wake my son up and heard him say, "It can't be morning yet, the sun isn't up." This has become a familiar refrain now. Even a three and a half year old knows something has changed.

Thursday, September 1st, a Common Nighthawk was hunting in neighborhood. They are migrating south and I'm seeing reports of them around the metro.

Friday, September 2nd my co-worker Paul discovered a Mourning Dove nest with eggs in it.  Seems pretty late so I'm assuming this is not the first brood.

Friday, September 9th there were reports of smoke all around the Twin Cities and a strange smell in the air. The source turned out to be a fire all the way up in Canada.

Here's last week's phenology round-up:

Monday -Where did all the monarch's go? While thy can still be found, it seems there are very few around. Last week the fields were thick with them, now they are scarce. I saw a kettle of six turkey vultures migrating on my way home.  There are hints of color out there in the trees but I'm struck by how much it seems everything is on pause. I began to see color four weeks ago but it seems little has changed.

Tuesday it finally felt like fall. Monday's high temps blew away (as did a portion of my fence) with the strong wind out of the north. By Tuesday morning, it was cool in Minnesota and we hay have seen our last hurrah of summer. In the northern part of the state, they were flirting with frost. Highlight of the day, managed to spot a pair of migrating Northern Parula at work. The spring seemed good for Parula as well which is interesting.

Wednesday: The pause has been lifted. Colors are coming on faster now. Today I noticed increased color in Elms and Basswood. The woods are very quiet, it seems like there are almost no birds at all.

Thursday I awoke to discover the first frost of the year. The roof of both my garage and house were covered in a blanket of white frost. Since I had parked outside. I had to really blast the heat to get the layer of frost off the windows of my car. This was about two weeks earlier than the median for central Minnesota.

Friday morning the drive to work seemed very birdy. I saw a large flock of wild turkeys, a bald eagle was feasting on road kill along the side of the road and a rural power line was covered in so may starlings I couldn't hope to count them. At lunchtime I drove the same road and saw two turkey vultures eating the same road kill as the eagle. I was able to slow down and watch the birds from only about 10 feet away. A lone harrier was migrating south as well.

Saturday and Sunday were quiet but Saturday night we did finally manage to get some precipitation which was much appreciated. 

The week ahead:

Look for warming weather in the second half of the week and watch for birds that continue to migrate. Canada geese will stage in increasing numbers throughout the week. Fall color in the Twin Cities will increase but probably stay below 10%.
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