"In October, a maple tree before your window lights up your room like a great lamp. Even on cloudy days, its presence helps to dispel the gloom."
— John Burroughs
It's October — a month of boreal sparrows and the last of the wood warblers! I set out for Pheasant Branch Prairie this morning to look for birds. Though the skies started out mostly free of clouds, they slowly crept in from the south and obscured the sun for much of the morning. Though I prefer sunlight for digiscoping, I configured my rig to be a bit more efficient for the more opaque lighting that took over.
Speaking of wood warblers, here's a Common Yellowthroat and Nashville Warbler. I also found a few Palm Warblers, Yellow-rumped Warblers, and my first-of-fall Orange-crowned Warbler. Did you know I have 229 avian species for just Pheasant Branch? One doesn't become an adept birder merely by chasing birds that get reported to RBA forum — it's in the covering of the same ground as seasons change and observing arrivals and departures, taking in every new behavioral cue, learning every subtle vocalization, and fully appreciating the full phenology of a single parcel of land and how birds use it.
What a nifty little bird!
This is a Large Milkweed bug Oncopeltus fasciatus. They're a specialist herbivore that frequently consumes the seeds of Common Milkweed plants. Normally, I pay them little attention on account of their abundance, but I sort of miss photographing insects already, so why not, right? As far as challenge goes, they're not even close to the skillset required to photograph tiger beetles. Still, they make fairly nice portraits to support a bit of nature writing.
Below is a Milkweed Bug gathering. Like other insects that feed on milkweed, these insects gain protection from predators by accumulating alkaloid toxins (cardiac glycosides) that's concentrated in milkweed sap. Alas, predators may make a bad choice in eating these insects that can lead to suffering a range of malevolent maladies.
Nice, eh? Actually, I think they're planning our demise.
Sparrow-wise, it was a pretty good morning. I found Clay-colored, Song, Swamp, Field, Lincoln's, White-throated, and my first White-crowned Sparrows of fall. No juncos yet! I don't really expect to find a Harris's Sparrow on account of my meager efforts, but you never know. It would be nice to find a LeConte's Sparrow, but they're mostly still to our northwest. LeConte's at Pheasant Branch are generally late October sparrows, around the same Fox Sparrows reach peak numbers.
And then the remainder of the morning I simply chose random things to take macro photographs ...
Those are actually goldenrod seeds.
Cone Flower.
Common Milkweed.
And Smooth Aster. The clouds eventually gave way for a few hours, but I skipped breakfast and was getting hungry. On my way home I picked up several dinners and salads from Gino's Italian Deli in Middleton. The weather forecast is calling for rain tomorrow, and if that's the case I'm grateful I had today to get my Nature Fix!
Pheasant Branch Prairie
Dane County, Wisconsin
Oct 2nd, 2021 ― 47 species
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Mallard
Wild Turkey
Ring-necked Pheasant
Mourning Dove
Sandhill Crane
Killdeer
Ring-billed Gull
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
Horned Lark
White-breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Sedge Wren
European Starling
Gray Catbird
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
Cedar Waxwing
House Sparrow
House Finch
American Goldfinch
Clay-colored Sparrow
Field Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Orange-crowned Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Palm Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Northern Cardinal
All images © 2021 Mike McDowell