"Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale."
― Lauren DeStefano
Rendering a brown landscape, a good amount of fall's exhilarating colors are behind us. However, the unseasonably warm weather remains. My hunch from last week was extended and I surmised that Bronzed Tiger Beetles would still be present and active at the Sauk City Canoe Launch ― right again.
Though to the untrained eye the shoreline may seem devoid of life, upon closer and careful observation one begins to find numerous denizens of the sand. It didn't take me very long to find a few tiger beetles, so I took out my macro rig and went to work.
I would estimate around 6 to 8 beetles, all were rather greenish in color. Usually the Bronzed I see in spring and throughout summer are brown toned. I couldn't say if the predominate green color is a morphological or phenological detail, but I'm a fan of this tone on them.
Despite the broken right antennae on this individual, all of the beetles appear to be in excellent form and condition. This leads me to further prognosticate November survivability later on this week, which would mean the latest tiger beetles I've ever observed in a fall season.
I did observe two different tiger beetles eating ants. There were other possible prey items on the beach, including small spiders, various flies, bees, and other super-small arthropods I wasn't able to identify.
The purple iridescence on the thorax and back part of the head is more noticeable on these green-hued Bronzed than the brown archetypes I generally find.
Still a number of Grasshoppers around, like this Differential Melanoplus differentialis:
It hopped on through with little to no regard for my presence.
Also on the beach, some Ring-billed Gull feathers ...
Another feather accented with some condensation and bubbles ...
An extreme closeup of the pocket bubbles trapped underneath the feather ...
And then ... Shazam!
A absolutely stunning Shoreline Wolf Spider Arctosa littoralis!
This one was a bit larger in leg diameter than a 50-cent piece. I did see a much larger one last year, but this was the most impressive I've seen this year. I wanted to take as many photographs as I could while the supremely camouflaged arachnid was present.
But it wasn't easy ...
The Wolf Spider had other ideas as it navigated the small dunes of the shore.
One last ...
... chance for an extreme closeup!
Given that the Wisconsin River's water level is way down, I decided to go on a little hike along the remainder of the shoreline toward Sauk City. Just on the other side of the spit, I came across the skull and lower jaws of a White-tailed Deer.
There's a part of me that would have liked to take this home and turn it into some kind of museum piece, but the nature purist in me thought to leave it as I found it.
I heard many birds while hiking up and down the shoreline on my quest for photography subjects. I came across a single Yellow-rumped Warbler, which could be the last warbler I observe this year.
These were other birds I observed during my river trek:
Great Blue Heron
Ring-billed Gull
Greater Yellowlegs
Least Sandpiper
Semipalmted Plover
Bald Eagle
Red-tailed Hawk
Barred Owl
Red-bellied Woodpecker
American Crow
Blue Jay
Black-capped Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
Northern Cardinal
American Robin
Dark-eyed Junco
Yellow-rumped Warbler
House Finch
American Goldfinch
Red-winged Blackbird
And that about wraps it up for October. September's crappy weather (and my viral infection) are but a distant memory. With a beautiful October fresh in my mind's eye, I feel as though I'm ready for winter's grim and frigid conditions. To be sure, winter does have its gems like Snowy Owls, Snow Buntings, boreal finches, and scenic wintery landscapes. After the next warming trend I wouldn't be surprised if we take a dive into cold and snowy weather. But we'll see. That's how the determinist in me rolls ― I'll just wait and see what happens and what I do.
All images © 2022 Mike McDowell