"Happily we bask in this warm September sun, which illuminates all creatures."
— Henry David Thoreau
It's September!
August proved to be one of those months that felt both full and complicated—a blur of travel, the annoyance of an ear infection, steady demands from work, and, of course, my ongoing pursuits in Nature. Each thread pulled me in a different direction, leaving little time to catch my breath, but also leaving plenty to reflect on as summer begins its slow handoff to fall. The infection weighed on me most: because I bird primarily by ear, the sharp decline in my hearing was unsettling, and when the world suddenly grew muffled, I found myself genuinely concerned about what it might mean for my future in the field. I'll never take my hearing for granted again.
August proved to be one of those months that felt both full and complicated—a blur of travel, the annoyance of an ear infection, steady demands from work, and, of course, my ongoing pursuits in Nature. Each thread pulled me in a different direction, leaving little time to catch my breath, but also leaving plenty to reflect on as summer begins its slow handoff to fall. The infection weighed on me most: because I bird primarily by ear, the sharp decline in my hearing was unsettling, and when the world suddenly grew muffled, I found myself genuinely concerned about what it might mean for my future in the field. I'll never take my hearing for granted again.
Now that things have settled down (hearing restored, too), Spring Green Preserve seemed like the natural choice to resume Nature observation and photography.
Sue and I hiked to the top of the bluff, knowing there would be plenty of poison ivy and mosquitoes through the woods on the way up the trail. The views are always worth the effort, but my main goal was to check on Splendid Tiger Beetles (Cicindela splendida), since their numbers had been exceedingly low during the spring season.
Splendids are a classic spring–fall species. Adults that overwintered emerge in spring to feed and reproduce, while fresh adults appear in August and September after completing pupa development. These late-summer beetles will dig overwintering burrows in October, to re-emerge the following spring. As I've noted before, Splendids favor the rocky outcroppings atop Spring Green's bluffs.
Though tiger beetles are usually my main quarry, I'll happily photograph whatever catches my eye—like this strikingly cool katydid.
Ah ha! Here they are ...
Though absent from the first two outcroppings, they were present in modest numbers on the large central rock formation and just below the bluff's crest. I counted a dozen or more in total—far better than the lone individual I managed to find all spring. Perhaps this suggests the population is doing just fine, and that some factor made overwintered adults scarce in April. I know of no other location in Wisconsin where this species can be reliably found. At iNaturalist.org, there's a single observation from Sussex (WI) in 1998, and also one beetle at near Boscobel (WI) in 1996. However, there are historical records placing them in a dozen counties in southern Wisconsin, mostly to the west.
Since spring offered no real chance at portraits of this species, I suppose I indulged a bit once the opportunity finally came. My favorite is meeting them face to face as they patrol the edges of the outcroppings—utterly adorable! They were very cooperative and accommodating.
Blazing star! All over the prairie.
With another month of tiger beetling still to enjoy, the pull of fall migration may interrupt now and then. My autumn birding has mellowed over the years, mostly focused on sparrows by late September. I let a few warblers pass me by in spring, but I no longer feel the old urge to chase them down.
All images © 2025 Mike McDowell