Still More Birds & Flowers Plus a Gnarly Snapper
I paid my first visit to the Whitewater Wildlife Management Area near Winona, Minnesota. It’s a long area that encompasses the lower part of the valley of the Whitewater River, a broad, flat, marsh-filled area. Some of the ponds in the marsh are natural, and man-made dikes form some. My first and most vivid impression was that I was seeing more butterflies than I’ve ever seen in one area. The highlight was a large, black swallowtail. Some other impressions:
Spiderworts were growing in profusion on the northwest side of the gravel road that winds through the area. None grew on the southeast side of the road.
The buds of spiderworts or clusters of them can be more photogenic than the pretty blue flowers.
I also visited the lower half of the Buffalo River Valley in Wisconsin. The Buffalo and the Whitewater Rivers are misfit streams. According to Google’s AI, a misfit stream is one “that doesn’t fit the valley it occupies because the valley was created by a more powerful force or process, such as glacial erosion.” Like the Whitewater Valley, the Buffalo’s is wide, flat, and marshy.
Red-winged blackbirds are everywhere. I thought they were the most common bird in North America, but that honor goes to the American Robin. The red-winged are only in seventh place.
I tried to photograph a yellow butterfly that was attracted to clumps of birdsfoot trefoils, a yellow flower. The butterfly didn’t cooperate, never staying in one place long enough for a shot. Yellow butterfly; yellow flower. This morning, it was a yellow spider on a yellow flower; good camouflage.
Old snapping turtles are fearsome, prehistoric-looking creatures. I hesitate to get close to them even though I know that they are very slow-moving. Unless one gets within striking distance of a snapper’s head and neck, they pose no threat.
The photo of the single tree in silhouette is of the sun shining through smoke from Canadian wildfires.
