North MN Outdoors

Mandeville LA, 70 Days after Hurricane Ida

People who have not experienced the aftermath of a severe hurricane may be surprised at how long it takes to clean up an area. Today, 70 days after Ida’s landfall, tree debris still lines the streets of my neighborhood in Mandeville LA. Mandeville is around 40 miles from the path of Ida’s eye, but still experienced very damaging winds. Crews are hard at work clearing our streets, but the huge volume of material makes it slow going.

Hurricane Ida was a category four storm that made landfall near Port Fourchon, Louisiana on August 29, 2021 — 16 years to the day after Hurricane Katrina. Its maximum sustained wind speed at landfall was 150 mph, which was equaled only by two other hurricanes in Louisiana’s recorded history. The damage cause by Ida has been estimated at more than $65 billion, making it the sixth costliest Atlantic hurricane.

Many of the downed trees were tall loblolly pines

Magnolia trees, like the one in the background of this picture, were less likely to fall

Thankful that most trees in the neighborhood survived the storm.

Autumn around the Lake

In fall the scenery on and around our lake in north-central Minnesota is wonderful. This post simply shares images taken this October.

Usually these guys jump in the water before my kayak gets this close

Bald eagle surveying the lake from a white pine

Red pines in front of an aspen grove near the lake.

The Shaggy Inkcap (another mushroom)

The shaggy inkcap mushroom (Coprinus comatus) is a common mushroom that is also known as lawyer’s wig or shaggy mane. Reportedly is is an excellent mushroom to eat when young, but only immediately after picking. It turns black and dissolves into an inky mess soon after it is picked (which is why it is called inkcap).

The pictures below show a lone inkcap alongside a local road and a group of them seen in Minnesota’s Itasca State Park.

An excellent specimen of shaggy inkcap along a roadside

A group of shaggy inkcaps found in Itasca State Park

Fly Agaric and Other Mushrooms

The Amanita muscaria mushroom, commonly known as Fly Agaric, is commonly seen in popular culture. It appears as garden sculptures, in video games, in the Disney movie Fantasia, and in Smurf cartoons. We found beautiful specimens of it recently as we hiked through a forest in the north-central Minnesota lake country.

*Amanita muscaria* mushroom, commonly know as fly agaric

Fly agaric is toxic, but is rarely fatal, and is also mildly hallucinogenic. Its Wikipedia article lists many fascinating details about use of this mushroom throughout history. One interesting item is that eating it can cause dysmetropsia, otherwise known as Alice in Wonderland syndrome. This is a type of hallucination that distorts perceptions of objects, making them seem either larger or smaller than they actually are. Another remarkable suggestion is that the legend of flying reindeer is associated with Finnish shamans under the influence of this mushroom.

Many various mushrooms have appeared here in the fall, they are most prevalent after a rain. Most mushrooms are not as distinctive as Fly Agaric and are not straight-forward to identify. So, I’m not completely certain about the names I’ve assigned to the mushrooms below.

The group of images below show mushrooms found on the forest floor.

Other mushroom were seen growing on wood.

Maples in Itasca State Park

Minnesota’s Itasca State Park is best known for the headwaters of the Mississippi River, which is within the park. Established in 1891 it is the second-oldest state park in the US, only Niagara Falls State Park is older.

Although it is not yet officially fall, the changing leaves on maple trees in the park were gorgeous on our visit there yesterday, September 19th. We rode our bikes on the 5-mile trail that goes along the eastern shore of Lake Itasca from the Brower Visitor Center to the Mississippi Headwaters, as is shown on the map below. We saw beautiful maple trees mostly along the southern half of this route, oak and aspen trees with leaves turning yellow were seen throughout.

Late Summer on the Lake

Small bluegills in clear water near the downed tree seen in the images above. Video taken from my kayak.

Video of underwater scenery taken as my kayak drifts slowly.

No loon chicks on the lake this year. This loon was likely just passing through.

Summer Garden Flowers

Common garden flowers have added cheer to our summer landscape. This post is simply to share pictures of some of my favorites.

Petunias

Day Lilies

Geraniums

Water Lily Pollination

Many Fragrant Water Lilies (Nymphaea odorata) bloom in our lake in July and August. The flowers are showy yet I had not noticed insects attracted to them, which caused me to wonder about its strategy for pollination. Investigation revealed that these plants have a very interesting reproduction process.

Each flower of the Fragrant Water Lily has a three-day life span, they close each night and open during the day.

The first day of a bloom’s life only its female portion, the stigma, is mature. The bloom does not open completely, so the flower has the form of a closed bowl. A sweet-smelling viscous fluid is secreted by the plant and fills the bottom of this bowl. Beetles, flies and other insects are attracted to this fluid. When they enter the flower, the slippery fluid causes them to fall and deposit on the stigma any pollen that they may have brought in from other flowers.

On the second and third days of a bloom’s life the pollen-producing anthers are mature and the flower opens wide to welcome pollen-spreading insects. Self-fertilization of the flower is prevented because pollen-production in each flower occurs only after the first-day fertilization of the stigma.

Water Lily bloom has opened in the afternoon

Once a fertilizer flower has completed its three-day cycle it closes and retracts under water to develop its seeds.

The short video below shows a Water Lily bloom bobbing with gentle waves in the lake. It seems reasonable that this bobbing action could help deposit pollen on the stigma (first day) and improve the chances that visiting insects will leave the flower carrying some of its pollen (days two and three).

Our Steadfast Bluegill

At our lake in north-central Minnesota we have often noticed circular areas on the lakebed, each a few feet across, where bottom muck is cleared away to reveal sand beneath. With a little research we discovered that bluegill sunfish were likely responsible, and that these circles are their nests. But we had not seen fish actually inhabiting these circles — up until this June.

In the first days of June we noticed a bluegill sunfish sticking very close to his circle-nest just a few feet to the right of our dock. Remarkably, nearly every day of June we found him in the same spot hovering in his nest and only occasionally darting out, typically to chase away other fish.

With a bit more research we learned that this is very typical behavior for a male “parental” bluegill. In fact, the reproductive strategies of male bluegills are very interesting and unusual. A comical description of bluegill behavior is given by a YouTube video titled “The Absurd Mating Strategies of the Bluegill Sunfish”.

The video tells how the male “parental” bluegills work hard building a nest to attract females, only to deal with competition from other male bluegills called “sneakers”. Rather than compete with the terrific job the video does in providing the intimate details, I’ll end this post with a few images and videos of “our” bluegill.

June 17, 2021

Wildflowers Flourishing in Dry Utah

The summer of 2021 has been exceptionally dry in Utah. Despite this several hardy wildflowers are flowering along hiking trails at high elevations east of Salt Lake City.

Think of the water that could be saved by replacement of grass lawns with attractive plants like these.