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You soon may see more bald eagles along the Mississippi River and other waterways in the region because this year’s young are growing fast.
Winona residents Jim and Jeanne Schmidt contacted me recently to let me know they had observed young eagles getting very near the fledgling stage at several of the nests they regularly monitor. A couple weeks ago they observed some of them flapping their wings and even lifting off the nest occasionally.
They were particularly pleased to see three large eaglets in one nest bumping into each other as they tested their growing flight muscles. I later went by the same nest and also saw the big triplets moving around. I suspect that they and many other young eagles will be leaving the nests by the end of the month.
I also checked out the Winona County and Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge osprey nests that I had visited earlier. I was pleased to see two chicks in the Trempealeau platform nest, but the two adults in the Minnesota nest seemed to still be working on the nest. One of them flew back with a stick in its talons, and both seemed to be shifting the sticks around. I could not tell whether any chicks or eggs were present. So before too long there will be at least two more ospreys around here.
Feisty fox snakeEarlier, as I entered the Trempealeau refuge, I saw a young fox snake in the road near the entrance. Of course I grabbed my camera and got close to the surprised reptile as it tried to get a grip on the smooth road surface. It immediately put up a fierce front, gathering its head and body into a strike position, and it actually moved toward me.
As the snake got closer to the lens, it struck repeatedly and would surely have alarmed most people. I have had experience with dozens of fox snakes, and I knew this one was too small to do much damage, even if it did bite me, so I let it act tough while I got a few nice portraits of the feisty critter.
When I picked it up to move it to the safety of the brush on the other side of the road, it did what most fox snakes usually do when I have handled them properly — it calmed down and stopped striking. I almost hated to let it go, because they can become very gentle in captivity. Except for rare occasions though, wild animals belong in the wild, especially in a refuge.
Fox snakes, as I’ve mentioned before, are one of our larger snakes, getting almost five feet long. They have a tan body background with dark brownish blotches. The adults have a coppery orange head leading some people to call them “copperheads.” Unlike the poisonous snake of that name living farther south, the fox snake is non-poisonous and harmless except for a defensive bite.
They are found in a variety of environments, including relatively dry oak savannahs, woodland edges and marshy wetlands. They sometimes enter abandoned or even occupied rural buildings to seek food and to hibernate in winter. They correspondingly feed on a wide variety of small animals including mice, chipmunks, birds and frogs. They are quite common throughout Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota.
Their size and feisty defensive behavior may seem intimidating, but foxies are really a great creature to have around. They’ll eat mice and other pesky rodents while being a rather gentle animal at heart. If you don’t bother them, they’ll be glad to leave you alone, too.
Jewels on wingsIf you spend any time near the water in Minnesota or Wisconsin this summer, you surely will become familiar with the ubiquitous damselflies. They belong to the same order, the Odonata, as the larger and more robust dragonflies. It’s an ancient order of insects, appearing on the planet long before the first dinosaurs.
Most damselflies are rather delicate in structure and fly more slowly than their larger cousins. They fold their wings behind their backs rather than spreading them out flat as the dragonflies do when resting. Compared to the hovering and darting dragonflies, damselflies also rest a lot more.
Both dragonflies and damselflies have incomplete metamorphosis, with the nymph stage occurring in the water. The aquatic nymphs are fierce predators, and once the nymph emerges to change to the winged adult form, it becomes an aerial predator. Many are our allies, preying on the blood-sucking flies such as deerflies and mosquitoes.
One damselfly has attracted my attention ever since I first saw one. The ebony jewelwing damselfly (Calopteryx maculata) lives up to its name with a shimmering metallic blue-green body and velvety, dark wings. It flies with a dainty butterfly-like motion, but it has very sharp eyes making it difficult to approach closely.
Though I have managed to sneak up in plain sight to many other kinds of insects, the jewelwing has been a real challenge. It seems almost impossible not to make the vegetation around it move, usually warning it whenever I tried to get a close-up picture.
Last week I experimented by adding an extension tube to my telephoto lens rather then using the close-up lens. With that set up, I could take pictures from five feet away, and I got some nice shots much more easily.
The solid black wings and shiny body make them easy to tell from the more commonly seen pond damselflies, with their tiny blue or green bodies and clear wings. If you see a fairy-like, dark-winged blue beauty flitting about near a stream this summer, pause to admire it — you will be amazed at the sight.
Jim Solberg can be reached at (608) 782-2560 or at nitefrogger@charter.net.
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