Ticked off #phenology

Boneset is coming into bloom. Vetch is just beginning to flower. Some Canada goose goslings have been seen near Carlos Avery Wildlife Management Area's Sunrise River pools. Poison ivy is thriving, unfortunately. Summer is here, confirmed by this morning's consumption of the season's first peach (but not locally grown).

boneset (white), vetch (purple)

Photo by J. Harrington

The poison ivy will get sprayed Tuesday morning if the weather forecast is accurate. It's bursting forth despite our efforts of a couple of weeks ago to make it deathly ill. We could use an abundance of opossums to eat the abundance of ticks we've discovered this year. Maybe the anticipated increase in ticks in Minnesota due to global warming could be offset by a corresponding increase in tick predators like opossums? That seems only fair to us.

Canada goose goslings

Photo by J. Harrington

We saw the year's first fawn yesterday. Well, we didn't but everyone else did. awe went to get our camera and the fawn was gone by the time we got back. Looking forward to seeing more of them and, one of these days, some turkey poults. They eat ticks too, we think and they're fun to watch scurry around. We're still trying to decide if having turkeys come to the droppings from the sunflower bird feeders means they also eat some ticks as they come and go or if they're just freeloading on the sunflower seeds and losing interest in foraging for ticks.

The Ticks

By Douglas Florian

Not gigan-tic.

Not roman-tic.

Not artis-tic.

Not majes-tic.

Not magne-tic.

Nor aesthe-tic.

Ticks are strictly parasi-tic.

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