Bruce(?) Lives!

We often see and blog about Bruce - our resident groundhog living under the building next to us. It was always fun to see a friendly face, though we never fed or approached other than to take a photo. Though we feared for his demise - Maj had seen a dead groundhog on the lane here over the winter, and our last trip there was an intense effort at the camp to trap yet another groundhog that had taken up residence in his burrow. A pic I took indicated the "new one" was different, and it seemed smaller with much better eyesight than "old Bruce (shown at left). Whether it was a mate or offspring, we didn't know...





So with the trapping effort (to relocate, so far as we knew), I hadn't seen him this trip, nor have I even been looking for him. So it was a shock this morning, when on a trip to the car, I saw a blur of brown running back to the burrow. It appears to be the "new Bruce" ! He doesn't look in the best of shape, with uneven fur, but it was a nice surprise to see a familiar shape, if not face in the yard.

Bruce Returns!

Regular readers know we get some wildlife here in the woods north of St Charles. A couple years ago I was shocked to see a woodchuck (at least I assumed it was one since I had never seen one before) run across the yard and through a hole under a storage shed. That was the only time I saw it in '06, but last fall, Melinda told me of a ground hog that she was seeing almost every day feeding out in the yard. I don't know where it came from, but I immediately said "Bruce!", and it was thus proclaimed. He (we assume a he) abruptly disappeared when the temperature cooled and though we waited for a reappearance this spring, he never did.



Well a week or so ago I was looking out into the yard about sunset and saw just about the biggest squirrel I had ever seen! Well, upon a second look it was Bruce! Like last year, he always appears near the cabin to the north of us, so we assume he lives under it's foundation. Tonight he was out a little before sunset, so I grabbed the little Meade scope and took some pics. He is very tentative - I suspect he doesn't have very good eyesight. He grazes for a few seconds, then stops and looks around for a few more, but I was able to approach to 80 feet or so. At that point he retreated to the corner of the cabin and chewed on some shoots before advancing back into the yard. It is always nice to have regulars coming around for a visit!

Around Home At Ketelsen East!

Since our multi-state trip ending last weekend, we've been hanging around the house here in St Charles. Officially we're working on some home-improvement projects, mostly in the kitchen reglazing the windows and tearing apart and repainting the sills. Today was a hot, sticky day, so we mostly relaxed - I took a walk in a local park, with Melinda reading and resting up for her "nurses night out" tonight.

With no astronomy to speak of here, I've converted to sort of a nature observer here in Illinois. Last year, the highlight of the summer was the discovery of the weirder than weird two-spot treehopper, shown at left here. Once seen, they appear quite common, though only on a few plants. Interestingly, I didn't see any this year our first 10 days here until just yesterday, with a few more today, so perhaps their life cycle just has them reaching adulthood now. But what I have seen is shown at right, and if anything, matches the treehopper for weirdness!  A little smaller than the treehoppers, these guys have what looks like cotton fuzz coming out of their rear ends!  I ended up sending some pictures to "Bug Man" Carl Olson back at the University of Arizona and he was similarly confused, forwarding it on to a friend.  The answer is that it is a nymph stage of Acanalonia conica, a planthopper.  I'm seeing changes over time, and will likely blog about it later, but wanted to let you know we're not just sitting watching TV!  And interestingly, once spotted here in St Charles, I also saw them on my friend Beth's spinach plant in Minneapolis!

Also, big news our resident groundhog Bruce has been spotted, first grazing across the yard, then today peeking our from beneath our storage shed.  We had seen the recent digging, but not seen him there until he was spotted looking out.  While it is unlikely this is the same groundhog over the years we call Bruce, it is nice to have the tradition continued with this version.  I've blogged many times about him, but the camp aggressively tried to trap him, and a body was spotted years ago, but this Bruce is still very much active!

And finally tonight, Melinda is out with a group of her former nursing buddies.  They meet, sometimes by the dozens, at a local restaurant to get together and relive memories and make new ones.  So since I'm home alone (I've been invited, but choose not to attend the typically 5-hour dinners) this morning while out getting my morning paper picked up a few ears of some good-looking sweet corn, and got a jalapeno bagel to act as a bun for my brat-burger.  Finished off with cheese, onions and fresh jalapenos, all I needed was an iced glass with an ale to make it a feast - it was great!

Bruce?!

Yes, the computer is back from the shop, backup files successfully loaded, and I'm slowly getting software reinstalled.  So mostly things are back in operation, though I still don't understand why it was necessary to reformat the disk...  Oh well, I'm glad things are back to "normal".

Years ago we had a groundhog that lived under the building adjacent to our place in Illinois.  We affectionately called him Bruce, and posted about him several times.  One of the groundhogs died, and another that took his place was the subject of a capture attempt.  In any case, we've been over a year since we've seen a groundhog near the place.

Well this last trip, Melinda caught a glimpse of him near his old haunt.  The next morning, we caught a blur of motion out the door, and sure enough, some version of Bruce slowly emerged from under our storage shed, turned and kissed a little angel statue we've got, and seemingly ignored us taking his picture through the glass of our kitchen door from a distance of 20 feet or so.  While we know that they can do some damage to structures, thus the attempt to capture the one in the camp, we'd love it if he took up residence under our shed.  It is always fun to have a friendly face around the place!

One Positive ID and a Mystery

I'm still working on getting some closeups of Bruce our groundhog before he disappears for the winter. Last week after he scurried down his hole, he came out after I sat quietly for a few minutes. Today with the scope along he wouldn't come back out and I gave up after sitting for a half hour. But I had better luck with a woodpecker that has been hanging around, and I also got a couple bad shots of a mystery bird that only stayed for moment...

This fellow is a Red-Bellied Woodpecker that has been feeding at our feeder the last couple weeks. He is pretty good sized and with the red color is always a striking sight. While waiting for Bruce to make his appearance, he made a systematic search for insects in a couple cracks in the cabin next to ours, so was easy to compose, focus and get a few good shots.


This fellow was a lot shyer and only stopped twice for a few seconds, so all I got was a couple out-of-focus grabs. It is a lot darker than the hairy woodpecker I shot earlier in the summer (click here for that shot)... From the descriptions in our bird book, it may be a female Ladderback Woodpecker (it does have the black cap), but it's range does not extend east of the Mississippi or north of Oklahoma... Will have to continue hunting and see if it hangs around...

More Bruce News!

We posted about a month ago how our "pet" groundhog we fondly call Bruce had reappeared. Click here to review that post. At that time we would only see him at certain times of the day, mostly during twilight. Likely he was put off by daytime activities here and even now, the sight of us makes him scurry off to his hole in the ground next to the structure just north of us.

With shorter days and the definite hint of fall in the air he can be seen almost any time of day. These pictures were taken about 11am as he puts on weight for the winter hibernation. I even saw him out feeding at 10pm Sunday night as I was moving the garbage cans out for Monday pickup. If you go back and review the pictures from the above post, he looks like a baby in the earlier pictures compared to now - he really is packing on weight. Watching him carefully, he grazes for a few seconds, then, head up, he chews while keeping an eye out. He doesn't seem to discriminate much between grass or dandelions - it all seems good to him. I'm going to continue to try to get closer to him and get some better photos before he disappears for the winter. Stay tuned! Imaged with the Meade 80mm F/6 APO(480mm focal length) and Canon XSi.

Midwest Springtime Recap

As our previous post indicates, we really spent too little time in Illinois. Springtime was just starting in earnest and the trees were just leafing out. Since our return to Tucson, we've gone 101F Thursday, 102F yesterday, and it is supposed to be over 100 again today. Our temp sensor says 109.9F, but is mounted under the eave of the roof, so I think it is catching rising warm air in the afternoon. A dry heat, yes, but I do not enjoy getting into a 150F car to go somewhere! At left is an IR shot of "Ketelsen East" with geese (non-domestic)!

So yes, the 70s of Illinois were very pleasant, and there were many flowers and trees in bloom, even if the trees were not all green yet. I don't want to bore you with endless pictures of tulips (at their peak), and the large number of planted flowering trees - would prefer to show the more native species we spotted on our walks.

In our exploration of the nearby Tekakwitha Forest Preserve, besides the violets (white and yellow besides the normal blue kind!) and dandelions, the trillium was in bloom. Besides the white variety, my favorite was the Trillium Recurvatum, also known as Red or Prairie Trillium, shown at left. Never having spent much time in any natural woods growing up in Iowa, these flowers were new to me and they are quite striking. Evidently the odor of the seeds attract ants, which then help distribute them. The White Trillium, also in bloom in the woods and in our back yard, serves as the state flower of the province of Ontario and of Ohio.





Another striking "bloom" is shown in this series. What looked initially like an about-to-open flower, is actually part of the leaf bud of the Shagbark Hickory. We first spotted the closed bud on the left, but then noticed some that had recently opened, and eventually an adult tree with new growth on it. According to naturalists at the Forest Preserve, the area we live in there is officially called a "Declining Oak-Hickory Forest", declining because the maple trees are slowly shading out the Hickory and oak trees. However, once we realized these buds pointed out the Shagbarks, they seems quite numerous and widespread.


Normally, there are trails in the Forest preserve we like to take to get us away from the bike path and civilization, but the river had been out of the banks recently and the trail was too muddy to follow very far. However, I didn't have to follow it far to observe signs of larger animals - here deer tracks can be seen over some muddy bootprints from another hiker. In addition, the Canadian Geese eggs have hatched, and there are goslings everywhere! We saw several groups as big as 9 little 'uns near our house, and I ran into these 3 staying near mom on my short time on the trail.

During our short stay at "Ketelsen East", we even ran into our neighbor groundhog Bruce, not once or twice, but 3 times over 4 days! Last year he was mostly absent until nearly fall, but he was certainly there to welcome us last weekend (though I didn't get a photo this time). Our house is occupied, though, even if we aren't there - we found this robin in a well built nest over an exterior light on our door facing the Fox River. By the time we get back for another visit, the babes will just about grown up and ready for flying lessons!





A commenter points out that the Ohio State flower is the Scarlet Carnation. Actally, the White Trillium is the Ohio State Wildflower. Sorry for the confusion.

Our Flower-Yard!

We've been having a blast at "Ketelsen East" in St Charles, IL!  Experiencing another Spring after the all-too brief appearances in Tucson and our visit to the Carolinas last month has been very restful.  Add to that many opportunities to visit friends and family makes this loads better than our trip in February when we were both sick with the flu... We even saw our groundhog neighbor (living under the building next door), who we've called "Bruce", though I think this version is likely an offspring.  Didn't get a picture of him though - he is pretty shy.  At left is a photo of the house lit up in the evening to make it look homey...

So we've been enjoying the cool weather and the first arrival of Spring.  Last year, it hit hard and a lot earlier, so was a joy to see all the blossoms and flowers in this year's edition.  The Fox River was flooding just a few weeks ago too, so the mowers haven't been over the yards here, so we've been enjoying the "yard-flowers" too.  We wouldn't dare call them weeds!  Besides the ever-present dandelions, we've got several colors of violets, and two types of Trillium too (white and red)!  We've even got tulips that have broken free of the flower beds, and are starting to come up willy-nilly!  Shown at left here is towards the north and other structures, where they mow a lot.  Just dandelions and violets in that direction, but to the south of the house is more of a jungle of other flowering plants, including big patches of Trillium, as shown at right.

Now the Trillium we have in our yard is a less-common recurved red trillium.  It is a pretty plant, but not showy like many other flowers because the petals curve inwards and hide the flower.  It is also hard to make look very impressive - the only way is to get down in the dirt and shoot it at its own level.  Then you can peek into it.  I'm working on some 3D shots of it too, so look for that coming up.  The White variety (Trillium grandiflorum) is showier, different but definitely related and shown at right.

And even the dandelions are spectacular when looked at closely!  A year or two back I took a macro shot of one that still serves as my wallpaper on my laptop, though didn't make it into a blog post.  Here is a triple-header on the left, each at slightly different ages, so show a slightly different general appearance.  Interestingly, our second day here was a cool one - it never got over 50, and NONE of the dandelions that were open the previous day made an appearance!  After all taking a day off, it warmed up a little and they all returned...  Even after going to seed, the macro lens reveals a wealth of details that are generally little-noticed.  While the seeds are wind-dispersed, the seeds themselves also have little thorns on them that would likely also stick to clothing for transport as well...

So I was shooting the tulips scattered in our yard...  Mostly they are near flower beds, but they seem to be migrating out towards the open yard...  I suspect that the later in the Spring that our "yard" is mowed, the more likely they'll keep on moving towards the exit!  So how do you shoot a tulip in a new way?  How 'bought straight down with a macro lens?  Looks pretty cool, even with the white tulip with subtle color variations...

So a day or two later, after the above shot came
out, I was shooting another the same way - straight down, stopped down considerably so that a good portion of the flower would be in focus with the larger depth-of-field.  This one was a yellow tulip with red highlights - beautiful colors...  But wait, what is that little green particle hiding among the flower parts near the center - aphids!  In fact, if you look closely at the white one above, you can spot one of the little buggers there too.  On this yellow one, I went in for an oblique closeup for more details.  You can see little legs, perhaps some eye dots - perhaps a probiscus with which they suck plant juice.  Will have to keep an eye out for more of these little microscopic critters...

I can see clearly now....

What a difference a day makes! The rain stopped Sunday afternoon, much to our delight, though they predicted light showers through the evening hours. By sunset we could see movement of fish out in the yard (as we've had before when there's been flooding), and by nightfall there were some breaks in the clouds showing. For unknown reasons, I'm not sleeping well tonight - so am up in the wee hours and noticed a bright light shining through one of the windows in the peak of the living room. It was the full moon! We haven't seen the sun or moon in several days, so it was a welcome sight tonight! In fact, it's bright enough outside to see the reflection of the trees from across the river - in our yard! Looking at the radar, it appears to be clear skies for several days to come. Saint Charles actually was mentioned on The Weather Channel as being one of the places getting too much rain (9.98" in town - 10" in our neighborhood) over the past three days. Living on the river is beautiful, but when we're watching the waters rise it can be a little anxiety producing.

With the rain and bad weather the local squirrels have been cut short on their acorn gathering, and I took pity on them by filling the feeders full of sunflower seeds. Usually I get aggravated by the squirrels pilfering the food meant for the birds. Not at the moment though. They have been eating non-stop, while the chipmunks have been hoarding it in their cheeks to take back to their nests (probably under our house). The birds have been very active at the feeders, as well. We had 8 Goldfinches, several Sparrows, a Nuthatch, a couple of Black Capped Chickadees, and a male Cardinal at the feeders yesterday! All of those birds stay around here all winter, so they're not stocking up for a long flight - they were just feeding well since some of their feeding areas were cut off by the flood. I don't think we saw more than 2 Goldfinches together at any given time all summer, so to see 8 of them at the feeder at the same time was a treat! Between the birds, the squirrels, and the chipmunks, we had a very busy yard yesterday. We've even been seeing "Bruce", our local Woodchuck, on a daily basis. We both agree that he seems to be gaining weight. He is storing up for his long nap, though.

Dean worked on his telescope mirror yesterday, also! He will have to blog about it - but he's building a telescope for us to keep here. He has the laundry room set up as his "polishing lab" at the moment. I've never seen this process - other than the 8.4 m mirrors being polished at Steward when Dean was working there. It's really exciting to see it being done by hand vs. by machine! Unfortunately we don't have a better space for him to set up. He's making do though, and is doing a fine job of it! He will need to tell the specifics of the telescope that he is making, and I know that he has pictures to post, as well.

I think I'll try to get some snooze time now. Thanks for keeping me company during my sleepless night!

While We Were Gone...

I've been taking a daily photo of the house across the river to capture the gradual change of fall colors. This was started in fact before the flood over a month ago when there was the first hint of the earliest maple trees turning. By playing them back as a movie in an animated GIF file, it would be cool to see the color change sped up.

So we were gone for 4 days to South Carolina and wouldn't you know it - the change pretty much happened while we were gone! As we flew into Chicago we were amazed by the colors as we landed in O'Hare. And sure enough, the shots before we left, and this morning's shot shows a huge difference. So much for the careful planning...

The other two shots are a couple taken around the house. The first is of a couple ash trees south of our house. Even though the weather was clear and warm in our absence, a lot of leaves came down carpeting what little lawn would grow in the deep shade there. I haven't heard yet from the boss (Melinda) if we are doing any raking before we leave for Tucson in a couple weeks. My suspicion is that they certainly won't all be down by then, but a leaf fire will add a touch of fall to the air.

The other shot is towards the north, showing the pavilion where we had the wedding reception this summer. Note that just to the right of the cabin on the ground (click photo to enlarge), that is not a rock or yard ornament but Bruce, our resident groundhog! He was out early, posing for me this morning! St Charles is just at about the peak in fall colors right now. It is really stunning to drive around town - something that I've really missed the last few decades in the southwest.

Fauna of the Fox River Valley

During my 5 weeks at "Ketelsen East" this Fall, I kept my eyes open for wildlife. Out in the woods around the house I often saw signs of 'possums, and skunks, but rarely saw their mostly-nocturnal outlines in the dusk. I saw "Bruce", our resident groundhog, but didn't catch him on film this time, nor the white-tail deer I would occasionally spot bedded down adjacent to the access road to the house.

Probably the stars of the trip were the nesting pair of Sandhill Cranes and their nestlings. I literally spotted them in River Bend Community Park, adjacent to the bike path, where I was able to bike to within 50 feet or so where I took the picture at left with my cell phone. I spotted them on an almost daily basis, both in the park and down the road about 150 yards where I think they stayed the summer. Not always carrying the "big" camera, after spotting them one day I had time to run home (a mile) to get the camera and get back with a telephoto. Of course, once off the bike or out of the car and they suddenly recognized me as a dangerous human and started fleeing, but was able to catch the male at right.


Of course, the image at right is reduced in size to fit the blog 1600 pixel-wide limit. While the plumage is a little drab, shown at full resolution at left, more details in his feathers can be seen and the bicolor feathers stand out nicely!

After spotting the house whose backyard they stayed in, I could find them most any time. At right is their usual stomping grounds between the house and a water lagoon. How cool would it be to have sandhill cranes living in your back yard?! I guess after the novelty wore off, it might be a pain - likely against the law to disturb them and even mowing the yard might be considered harassment... Again, if I was on foot they were quite wary, even when they were 50 yards away as shown here.


To get around their fear of humans, the cure, of course, was to drive up to them in a car! I drove down the street leading to the front of the above house, and the cranes nearly walked up to me! With the 300mm lens, it was quite easy to get the closest view I'll ever likely get of them! At right is the male again, and at right is the male in the background and one of the fledglings in the foreground. In this view you can see the youngster has lost some of the feathers off the top of its head and will likely be replaced by the characteristic red plumage that is on top of the adult heads! These pics were taken a few weeks ago when I was still there - duh! But they didn't seem in any hurry to head southwards. Hopefully the cold weather they've gotten since has motivated them to move further south!


Besides the cranes, Canada Geese were literally everywhere! There is a contingent of them that spends the winters in the Fox Valley and there were thousands lining the streets as seen at left, as well as school yards, local cornfields, really most everywhere there was space for a few hundred to congregate. They have certainly lost their novelty and the little "surprises" they leave behind don't particularly make them popular... Not particularly common, but seen several times were the odd egret and heron, though not as numerous as a half dozen years ago when they were seen most every day fishing along the banks of the river.



About the only other creature seen that I had not before was a garter snake that my friend Jane spotted while we were out walking. I've NEVER seen snakes of any kind on the grounds of the camp, so this one took me by surprise. It was also quite willing to pose for me and besides the still frame at left, I also took a stereo pair at right. Get out the red/blue glasses to see the view in 3D!





And, of course, I can't have just one anaglyph image on the blog - it just ruins the symmetry of its Tao, or something like that, so here is another, though it has nothing to do with the fauna of the area. It is of a little patio table that usually holds an ashtray for Melinda's friends to gather around outside to smoke when they visit. Well, the ashtray is still there, but unseen under the pile of leaves that fell naturally to cover table and chairs. And yes, I did my duty and swept off the sidewalk and table before leaving for Tucson, making sure the majority of the leaves were off the tree before doing so. Again, the red/blue glasses are needed to see the 3D!

It was a nice trip and I'm already looking forward to a return, though now that winter has a grip on the area, I might wait till it is closer to warmer weather. But you never know - I might get a hankerin' for some snow and cold weather!