Mystery Plant!

Well I have finally found out what the mystery plant is thanks to some help from the wonderful people at WildlifeGardeners.org .

Its Smilax herbacea (Carrion Flower)

The plant is over 5 ft and has fallen over. It grew probably 2-3ft just this week.
I dont know if its native or not yet but i'm going to look into it.

EDIT: I just got an email from Minnesotawildflowers.info and there are 4 species of smilax in MN and all are native. so yay! another native plant

Painted Turtle

Tuesday afternoon a painted turtle came into the yard.

Here are some orioles

Mama Squirrel and some of her babies

Bird Hike at AHATS

 This photo was taken at the highest natural point in Ramsey County. You can see all the way to Minneapolis.

Yesterday May 16th I went on a 3hr bird hike at the Arden Hills Army Training Site. I was really excited to get to walk around in an area that is off limits to civilians most of the year.Here's some photos from there.

A Trumpeter Swan

Red-tailed Hawk

Northern Oriole

Wild Lupine (native)

Tree Swallow

Prairie Smoke (native)

And now for some other pictures from yesterday afternoon.

I found a swarm of ants.

Virginia Waterleaf (native)

The first bon fire of the season.

Yesterday afternoon I saw the first Grey Tree Frog of the year. It was nearly dark out so i didnt get a picture.
I also think I saw a Double-crested Cormorant. I dont remember ever seeing a bird like that around here ever. I'm going to keep an eye out for it hopefully I will have my camera with me then.


And here's one of the baby squirrels. They are already pretty big and started climbing out of the nest this weekend.

Legos.. yeah Legos

Today I went out and dug more compost and sifted it and mixed in peatmoss for my mom to use in her flower pots around the yard. While sifting the dirt thru the screen I kept finding Lego peices. This is the only time I will say I am glad plastic doesnt break down very fast.

Not exactly sure how they got in the compost. But I am looking forward to digging in that area and hopefully finding more.

Here's a flower in the yard. Not sure what it is but ill look it up eventully. Probably in the Aster family?

First Day Lily

Forgot to post this. Here is the first Day Lily to bloom in my yard.

Went for a walk

I went for a walk today in the Ramsey Count Open Space on the NW corner of Snail Lake. Its a nice area but pretty much void of any native wild flowers (that I could identify). I saw some deer and found a hawk feather.

Then I walked the short trail next to the community center. Its changed a lot since I was a kid. They put airation pumps in the pond (it did need it it used to be just a pool of algea) but along the trail it looks like its been thinned out a bit, and some kids made a lil fort out of sticks. We used to make forts in this area s kids but put them back farther off the trail where you would never had known they were there.
I did find some neat mushroom and what I thought was a kind of Solomons Seal but I think may actually be Convallaria majalis (European Lily-of-the-valley)

Heres the mushroom I found.

Today otherwise was the average wet rainy cold day.

Bald Eagle ... butt

I stepped outside about an hour ago and noticed the squirrels making a lot of noises as well as the birds, so I began looking in the trees for the predator in question.
And it was a Bald Eagle! I was glad I had grabbed the camera but I only got a picture of its posterior.

It flew off across the marsh.

So after a short walk in the rain i decided to check out the ground beneath where it was perched in the yard. And guess what i found?

Eagle scat.
And bits of whatever it had caught an eaten. 

Also I received an email back from the webmaster of minnesotawildflowers.info I had asked if they could identify the mystery plant. They think it could be Red Elderberry. I searched the Internet for pictures of Red Elderberry and found a few that did look kind of similar but not exactly. I cant wait for this plant to go to flower then maybe its secret identity will be given away.

I have decided there is no possible way it is Angelica, as Angelica is part of the carrot family. This plant exhibits no characteristics of a carrot. I dug one up, for study, and it lacks any sort of true root system. Just a tuber that broke off (ill be surprised how long this thing will last. )
Its not Carrion Flower (Smilax Herbecea) because its not a vine and well doesn't smell of rotting flesh...yet.

It will be a neat surprise if it is Red Elderberry. But unfortunately that would make it a non-native plant.

Mystery Plant

I have identified a few mystery plants.
One I discovered was Garlic Mustard which is a highly invasive noxious weed.

The other I discovered is Solomons Seal Plume which is a native plant to Minnesota.

I have determined that this is a White Campion which is a non-native species to MN.

This plant however is giving me a run for my money.

I have no clue what it could be. I have gone through every photo on the minnesotawildflowers.com website. I have looked through most of the USDA plant database.  If i had some batteries i would take more pictures because the head are starting to open up a bit more. Hopefully ill find out what it is before i go insane. The plant is located over in the same area where the Columbine is. People on the wildlifegardeners.org forums think its either Angelica or Carrion Flower (Smilax H.). The Angelica seemed reasonable but this plant is lacking the leaves that Angelica would have. The Carrion Flower I don't agree with since this isn't acting like a vine, isn't woody enough and also lacks the leaves.

But I am not a Botonist so anyones guess is as good as any.

I have also found Wild Geranium in the area as well.

Well that didnt last long

It was so nice yesterday and now there is  a chance for snow on Friday, (according to the UpDraft Blog). I am not looking forward to that at all.

Here's some more pictures of the yard to see how green its been getting.

These were taken yesterday before it got all windy and yucky out.

Here's a deer track

May photos

Its finally May. Currently the temp is around 77F which is awesome.
Here's some photos

Not quite sure what this is. It looks like its some kind of Campion but I couldnt find anything in my wildflower book that looks just like this and blooms at this time of the year. I couldnt find any other plants near by that looked like it either, its just a lone soul in the "woods" where all the Columbine are.

Here are some pictures of the Columbine in the area I had mentioned before.

EDIT: Found a photo on another blog (http://naomi-the-naturenerd.blogspot.com/) and apparently this is Starry false Solomon's seal. This is a native Minnesota plant.

EDIT: This is Garlic Mustard, a highly invasive noxious weed. Once I found that out i headed down to where it was and dug out what was blooming. Ill be keeping an eye out for it all summer and digging up any I find.

Some kind of mushrooms

Some random bugs I saw today.

I like the yellow pollon on its legs. I dont think its a bee though, there are alot of them digging in the dirt in the benches.

Weird ant like thing that was on my leg. I grabbed a photo before i flicked it off.

Here's a Blue Bird

Pretty sky, minus the power lines obscuring the view slightly