Chances are good that you have seen blue jays in your own backyard. Watch them closely this month as the parents venture out and about with their full-sized young. Most adults bred between April and May, and both males and females prepared the nest and reared the young. Blue jays are not picky about their nest location and will occasionally use other bird's nests. Less than three weeks after their 4-5 eggs hatched, the blue jays' chicks are ready to fly. They will now stay around the parents, learning how to hunt until early fall when they head out on their own.
Listen closely at this time of year and you are likely to hear the sound of young blue jays begging for food from their busy parents. Blue jays are omnivorous and have strong bills for cracking nuts, acorns, and corn while also eating seeds, grain, and insects such as caterpillars and grasshoppers. They have been known to eat the eggs and nestlings of other birds.
Did you know?
The blue jay has a wide variety of calls and sounds, and can learn to mimic other bird's calls as well as human speech.
Learn more: Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Ringing the shores of Minister Lake is a plant that has long been used by humans. Boneset has been used to treat a variety of ailments ranging from fevers to influenza. Humans aren't the only ones to enjoy this plant though, it is also well-used by flies, bees, and caterpillars. This week, take a whiff of its fragrant heads of tiny white flowers. These flowers will eventually give way to tufted seeds that will be moved by the wind. If you take a close look at the rest of the plant, you'll find that its leaves appear to be pierced right through their middle by the stem. The leaves also have a slightly wrinkled texture.
This plant was never used to heal broken bones as you might guess from its name, instead it was used to cure an illness called break bone fever which caused severe bone and joint pain.
All bugs are insects, but not all insects are bugs. In fact, a bug is a certain type of insect in the order Hemiptera. A true bug has a mouth shaped like a straw. This mouthpart is called a stylus and is used to suck up plant juices or the bodily juices of other insects. Most bugs can fold this tube under their bodies when they aren't feeding. Another tell-tale sign that you are looking at a bug is its wings. The hind, or back, wings of a bug are usually clear, while their first pair of wings are half leathery-looking and half clear. Examples of true bugs are water striders, assassin bugs, stink bugs, box elder bugs, and water boatmen.
The stink bugs, a true bug commonly found in Wisconsin, gets its name from an odor it produces in glands in its thorax (the middle segment of its body).
Learn more: University of Kentucky Entomology
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