I called this by one of its common names, drooping coneflower, when I was a barefoot boy with cheeks of tan.

The beautiful Spiderwort had to suffer the indignity of me calling it “cow slobbers” when I was a lad. I did so because its sap resembled bovine saliva.

A comma causes me to pause, especially when it’s a comma butterfly. Looks like an Eastern Comma to me.

Naturally
Multi-colored Asian lady beetles bugged and bit me. They are botherations, that’s for sure.
Asters bloom late into the year and provide a myriad of vibrant colors ranging from white to blue to lilac to pink to scarlet to purple—most with golden central disks.
Spotted touch-me-not flowers are bright orange to orange-yellow with variable amounts of red-orange spots and markings. It’s an annual, reproducing from seed each spring. The common name refers to the seed pods popping open at a touch. It’s also known as jewelweed because the orange flowers glisten in the sunlight, the blossoms hang like pendants from the branches or "jewels" of water collect on the edges of the leaves. Some say the plant’s sap is an antidote to the itch of poison ivy and stinging nettle.
The old joke says you can always tell a dogwood by its bark. If you gently tear a leaf, strings will appear between the torn halves if it’s a dogwood.
I sat outside in the dark and listened to an eastern screech owl pair. There wasn’t any screeching that I could discern, but there was trilling, whinnying, barking, chuckling and rattling. I heard yip-howls of coyotes—short howls that rise and fall in pitch, punctuated with staccato yips, yaps and barks. The song dog pups born in the spring are ready to disperse and find new territories from September through November. The yip-howling I heard is the communication between the animals that’s a type of bonding within a family group while also serving as a territorial display. The yip-howling appeared to be coming from different locations, but I wasn’t surrounded by coyotes. It's an auditory illusion known as the "beau geste effect,” wherein a few coyotes sound like many. It’s named for the novel “Beau Geste,” in which French troops propped up their dead to make attackers believe they were a larger force than they truly were.
I watched whirligig beetles in a pond. They have been described as the bumper cars of the beetle world. They look like watermelon seeds whirling about in circles. Each beetle can carry an air bubble, allowing them to dive.
Yellow jackets are carnivorous, feeding on other insects like flies, bees and caterpillars. They also feed on spiders, picnic fare, fruits, carrion and flower nectar while foraging up to a mile from their nest. We notice them as they try to steal our sandwiches and beverages or swarm around apple cores in a compost. Yellow jacket colonies grow largest in late summer and early fall when their food sources begin to diminish. Only the queen survives until next year.
Q&A
“Do boxelder bugs bite?” Boxelder bugs are true bugs and belong to the same family as stink bugs, cicadas and other insects with piercing and sucking mouthparts. Adult boxelder bugs are black with orange or red markings. In late summer and fall, boxelder bugs leave the trees where they were feeding to find protected areas for the winter. They may stain draperies and other light-colored surfaces and produce an unpleasant odor when crushed. They like warm areas and are attracted to buildings with a large southern or western exposure. They find buildings standing taller than surrounding structures or standing isolated on flat land enticing. Boxelder bugs are harmless. They don’t bite or sting, they’re not attracted to food like ants, they aren’t the alligators of the insect world, there isn’t a single instance of anyone being mugged by boxelder bugs, they don’t lay eggs in our homes or eat our fabrics. Compared to multi-colored Asian lady beetles, boxelder bugs are welcome houseguests. Masking or duct tape applied over any small opening will keep the insects from entering. A vacuum cleaner is an effective method of removing the sluggish, slow-moving bugs from the house. Boxelder bugs suck the juices out of leaves and the developing seeds of boxelder and maple trees, but they don’t siphon enough to hurt the trees. They winter in cozy crevices around your house and eat nothing during that time. Boxelder bugs can release bad-smelling/tasting chemicals to discourage predators. Like other insects with similar capabilities (monarch butterflies), they have bright orange or red markings to warn predators off. If you want them off the outside of your home, you could spray the boxelder bugs with a homemade concoction of 1/2 cup of laundry detergent mixed with 1 gallon of water and it would do them no good. Repeat the treatment as needed.
“Is there poison oak in Minnesota?” No, but poison ivy, poison sumac and wild parsnip can cause dermatitis.
Thanks for stopping by
“Autumn has caught us in our summer wear.”—Philip Larkin.
“If there is such a phenomenon as absolute evil, it consists in treating another human being as a thing.”—John Brunner.
Do good.

©Al Batt 2021

This coyote might be named Wile E. Coyote or not. Photo by Al Batt

The only warbler I saw today—the Yellow-rumped Warbler. If Autocorrect had its way, it would be the Yellow-rumpled Warbler.

I’m vertically enhanced. If my shoe became untied, I waited until I dropped something on the floor. Then while I was down there picking it up, I tied my shoe. That’s not a problem with these shoes. No hands needed. I love em!