Up with the sun and a full day ahead. Are there only 24 hours in a day? So much to do and so much to take in during summer. A cloudy day can seem bright and a sunny day highlights all the color, textures, and action across the landscape.
Summer residents and first-time visitors to the area bring lots of energy to add and so many stories to share.
What you don’t find, you hear about.
Camps have summer staff active in training days and preparation for leading groups to explore, discover, and test outdoor skills.
Before first light, the sounds of singing arrive from birds that are on nesting territories and announcing their presence to others of their species. Get the collar and leash, step out in the dark to the songs of the ovenbird, robin, white-throated sparrow, and mourning warbler. The walk results in a sighting of black bears visiting a neighbor for breakfast.
Another dry morning brings the daily update on the fire control underway north of Ely. Breakfast and off to town and into the morning light as it illuminates the forests, creeks, rivers and town. Some trees are fully leafed while black ash has leaves still growing. Many understory and street trees stand out, covered with flowers lit up against a background of green.
Daily changes in plants and animals catch early light and move within the blues of water and sky, white clouds and underlying bedrock. Gray squirrels and white-tailed deer move about as the most noticeable mammals in town other than dogs on morning walks. They have young as do other mammals and the woodchuck family living around the grounds of the historic Soudan Mine.
As sidewalks and paved trails receive heat from the sun, more insects hunt for food. Active ants are being hunted by dragonflies, tiger beetles and other predators. A giant water bug that flew to a streetlight during the night, now rests on the pavement beneath. And a sphinx moth is also near a night light near a doorway.
Taking a moth photo is easier than getting down for a small tiger beetle picture, but worth the effort.
June days will be filled with encounters, field trips and reports of the activities of humans and other animals, plants and their fruit of all forms, and landscapes. When the sun sets, lights turn off, and a headlamp is worn, the action can continue. Whether you like to go out after sunset and rise before sunrise, the dark places provide their own discoveries and mysteries. Maybe a trail walk or night paddle can provide the calls of the whip-poor-will heard recently.
Young owls in nests or fledging can be heard. Nighthawks nest now and hunt over the landscape at night.
Woodcocks have finished their courtship displays and are nesting now.
The excitement from encounters, photos taken, journal entries, stories told add to records, reports and the enthusiasm for June and the summer ahead.
