Nature's Beauty and Power in Jackson County, MN

There was plenty of nature on display in Jackson County, Minnesota, where we spent two weeks in July.  

​Vibrant daylilies were in full bloom everywhere.  I have never seen so many daylilies as we've seen in Minnesota.

The county's prairies, fields, trees, and lakes are perfect havens for birds.  We heard and saw so many birds wherever we went.  In the photo below, a Dickscissel (center) appears to be telling a couple of female or immature Red-Winged Blackbirds a thing or two!  

Below is a Common Yellowthroat with a snack in its beak!

And there were storms...lots and lots of powerful storms. It seemed that every other night we'd be awakened by thunder, lightning, strong wind gusts, and pounding rain. We even had hail a couple of times.  We were fortunate not to sustain any damage to our rig.

​Brown South Campground experienced some serious flooding. Part of the road was completely under water, and the center grasses were surrounded by a moat of water.  In addition to being within sight of Loon and Pearl Lakes, we now had a pond-front site!

Fields of crops were also flooded.  We saw many scenes like this on our bike rides. This is not one of Minnesota's many lakes but a soybean field!  I felt bad for the farmers.

Here is a very impressive shelf cloud over the campground.  Although it looked scary, this particular storm was not violent and brought us just a little thunder, followed by a lot more un-needed rain.

By our last night in the campground, the weather was calm, and we experienced a gorgeous full moon over Loon Lake.