Wildly Personable™ Premiere: Comma's Spring Punctuation & Pool Pond Hope
Lisa Loucks-Christenson | Old Country Cross Christian Publishing Group | Laurie (Loucks) Burt Wildlife Sanctuary, Rochester, MN – March 25, 2026, 11:42 PM CDT
The oak savanna held its breath through Blue Lupine's winter chapters, exhaling today with a living punctuation mark: a comma butterfly lifting from fallen oak leaves beneath my nettles. Silver C-mark flashing on tattered underwings, this anglewing emerged exactly one week after the banded tussock moth warmup—first true flutter of Rochester's rare oak savanna spring.
I crouched low, inches from her ragged wings (1½-2 inches span), watching her taste the air. Commas shun flowers, preferring sap flows and rotting fruit; their caterpillars devour nettles, elms, hops. Camouflage masters—closed wings mimic dead leaves perfectly. She paused, then danced low through oak-bur understory, my heart punctuation with hers.
But sanctuary winds pulled me to Pool Pond, shallower than any winter past. Two dragonfly nymphs lost during recent thaws, their empty exuviae clinging to mud like tiny tombstones. Still, mid-afternoon March 25, I carried fresh water from the rain barrel, pouring several precious inches over frozen silt. A gamble for survivors below—wood frog eggs? More nymphs? Willows arch overhead like worried sentinels, catkins just greening.
This premieres Wildly Personable™ book, show, column by Lisa Loucks-Christenson—daily critter adventures from Rochester's hidden oak savanna, filmed since last fall. From Blue Lupine's March equinox finale (Book 1) serves as prologue to Oak Savanna Winds: Willow Pond (Book 2, Old Country Cross Christian Publishing Group).
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www.oldcountrycross.com | Wildly Personable™: Critter Tales from Oak Savanna Trails
