Ready for her closeup

It's been a butterfly frenzy week. White ones, swallowtails, etc etc. The best place for us to see them consistently is our butterfly bush. Today a painted lady let us gaze at her for a long time while she ate. I was able to photograph her as she circled around sipping nectar. What a treat.

Frog Sounds

Just went outside for some frog quality time. There are 2 sounds I can hear distinctly. One is a lot like the "plunking" of a banjo string. The other is a low, long sound, "wong wong", which reminds me a bit of the way the Siamese cats used to howl when I was a kid, but lower. Wonder if they are 2 sounds of the same frog?

Baby pictures

During some backyard time, I walked over under the tree and could see an open mouth waiting for food. Grabbed my camera and snapped a few photos. I feel like an intruder in my backyard!

Babies!

I have noticed the robins going to and from the nest more rapidly - and sure enough, Eric noticed we have babies. I popped my head up next to the tree on a ladder for these shots. My heart is still racing - that was unbelievably cool. Now I am glad we have the bird feeder out front so we can keep the bad cat distracted while the babies grow.

Bedtime is for birding

Eric was cleaning up outside and I was getting the kids ready for bed when he called excitedly that there was a new bird in the brook. We raced outside and watched this bird for about 1/2 hour. It stood mostly still, and did catch at least 1 fish. Unfortunately, it was dusk so I wasn't able to get a clear camera shot, even with my zoom and a tripod.

Any help on identifying this bird would be appreciated (Brian!!!) Our best guess is that it's a Black Crowned Night Heron, but at a different stage of development than the last one we saw. This one had more blue plumage.

The bird (whatever it was) set back bedtime about an hour, but hey, it's summer, and birds are beautiful.

Turkey in the Backyard

A brief visit from the turkey today - wandered around the backyard for a bit.

Feeder fun

We've had a great time watching our feeder this spring. We get a lot of beautiful birds, including cardinals, woodpeckers, and red winged blackbirds. Unfortunately, the birds at the feeder have 2 things to worry about. One is the neighborhood cat who lies in wait under the chairs and pounces on them - s/he had 2 for lunch yesterday. The other new threat is Sir Knight Campbell (which is his full name) who likes to charge the feeder, and now has a weapon.