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.

Sorry, Mama!

I was working in our yard with Jeanne yesterday and noticed a nest hidden in our Japanese Maple right by our house. I peeked up into it and it had a beautiful robin's blue egg but no Mama. Went a bit later to check it out and discovered Mama was back! Boy does she yell a lot when you disturb her. Then, I tried to sneak up for a camera shot and sent her flying away again. Now I was starting to feel bad so I got out my zoom lens and from a far away distance down the driveway, took this blurry shot. I hope we get babies.

Snap!

We had some fun last week finding and watching the snappers. They have such long tails and are so big they are easy to spot. They love to swim in the middle of the "muck" and eat away.

Night Heron

We think this is a black crowned night heron, male breeding coloration. From afar, at first I thought it was a gull (although I should have thought why a gull would be in the middle of the brook). We were going down to the brook's edge to get flowers for our new butterflies when we realized we had a new bird to look at. We rushed to get our binoculars and spent 5 minutes watching him before he flew away.

It's a Bird! IT's a Turtle!

We were having dinner on the deck when Eric spotted something dark on the other side of the brook. We fetched our binoculars and abandoned our food for a few minutes to watch a large turtle walk around on the grass and then eventually go back to the water. Too far away to get any kind of markings (and I wasn't able to be faster than the turtle with my race to go get my zoom lens). SO, here's a list of CT Turtles and we'll just have to guess what kind it is.

http://www.peabody.yale.edu/collections/vz/her_guide.html

I did read that tehy wander on land in late spring/early summer looking for an egg laying site. WOuldn't that be cool?

Canada Goose

2 geese (momma and poppa to us) set up a nest on "duck island" April/May 2010.

Green Heron, by youngest birder

Harper spotted this one from the other side of the brook May 2010. Both kids were able to get it in their binocular sights.

Green Heron

Green heron, spotted fishing in June 2009 from the other side of the brook.

Great Egret

Seen often on the pond.
Pictures are from July 2009, when the egret caught a fish and took its good old time eating it.

Blue Heron

July 2009.
Seen infrequently during the summer.
Very skittish about being watched from the house - will fly away at almost any movement.