End of August

I got to the park about the same time as I did yesterday. Our days are still warm but the mornings are now noticeably cooler. I ended up taking about 1/3 as many photos as I did yesterday and struggled to get 3 blog-worthy ones for this post. This first is my favorite and my best attempt so far at a closeup of the giant green Dragonflies that are common this time of year. On the opposite side of the park I f0und myself trudging through some tall weeds in search of a photo of a Blue Jay of all things. He took off before I was even ready but in my view now was a Wood Duck with bright red eyes. I'm actually quite confused to whether this is a male or female. At first glance it appears to be a male but it really lacks the bright coloring on the head and chest. But there's also no visible white ring around the eyes that the females have. So maybe it is just a younger male. Something I see pretty regularly at the park in the summer time are Barn Swallows. But they're rarely sitting still and fluttering around much too quickly for a photo. I often see them just barely skimming the grass on the ball fields -probably catching insects. There were fairly large bunches of them high up in the tree tops on the south east side today and the only really photo opportunity I've ever had of them.

Well Camoflauged nature

Upon entering the wood chip trail on the south side this morning I was startled by a Doe standing very still off to my right. She didn't move until I approached closer and she jumped off into the woods. Then I noticed a couple of Fawns in the tall grass behind were she was standing. They were a long ways back behind a lot of brush so I crept slowly closer for a better angle. They watched intently until I was too close for comfort before they too bounced away. I never did get great pics of them being in such a thick area. After standing there for a while and realizing they were probably long gone, I noticed this neat looking orange and black beetle on a sunny green leaf below me. It wasn't something I see everyday so I thought I'd take a picture. When I got real close and zoomed in I noticed tiny, tiny bugs perched on it's back. My first thought is that they were mites but now I'm wondering if maybe they were offspring of the beetle. Regardless, it's kind of an interesting sight. I headed on, stopping just a couple times for more closeups of fuzzy caterpillars and grasshoppers. Not too much longer I came to the east side where I walked right past an unusually brown patch of leaves before thinking "hmmm." I walked backwards a few steps and realized it was a Doe laying just a few feet inside the trail. She was grooming and didn't seem to mind me taking a few photos. I must have been there for 5 minutes, attempting to get a better photo before I realized there was a young fawn laying even five feet closer to me! It barely moved so I never noticed it. Seconds later I spotted the 2nd fawn laying just behind the Doe. Man, I couldn't believe I was so close and hadn't noticed them! The fawn would periodically point it's nose up in the air attempting to learn my scent. I only recently learned that a fawns white spots are supposed to emulate sunlight passing through the leaves and breaking up into little bright spots on the forest floor. It obviously works pretty well!

Fungi Season

Sad to say but I've been getting to the park less frequently lately. One reason is that it's been just too blasted hot this August. For a couple of days there I actually missed winter! This hot and humid weather has been producing a wide variety of mushrooms in the park -some of which I've not seen before. This first reminds me of a whale with a "blow-hole" on top. It was also gigantic for a mushroom -slightly larger than a football! Later on the wood chip trail on the south side I noticed these huge patches of white blobs popping up. The largest of which looked pretty much like "prickly marshmallows." They were so many in each clump that they were pushing against each other like a bunch of bubbles. I'd like to take time lapse video of these things as you could just tell that they grew almost overnight. Keeping with today's theme, I spotted yet another odd fungus on the east side. I doubt this one has been growing as ferociously as the others as it appeared a bit more permanent and firmly planted. It looked very much like a little waterfall spilling down the tree stump it was growing on.

Two visits in one day

Yep, I finally did it -I visited the park twice in one day. The first was just before 8:00am as I had taken a "mental health day" off from work. Over the weekend, the temperature itself had cooled down considerably, but surprisingly the humidity has stayed. As I was making my way to the north end of the park I stopped to spy on a couple of Grey Catbirds when I suddenly noticed a Humming bird buzzing around the same bushes. He stayed perched just long enough for one pic. Though it's not a great one, I was extremely pleased to finally capture their bright green-blue feathers. Shortly after, a second one came hovering by and they flew off together. Besides a couple Green Herons, there weren't many photo opps other than this small toad who'd hopped out onto the path. You gotta be careful lately to watch where you walk as there's no shortage of them with the recent wet weather. Later in the day I decided I'd up my daily mileage (I'm a big pedometer fan) and go for a jog. I figured I'd run with camera in hand JUST in case I spotted something like a big buck. As it turned out, I saw just that. Two of them in fact, were drinking water from a drainage ditch near the north side. Both had nice big velvety antlers but my camera was not cooperating due to the dim light. This is the best pic I caught -which I even lightened up slightly to show more detail.

Humid Evening

Our warm August is continuing and so is the humidity. Seems we're in a perpetual state of hot and stormy weather resulting in a deluge of rain with every thunderstorm. The water levels at the park are now the highest I've ever seen them. With this much rain, everywhere is lush and green. There was an ominous overcast to the sky on this Tuesday evening but it was WAY too hot and humid to even consider a rain jacket. I figured it would feel good if I got rained on. It never did rain but the big thunderclouds later converged in the west and parted just enough for the sunset to peek through, creating a strange sky. There was not much wildlife moving around tonight, unless you count the mosquitoes. As I headed back to the parking lot on the south side, I noticed a flock of geese just overhead. I thought it was an odd site to see at this time of year. Maybe they'd had enough of this heat and were heading further north! Shortly later I spotted another Prairie Vole but didn't get any blog-worthy pics before he scampered off into the taller grass.

Miserably Hot

Man, today is the hottest and most humid day I've experienced in years. Maybe I'm getting older and less tolerant but WOW, it is seriously uncomfortable outside! Late last night it had rained 2/10 of an inch and the humidity is so extreme you'd think it was still raining. Temps were reaching the high-eighties hours earlier than yesterday as I arrived at the park today. As if sweat stinging my eyes, and fogging up glasses were not annoying enough, my camera's batteries kept dying on me too. Somehow I managed three blog-worthy photos though. The first is a new species of bird I've not seen before at Palmer Lake, a Belted Kingfisher. The park sure seems like a great fit for them with all the water, but seriously this is the first one I've seen there. No idea if male or female as it was way too far away. Just seconds later I noticed a pair of Great Blue Herons in a small tree by the water's edge. This was was squawking at the other one. On the east side I walked right past a rust colored patch in the woods before turning around for a second look. Only a few feet of the path were both fawns laying down in the shade trying to stay cool. I looked for the mother but never saw her. I got just this one pic before my camera died again.

Warm streak

I could tell it was gonna be a warm one today so I hit the park as early as I could. Even so, it was already in the mid-eighties and humid. As I made my way around, I noticed an obvious lack of people. Not sure if everyone is up north at their cabins or just staying inside. It reminded me of some of my winter visits when I feel like I'm the only one there. Those can be some of the best times for photography because I'll stop to take pics I might not normally take -which explains a couple of images in this post. It was so hot today that I was constantly wiping away sweat from my forehead in an attempt to keep it from dripping onto my glasses. Somewhere on the east side I stopped again in the shade and noticed a small woodpecker very close enough for a decent photo. I think it's a Male Downy Woodpecker, indicated by the red patch on the head and small black spots on the tail. The north side presented a good random photo opportunity as these seeds were about to take flight in the hot summer air. A short time later this squirrel ran almost right under my legs and scurried up a tree. Anytime animals get closer than normal is worth taking a photo to me -even if it's just your average everyday squirrel.

August is here

One sure sign of late summer at Palmer Lake is the Touch-me-Not plants. On the south side they're thick and will grow to a height near six feet. As I was admiring all the little orange flowers I noticed a doe right there in the middle of them looking back at me. I thought maybe I'd see the fawns with her but the "jewel weeds" would have been much too tall to even see them anyway. Something else growing like crazy in the summertime are rabbits. From spring all the way through summer, It's not uncommon to see young ones in groups of six or more. These two were devouring any greenery in sight including Cattail stems. I always wondered how Coyotes could survive at Palmer Lake and now I think I know the answer.