Labor Day Painted Lady

Today was Labor Day and I had the day off of work, though I didn't feel all that great. The previous evening I contracted a sore throat of the worst kind, but no other symptoms so I still tried to be out and about and doing things. My wife and I had hiked extensively for the past few days, visiting nearly 4 different parks in the metro area and today was kind of day to ourselves. I forgot to mention that she was also sick as of the previous day but was further along than I and wanted nothing more than to stay inside and recover. Anyway, I found myself hiking along the paved path on the north side starting at 73rd Avenue. I quickly noticed not one but two butterflies on a plant I know well; White Snakeroot. But here's the interesting part, I can't say I've EVER seen any species of butterfly on this plant. It is a native, but with it's small white flowers it generally doesn't attract much attention from pollinators, especially butterflies in my experience. But it's worth mentioning that this particular year was a "boom" year for Painted Lady Butterflies, and they are being seen by the hundreds and sometimes thousands in various parts of Minnesota this summer. Anyway, when I spotted two Painted Lady's and one Red Admiral on the same plant I just had to take some photos. Only a few hundred feet later I spotted yet more Painted Lady's again on White Snakeroot. And boy were they in perfect sunlight for photos! I think these might be the best shots I've ever gotten of this butterfly species. After sharing these on facebook, I had people with waaay more experience than I tell me that they had also seen them on White Snakeroot AND that it was the first time they'd seen that too! Since the Palmer Lake Park area doesn't support a wide variety of flowering native plants, my guess is that the Snakeroot was the best option these butterflies had for nectar. A bit later I bumped into a friend of mine and we hike together for a little bit. We spotted a Viceroy Butterfly as well but it was too far off the trail for a good photo.

November Moth

It was sunny today at the park but very very quiet. I hardly saw any birds, and none even worth taking a photo of. The only thing I saw that peaked my interest was this small, drab colored moth flitting about over the trail. I'm always amazed to see insects, and especially moths or butterflies late in the season when temperatures start to really cool down. I followed him to a perch just on the edge of the trail and captured a few photos. No idea what this one is called as I don't own a field guide for moths –yet!

15 Birds, 2 Mink and Some Insects!

I can hardly believe it is only late November now as the weather we've had since our first snow on the 10th has felt much more like December or even January. We've already dipped below 0º and had a couple more snowfalls and it's not even December! This Saturday was slightly warmer and I was anxious to hike around the park. I started tallying up the number of bird species that I spotted because it is just so slow this time of year. After watching some Chickadees and Juncos moving back and forth from the cattails, I spied a small group of Cedar Waxwings picking at the Buckthorn berries. The light wasn't so good and especially shooting upwards like this but I like this picture non-the-less. When I got over to the "duck pond" I started to see all sorts of birds including a few House Finches and Goldfinches. I always enjoy seeing or hearing Goldfinches in the wintertime as they remind me very much of Summer. I'm guessing this one might be an adult male in his winter-time plumage since he shows a bit of very bright yellow still on his face. The Mallards have been slowly growing in numbers since the first snow and I always stop to check out the group just in case there's a stray duck of a different species among them. So far now luck. I did try my hand at catching a picture whenever one would bathe or stretch it's wings and this was the best of the bunch. I'm still no good at catching movement and not having it appear blurry. My very best photo of the day however would be taken just minutes later after I spotted a handful of Cardinals –males and females– moving around low in some dogwood. I crept closer very slowly and positioned myself perfectly on this male somehow without spooking him. He had clearly just eaten something as evident by food left on his bill, so he must have been content just to sit there for a while. So I took advantage and popped off numerous shots and got a couple of very sharp ones. For me, a decent photograph of even a common bird can make my whole day of bird watching well worth it. And at this time of year when everything outdoors starts fading into black or white, a bright red Cardinal is very appreciated! In a short while later I spotted another flash of red, this time being on a Red-bellied Woodpecker. It was here in this same area on the wood chip trail bordering the duck pond that I spotted the majority of the birds I saw today. I believe I had roughly 15 total including:
1. Dark-eyed Junco
2. Black-capped Chickadee
3. American Crow
4. Mallard
5. Blue Jay
6. Northern Cardinal
7. Cedar Waxwing
8. Downy Woodpecker
9. Hairy Woodpecker
10. Red-bellied Woodpecker
11. House Finch
12. American Goldfinch
13. American Tree Sparrow
14. American Robin
15. White-breasted Nuthatch
Aside from these birds, I actually spotted not one but two different Mink! One nearly ran into my foot as I hiked along the wood chip trail on the south side of the park. I could hear shrieking in this area and at first I thought a Raptor had caught a rodent of some kind. But I quickly learned it was indeed a Mink moving through the cattails at a hurried pace –possibly with another one chasing it, though I only saw the one. Then on the complete opposite end of the park, I spotted another one. This time bounding up the banks of the drainage ditch under the northern most paved trail that leads out of the park. Neither one stayed put long enough for a photo of any kind. However it was here that I spotted something interesting –flying insects! There were 2 or 3 of them flying through the air and landing on dried Goldenrod plants. I could hardly believe what I was seeing considering how cold it has been. Simply amazing what nature can withstand.

A New Month and the Start of Fall

If you haven't realized it yet, I came up with a method of splitting up our 4 seasons into specific months for the purpose of this blog. It's not always perfectly in sync with the weather but I think it works pretty well to say what general season I spotted something in. I use December, January and February for Winter. Then March, April and May for Spring. Summer is June, July and August and Fall is September, October and November. Thus today, September 1st is the kick off of the "Fall" bird-watching season for me. And I was lucky enough to spot a Warbler in Fall plumage this evening after work. On the north side of the park I found a couple of Magnolia Warblers hopping around on some fallen branches very low to the ground. I didn't quite get a good shot but enough to positively ID the bird anyway. In fact this was the only bird I photographed tonight in the dwindling light. In the lighter areas I did notice a few different Dragonflies that were interesting. There's only a few species that I can identify but these were ones I do not know. With the day's getting shorter and cooler, they all seemed to be staying rather still and let me get right up close to them. I thought this one had a lot of color to it!

Awesome August Sights!

I arrived at the park just after 8:30am this Saturday and started hiking on the south side. While making my way around the duck pond along the wood chip trail I could see a bird or two near the water's edge among the Willow and other low shrubs. The first one to my surprise was a Great Crested Flycatcher. I'd never seen one this low to the ground before as they tend to stay up in the treetops. Unfortunately the lighting was too dark but at least I saw one. But then a second bird in the same area caught my eye and lo and behold it was a Warbler. Not just any Warbler but a Northern Waterthrush! I've not seen one of these since early spring and seeing as it's August now, I'm thinking that possibly this one is already on it's return trip back south. So this bird is officially my first "fall Warbler." There are lots of great plants and flowers and Butterflies out now as well and I spotted this beautiful patch of Blue Vervain just starting to flower. Though tiny, these little flowers are a vibrant violet and bloom from the top down along their flower stalks. This is one of the very first native Wildflowers that I learned and thus they are my favorite Minnesota Wildflower. Blue Vervain tends to prefer moist areas so it it prevalent in Palmer Lake Park. And speaking of Butterflies, I found more than one today. The first one shown here is called a "Cabbage White" Butterfly and they are quite common. I've tried countless times to photograph one in good light and detail and I think I finally succeeded with this shot. I don't know what kind of plant it was on but I do recognize the fuzzy leaves. Then not to much later I found this Red Admiral Butterfly hanging around a plot of Touch-me-Not plant. Maybe it's early enough in the season but this Red Admiral's wings were in pristine shape making me wonder if it wasn't that old yet. Sometimes Butterflies can get pretty beat-up. And such was the case with the next one I found –a Viceroy Butterfly! This was probably my most exciting find so far as I can't even remember the last time I've seen this species. A Viceroy is a "mimic" of the much loved Monarch Butterfly. The reason is that since Monarch catterpillers eat Milkweed plants, they are toxic to birds and are avoided as a food source. The Viceroy, looking so similar to a Monarch in color and pattern, are also avoided. Looking closely at the lower wing of a Viceroy, one can see an extra black line that runs perpendicular to and crosses the other lines. A Monarch would not show this pattern. And just when I thought I'd found the most interesting piece of nature for the day, something darted out ahead of me on the paved trail while hiking along the north side. It was a Pheasant, which isn't all that odd except for the fact that it stopped dead in it's tracks in the middle of the trail and craned it's head to look back. I knew something was up with this and got my camera ready. Sure enough, tiny Pheasant chicks came running out of the tall grass to catch up with mom! It was the first time for me seeing Pheasant chicks. I believe there were four in all and they were already grown enough to fly for short distances as evident by this photo showing the last one in flight. I tried to quickly run up ahead as I could see the group still on the edge of the grass on the opposite side of the trail. By the time I got up far enough, all but one chick had darted into the grass and I didn't get a good photo of the one. Quite an interesting sighting I think! Wonder if they had nested in the park?

Gotcha! A New "Life Bird!"

After more than 5 years of hiking at Palmer Lake and watching birds, I've learned what kind of birds to expect and where and when. But I'm thrilled to report today that I saw and photographed a brand new species at the park! As with most sighting like this, there is a little "back story" that I'd like to share. About two weeks ago my friend Larry who also walks at the park, called to tell me that he'd heard a Black-billed Cuckoo calling from the trees near 73rd Avenue North. He said that he listened to it calling for over 30 minutes but never spotted it within the thick trees. When he told me that, I actually rushed over to the park right then and there. I poked around the area he mentioned but I never heard or saw anything. The mosquitoes were bad that day and it was hard to be still and listen. Anyway, I pretty much gave up on the bird since then. In fact I was much more interested in the Indigo Buntings today. I'd decided to walk counter-clockwise around the park today –which I rarely do. And when I came out into the sun on the north side where the trail is perfectly straight, I spotted a bird with a very long tail fly out from some low brush to my left. I am not very good at noticing tail or feather length, but this bird had an unusually long tail! 

The only other species I am familiar with that looked anything like this bird would have been a Brown Thrasher. But Brown Thrashers are much more rusty, reddish color and this bird was very dull. When it landed in a thick shrub, still at eye level, I could just barely see it's head. I looked through my binoculars and was stunned to see bright red coloring on the eye! Then I knew, this was no ordinary bird for me! I realized quickly it had to be the Black-billed Cuckoo that Larry had told me about. It continued on to another perch again but amazingly it stayed at eye level. Once or twice it landed in the lower part of a shrub that with less foliage where I got even better looks at it. It also had quite the long, downturned bill which is another reason it probably reminded me of the Brown Thrasher. 

The funniest thing about my sighting is that I've read that this bird is most often heard, before it it seen, or heard and never seen. My particular sighting was exactly the opposite, whereas I saw it first  but then never even heard it. I would have like to have heard it's call –a monotonous "cu cu cu cu" for which it is named. Though a rare sighting for me, this bird's summer range covers most of the midwest states including the entire state of Minnesota. I'm hoping this is not my last sighting of one! Before this entire escapade, I did spend quite a bit of time listening and watching for the Indigo Buntings that I've seen so much of this summer. It's my personal belief that it has been a good year for this bird as I've seen and photographed them countless times, not just at PLP but at many other places around the metro area.

 In years past I feel like I might see them between 1 and 3 times each season. But then again, I may just be looking harder than I used to! Here is my favorite photo of one today. Near the end of my walk I spotted one of those little white Butterflies that are also so common this time of year. They never seem to sit still for me but this one was interested in some like–colored white flowers. I learned today that the Butterfly is referred to as a "Cabbage White Butterfly" with the scientific name of Pieris rapae.

Summer Solstice 2014

Today is June 21st and the first day of Summer which is also the longest day of the entire year. I made a trip to St. Cloud in the morning with a very brief visit to Munsinger and Clemens Gardens near the river. But by 3:20 in the afternoon I arrived back in the Twin Cities for a nice and long 2+ hour hike at the park. The flurry of spring migrant birds has been over for some time now, but there are a lot of other interesting things to see this time of year. After parking at the culdesac on 73rd Avenue and heading south, I ran into flooded trails that were just too deep to walk through. In 5+ years of hiking around the park, I think this is maybe only the 2nd time I've ever had to detour down Oliver Avenue and all the way down to 69th Avenue just to be able to make my way around the entire loop. But when I got back on the trail, I noticed this big Dragonfly just waiting for me to take it's picture against a nice green background. I had learned in the past year or so to count the number of spots or patches on the wings. This one has 3 dark patches on each of it's 4 wings, making it a Twelve-spotted Skimmer. But what I didn't know is that you can tell it is a female. A male would also have white patches in between the dark patches. I think that is pretty neat! Shortly afterward I'd spotted a brief glimpse of a Green Heron who was perched quite low near the tiny little pond along 69th Avenue. I was bummed because he flew up from his spot right along the trail as I approached. But I saw where he landed and I decided to see if I could close again. He was hanging in the taller trees now on the other side of the pond and I was then able to kind of sneak up on him a little just because there were so many other trees and leaves in the way. Green Herons are a quite beautiful bird and can look slightly different each time I see them. This photo was taken right before he flew off again, but I really like that I caught his bright yellow eye in the sunlight! Probably the single most interesting sighting of my walk today came next as I spotted what first looked like a small snake in the bushes! It was mostly dark and with green stripes giving me the initial impression of a Garter Snake. But upon closer inspection it was quite a large Caterpillar. It was about 4 inches long with a bright orange head and also a sizeable orange spike on it's rear! I have never seen anything like it before. While it chowed down on a plant, I took quite a few photos hoping to ID it later on. And after someone pointed me in the right direction, I was able to narrow it down to a "White-lined Sphinx Moth" Caterpillar. There have been a lot of baby birds or "fledgelings" around the park lately. Some of these can be really tough to identify which species they are as they don't quite show the color or behavior that you're used to seeing in the adults. I saw quite a few young birds that I think were Common Grackles because they were surrounding an adult Grackle in a tree and begging for food. Then shortly later I spotted this one having a bath in the flooded trails on the west side. Adult Grackles have yellow eyes but this ones were grey. However you can kind of see hints of the iridescent purple/blue plumage already developing on it's head. The last item I want to share here today is actually a video, which I don't post that often. To my surprise, I again saw bird activity at the little tree stump on the south end of the park along one of the wood chip trails. I first noticed Black-capped Chickadees appearing to excavate an already existing hole in the very middle of this stump that was cut off at an angle. That was well over a month ago on May 5th! Today I could clearly hear young birds chirping inside the hole so I waited here for a bit. Sure enough a Chickadee came in with a mouthful of food and hopped down into the hole. So I tried my best here to capture a quick video. For whatever reason, the adult appears to leave again with the food still in it's bill, making me wonder if the young ones rejected it for some reason. Still this is pretty neat and is the first confirmed Chickadee nest I have found in the park.

Birds and Bugs

I was off from work this Monday and so I visited the park early at around 7:30am. One of the first things I noticed was a bright red male Cardinal feeding what appeared to be a young one. But upon closer look I realized quickly that the young one was NOT another Cardinal. It was in fact a young Brown-headed Cowbird, a bird that is known for laying it's eggs within the nest of other "host" birds. I've read some about this odd behavior called "Brood Parasitism." Not only is it practiced by a few different species of birds, but also by fish and insects. The idea behind it is to let the unsuspecting host parents do the hard work of incubating, hatching and raising the young of another species. With Cowbirds especially, the infant cowbirds can be twice the size of the other birds, and will thus out-compete the others for food. They will likely survive while the bird's true offspring may not. Another strange wonder of nature. I had lots of good opportunities at American Redstarts today but they are a tough bird to photograph for sure. You need to take LOTS of photos in hopes of getting just one when the bird might have sat still for more than a nanosecond. This one turned out the best and then I cropped it vertically. I've recently discovered that I can sometimes get decent shots of bugs if I get far enough away and then crop the photos down later. So when I noticed this spider I gave it a shot. I actually hate spiders and have an irrational fear of them like many people. And this one was big too. No idea what kind it is and I really don't care to find out! About this time of year is when there are lots of different mushrooms and fungi growing in the park. Palmer Lake is especially good for mushrooms because of the wet habitat and especially because of the wood chip trails. There is one that I notice each year about this time and I always think it looks like and underwater coral of some kind. Reading about it now online it apparently IS referred to as "Coral Fungi" with a scientific name of "Clavarioid fungi." It appears whitish in color here but I've also seen it a deep yellowy-orange color and so I wonder if it may change color over time. Near the end of my walk I noticed one more very interesting insect. I've seen this one before and knew by the length of it's tail that it is the Giant Ichneumon Wasp. This "tail" which can be 4 inches or longer is actually an ovipositor used for laying eggs deep within tunnels bored by another species of wasp called the Pigeon Horntail. For this reason the Giant Ichneumon Wasp it considered to be "parasitic." My photo here doesn't even show the full length of it's ovipositor. As a kid I have a vague recollection of my Grandfather holding one of these wasps in his hand and it drilled it's ovipositor right into his hand! I don't quite now if that was completely true or just what I remembered. Regardless, I would not even think about trying to pick one of these up in my hand!

Birds, Deer, Insects and Flowers

I didn't make it to the park until just after 5:00pm this Sunday but there was still plenty of light left and lots of things to see. Upon arrival I noticed a Great Egret out wading in the flooded baseball fields on the east side. As of late I've been more interested in flowers and plants so I've also been trying to look down below me more often too. As I did I noticed this neat looking insect landing on a plant that hadn't even really flowered out yet. I don't think it is a Bee but rather some kind of Wasp, though I honestly don't know. It looked almost black and white. Later on the north side I climbed a little hillside to look around for Goldfinch but instead noticed a Flycatcher of some kind –likely a Least Flycatcher because of a very noticeable white eye-ring. As I watched the flycatcher, a Doe suddenly walked into view right by the bird. This isn't the best picture but I thought it was funny and maybe the only photo I've got with both a Deer and a Bird in the same picture! Near the west side of the park I stopped to watch a Common Grackle picking up slugs out of a puddle on the paved trail. Like many birds with iridescent feathers, I'm always trying to capture the different colors one can see in them. After poking around the water for a bit, he flew up to and perched atop one of the freshly cut Willows that had been trimmed by the city. Near the end of my trip I noticed a brilliant purple flower growing near the cattails. I've seen this before but not paid too much attention until now. Upon looking up the flower later I learned it is called "American Vetch" and is in the "pea" family. I hope it is one that I can remember from now on. Other birds spotted today included American Redstart, Song Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird (juvenile), Yellow Warbler, and a Killdeer who pretended to be injured when I approached!

Warm November Sun

Like so many recent Autumns, our weather has continued to be mild, or even above average temperature-wise. This Sunday was a particularly nice and sunny day to walk around the park. I have noticed a sharp decline in the variety of birds though as the month of October has passed. From here on out, "birding" can be a bit more tedious. However, as in every season there are still things to look forward to. One thing that come to mind is, soon it will simply be much easier to spot birds due to the lack of leaves. Another is raptors. I tend to spot many more raptors such as Eagles, Hawks and Owls in the late Fall and Winter months than in other times of the year. One bird that seems to be more active than normal this time of year are Black-capped Chickadees. Though so common in our area, they are still fun to watch and photograph. This one landed in a tree right above my head as I was making a squeaking whistle call. They are quite curious birds indeed. Aside from Chickadees I really didn't see a lot of other birds today. But it was just warm enough yet to find a live Grasshopper out on the paved path. I was kind of surprised to see this and figured most of them had frozen by now. But I touched him and he hopped away. I imagine this might be the last Grasshopper I see for the year. I think it was somewhere on the south end of the park that I noticed these bright orange mushrooms peeking out of a knot at the base of a tree. I've really not studied mushrooms/fungi so I have no idea what they are called but I do they are fairly common whatever they are. It looked like one had been eaten on just a bit by something. Whatever it was must not have liked them too much as the others were untouched.

A Few Good Warblers but No Photos

This weekend I went to Sparta Wisconsin for some bike riding and unfortunately I didn't get in hardly any bird watching. So my only outing to PLP this weekend was on late Sunday afternoon. Though the temp was in the mid to upper 70's, it was still humid and very much feels like Summer in the first week of September. I was hoping to see some new Warblers passing through today and indeed I did. I actually spotted 5 different Warblers including Common Redstart (female), Common Yellowthroat, a Tennessee Warbler, a Magnolia Warbler and my favorite, a Black and White Warbler! Of all these however, I didn't get a single photo as the majority of them were high up in the treetops picking insects off the leaves. I was lucky enough to even have spotted them briefly using my binoculars. Some other things I did get photos of were this Monarch Butterfly on the south east corner. Here there is usually a large field of wildflowers that was recently mostly mowed down. I'm not sure which party is responsible, or why they decided to do so, but mowing over all these wild plants effectively destroyed a ton of food sources for many birds and insects. In addition to the Warblers listed above, I saw quite a few other birds today including; Blue Jays, Cardinals, a Brown Thrasher, Chickadees, lots of Robins, Mallards, Wood Ducks, an Eastern Phoebe, a Least Flycatcher, a Green Heron, Goldfinches, Cedar Waxwings, Canada Geese and two female Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. These I spotted again on the north side along the trail in some thick Buckthorn trees. I've not seen a male Grosbeak for quite a while now which makes me wonder if the males start migrating before the females. When I got to the footbridge over Shingle Creek, I spotted one last bird –a Belted Kingfisher. It was squawking loudly and actually flew under the bridge below me to perch on a recently fallen tree over the creek. Since I've not caught a decent photo of this somewhat infrequent visitor, I figured it should be easy to hike upstream and get closer for a better shot. But every time I got anywhere near the Kingfisher it would fly further upstream and perch again. This repeated a few times before I finally lost sight of him. I was totally bummed and the Kingfisher remains elusive to my camera lens still at Palmer Lake Park.

Sweet Start to September!

Well for once the weather prediction was right. Last night we finally got some much needed rain and then the temperature dropped considerably. When I left the house for the park this morning at 8:45 am it was 62 degrees, which is just perfect if you ask me. After spotting a migrant Warbler yesterday, I was hoping that today –coupled with the sharp change in weather– might bring more good luck. Sure enough it did and I had a repeat of yesterday by spotting yet another new Warbler in the park! This time was along the wood chip trail heading towards the railroad ties overlooking the water on the south side. There, on the left side of the trail is an area where many trees fell during a summer storm. It seems to be a good place to watch for birds as all the dead branches make great perches. Just as the sun was coming out, I noticed a handful of little yellow birds and got my camera on the first one I could. I actually didn't know at the time but what I was seeing was a Blue-winged Warbler! Though I didn't catch most of his blue-grey colored wing, the tell tale marking is the black stripe right across the eye. I could hardly believe it once I realized what it was. Yet another first for me! Shortly later I eyed a Brown Thrasher on the ground that seemed to be pouncing on something and then jumping back and up into the air repeatedly. As I got in closer I could see that there was a tiny little Garter Snake on the ground who was holding it's ground tenaciously. The snake was all of about 6 inches long but held it's jaws open and would strike every time the Thrasher tried to pick it up. At such a small size, I figured the bird would eventually win out but the snake just kept fighting. I must have gotten too close and scared the Brown Thrasher off at which point the snake slithered quickly back into the weeds. I was kind of disappointed that I let myself interrupt this scene but I'm sure the snake was thankful. Later on the next wood chip trail I glanced down to notice a bright green Katydid on a large bleached-out leaf. My camera and zoom lens don't take great closeups so I tried quite a few angles and distances. When I got home I was happy to see a few came out and this one even had some good detail of the wings and eye. It's quite obvious that the Katydid is purposely resembling a green leaf to avoid being eaten. Finally, this last photo I took on the north side of the park near the thick bushes of Dogwood after the trail curves. This has always been an excellent place to watch for birds and attracts everything from Orioles to Warblers and Hummingbirds. Today it was a couple of female Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. I always love to see the males and if there's a female around the male is usually somewhere behind her. I watched and waited but never did see the male. This female however posed perfectly for me in a Buckthorn tree closer to the trail. Now if I could just get all birds to cooperate this well!

Friends of Palmer Lake Park Nature Hike 2013

This Saturday morning the Friends of Palmer Lake Park (or FPLP) led another "nature hike" around the west side of the park. The event was again free to anyone and there was a decent turnout of about 15+ people. Last year we hiked all the way around the park which with a group of people can take quite a while. So this year it was decided to keep it a bit shorter and thus we hiked mainly the west side and also visited some of the wood chip trails for a change. It is always such a fun group of people who attend –people who really appreciate the outdoors and everything it has to offer. Usually, most of these people are quite knowledgeable about nature and boy can a person learn things from them. In our small group we had people skilled in bird, mammal, insect, plant and tree identification. Someone from the group had brought a few nets so we could again try to catch a few dragonflies. At this time of year they are plentiful and one even landed on Jean's head. We all laughed as she quickly became the focus of our attention and cameras. As far as birds go, we actually did not see a lot in our short hike. A couple we did see were Gray Catbird, and Cedar Waxwing. For whatever reason this hike ended up focusing on more on plants which is not my strong point, but definitely something I have enjoyed learning more about. One little tid-bit I picked up today is what Garlic Mustard (an invasive plant) looks like when it goes to seed. I actually didn't get a photo of that unfortunately but the image is engrained in my mind now and I think I will be able to point it out to others in the future. One more insect that we all spotted was this Yellow Butterfly on the wood chip trail. It was clinging to some leaves right at eye level and so all of us got a great look at it. I have always called these "Yellow Swallowtails" but in fact I believe now the correct name is an "Eastern Tiger Swallowtail." Something I learned later from someone else in our group is that the caterpillar of this species prefers to eat Dill plant. It is something you can plant in your own yard and possibly even attract this type of Butterfly to!

Critters Everywhere

I can hardly believe July is coming to a close in the next few days. I've been out birding a fair amount this month but didn't get to Palmer Lake Park until this Sunday morning. Our hot and humid weather has thankfully been replaced by much more tolerable conditions. In fact I thought twice about wearing shorts this morning but was glad I did when the sun warmed things up. The first thing of interest that I noticed was a curious looking shape inside an old Wood Duck house just off the wood chip trail near the south parking lot. I've gone by this house hundreds of times and never seen a duck in it. So when I saw a flash of movement come from that vicinity, I took a closer look. With my binoculars I could see a pair of feet sticking up. This could only mean one thing so I went in closer and sure enough a masked face peered back at me. Though I hated to see a Raccoon in a Duck box, it's not often that I see Raccoons at all in the park so it was kind of a treat. Later I spotted this nice Red Admiral Butterfly who was attracted to a purple Thistle flower. I waded into the tall weeds, getting poked and scratched by other thistle and nettles to get the photo but it was worth it. I'm still hardly seeing ANY Monarch Butterflies this year which is very sad. Later when I got to the foot bridge over Shingle Creek on the north side, I stopped like I often do to watch the creek for signs of any wildlife. After a few minutes I'd not seen anything and was walking off the other side of the bridge when I spotted something swimming across the creek. It hopped up onto the shoreline and I could see another one then on the shore. I got excited and thought maybe they were Otters –as they have been sighted in the park before (but not be me yet!) I decided again to brave the weeds in my shorts and hiked along the creek bank down stream. Just a short time later I spotted 3 of the furry critters and realized they were much too small for an Otter and were indeed Mink! This was the first time I'd seen more than 2 of them together. Boy are these guys fun to watch. They are so playful. As I sat as quietly as possible while being bitten up by mosquitoes, a Mink swam directly toward me and then hopped up on shore again. It zig zagged through the tall grass right beneath my feet! All the while it made a short, barking kind of call and I heard another one further down stream responding. This was also the first time I've ever heard a mink make any noise and it was very cool! Then the 3rd one came across the water and up the shoreline in the same path as the last, also making the same noise. I was literally within just feet of them and I don't think they even realized it. I tried imitating the sound as best I could but I sounded more like a duck than a Mink. I was truly hoping one of them didn't crawl up my leg or something because they were that close to me! On my way back across the north end of the park I heard and then spotted a Common Yellowthroat along the paved trail. I love hearing and seeing these colorful little warblers and so I stalked this one from one side of the trail to the other, back and forth until I was able to get in close to him. I caught this photo just at the right time while he was belting out his "wichety wichety wichety" song.