I can't believe the month of June is over already. After being out birding
almost every day in May, I guess I kind of slacked in June. Well, sort of. I did spend a whole week in Colorado where I bird watched there too, but all in all I didn't get to Palmer Lake Park very much in June. This Sunday was a beautiful day to wrap up the month though with clear blue skies and warm temperatures. I've been seeing a lot of new little wildflowers blooming now including Marsh Milkweed, Nightshade and Crown Vetch. Some birds I saw today but not pictured were Yellow Warbler, American Redstart, Brown-headed Cowbird, Barn Swallow, Mourning Dove and Red-winged Blackbird. One bird I'm seeing a awful lot of lately are Gray Catbirds. Every late spring & summer it seems like they make up about every other bird I see in the park. Second to when Red-winged Blackbirds arrive in the spring, the Grey Catbird might be the next most prolific bird in the park. They can be heard making either their "cat-like" meeow calls, or a constant chatter of dozens of different notes and phrases strung together.
When they do this they kind of don't shut up and it goes on for who knows how long. Despite how common they are this time of year, I've not had a good opportunity to photograph one and this is probably my best for the year so far. I've also been seeing another returning visitor to the park this season –the Osprey. Today at least one of them was hovering over the south end of the park, keeping an eye out for fish in the water below. I've been trying for years to catch one actually diving into the water but with the tall cattails this can be tricky. It is equally as neat to watch them "hover" in mid air though. It is quite a unique skill for such a large raptor to be able do so I would say.
Raptors are generally built for "soaring" but the Osprey can hover in one single place almost as well as a Hummingbird! Yet more return visitors to the park this time of year are not so welcome. Because of all the rain this month, the mosquitoes have been quite thick lately. Honestly they have a tendency to affect my photos this time of year because in certain places you really just can't hold still for too long. That was the case with the American Redstart I tried to photograph today and I gave up easily after just one shot. But with the mosquitoes come other insects as well and Dragonflies and Damselflies are plentiful now as well. I wish I knew more of them but I'm content to focus and learn more birds for a while before moving onto this much tougher category! I spotted this very interesting one today with completely black wings.
I believe it would be a Damselfly because of how it's wings are built to fold backwards unlike a Dragonfly. He also had a bright emerald green body and called to be photographed. Later in the day I spotted more of them at a different park in Golden Valley later in the day.
When they do this they kind of don't shut up and it goes on for who knows how long. Despite how common they are this time of year, I've not had a good opportunity to photograph one and this is probably my best for the year so far. I've also been seeing another returning visitor to the park this season –the Osprey. Today at least one of them was hovering over the south end of the park, keeping an eye out for fish in the water below. I've been trying for years to catch one actually diving into the water but with the tall cattails this can be tricky. It is equally as neat to watch them "hover" in mid air though. It is quite a unique skill for such a large raptor to be able do so I would say. 
Raptors are generally built for "soaring" but the Osprey can hover in one single place almost as well as a Hummingbird! Yet more return visitors to the park this time of year are not so welcome. Because of all the rain this month, the mosquitoes have been quite thick lately. Honestly they have a tendency to affect my photos this time of year because in certain places you really just can't hold still for too long. That was the case with the American Redstart I tried to photograph today and I gave up easily after just one shot. But with the mosquitoes come other insects as well and Dragonflies and Damselflies are plentiful now as well. I wish I knew more of them but I'm content to focus and learn more birds for a while before moving onto this much tougher category! I spotted this very interesting one today with completely black wings. 
I believe it would be a Damselfly because of how it's wings are built to fold backwards unlike a Dragonfly. He also had a bright emerald green body and called to be photographed. Later in the day I spotted more of them at a different park in Golden Valley later in the day.
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