Colorful June Birds

It's amazing how much more you can do in a single day when there is as much daylight as there is now. After work this evening I decided to go over to Silverwood Park in St. Anthony and was there for about an hour. Then a friend of mine called me to tell me that he had heard a Black-billed Cuckoo bird calling for about half an hour at Palmer Lake Park near the northeast side. So I left Silverwood almost immediately, though I was seeing both the male and female Indigo Buntings there. I got to PLP at around 6:00pm and went to the spot where the Cuckoo had been heard but I never heard or saw it. It was a little buggy already and I was getting bit up by not moving quickly enough. So I headed to the north end of the park where I heard a Yellow Warbler calling. I followed the sound until I found the bird in the same general area where I've been seeing them lately. With full leaves out now it is getting tougher to see the birds at all much less get photos of them. Finally it moved to the top most part which is when I shot this photo. A little while later I could hear another bird that sounded similar but more scratchy. I wondered it if might be an American Redstart and indeed it was. The bird came down out of the treetops just long enough to check me out it seemed. It hopped around on a dead branch just long enough for me to take a few shots. Redstarts are notoriously hard to photograph because of their constant and quick movement, but I've found it is equally hard to take a photograph that captures the detail of their eyes and head. Since the males have a completely black head and black eye, it is somewhat rare to even be able to see their eyes. So this is one shot in my book that makes the cut! On my way along the north side I had been hearing not just one but up to three different Indigo Buntings calling from the treetops. If I would be lucky enough to see one tonight it would be the first IB's I've seen at the park this year. I decided to head back the way I came and on the way I did encounter one –a male. In fact, he gave me more than one decent photo opportunity as he busily sang out the same sweet, buzzy song over and over again. Like last year I witnessed him fly back and forth from one side of the trail to the next. After chasing him back and forth for quite a while I encountered him on a lower than usual perch and took this photo. It is lightened up quite a bit since it was getting darker already, but I really like how it turned out. I would not normally crop a photo so strangely, with all that space to the right but for some reason I think it works. I saw one more interesting thing as I was heading back to my vehicle and that was these two Butterflies back-to-back with wings intertwined. These are a very common Butterfly and I believe they may be called "Cabbage Butterlies" but I'm not 100% certain yet. The odd position I found them in leads me to believe they were possibly mating.