SkyWatch Friday....

It's SkyWatch Friday and this week the skies were dramatic most of the time. My husband was trying a little kite flying on Wednesday against these wonderful clouds.

For more skies from all over the world click on the SkyWatch icon on my sidebar.

"I didn't see it catch a single fly.....I can do better by far!"

Not sure which member of the Flycatcher family this is, but it was not impressed with the kite flying.

Back at home on Thursday, the skies got darker and gloomier.

This little hummingbird was enjoying the flowers on the vine of my "dead tree" from yesterday's post.

She kept stopping to chase away another female, so I didn't get too many shots.

It was nice to get shots that didn't involve a red feeder :-)

During a brief lull in the weather we stopped by the arboretum where I got very frustrated because I saw a brand new butterfly and didn't get a single shot of it before it took off! It was a zebra striped butterfly of some sort...black and white. I've never seen one before.

The Tiger Swallowtail was more than willing to pose.

I saw the Clearwing Hummingbird Moth....no photos.

I saw a small light tan butterlfy I didn't know...no photos.

Definitely a frustrating morning with the butterflies!

I'm never sure if this is a black Tiger Swallowtail or a Spicebush Swallowtail. I can't seem to figure out what the difference is in their markings.

Spicebush?

Not sure what this is either.

I spent more time chasing butterflies around than actually taking photos.

Think Green Thursday.....dead trees

Are dead trees green? Yes and no. In the traditional colorful sense, they are not green. But in the environmental sense, they are very "green". Dead trees provide habitat for birds that like to nest in tree cavities. They also provide bugs for food and perching space. Most of us don't want a dead tree in our yards. Last week, Kelly at "Red and the Peanut" posted her half dead willow tree. I told her about my dead dogwood and she suggested we start a "Dead Tree Society". LOL! What we both have in common is that we don't want to get rid of our dead trees.
My dead Dogwood grows right by the front door and is where I hang all my bird feeders and take photos. I was devastated when I realized last year that the tree had died! I didn't want to cut it down and start from scratch waiting for a new tree to grow. So.....I planted a vine next to the tree and turned my dead dogwood into a "Vine Tree"!

Don't ask me the name, because I have forgotten what it is, but it drapes itself all over the tree and has these lovely white flowers. The bees love them. The Goldfinches will eat petals from them later. (NOTE: I think I found a name for it...Silver Lace Vine)
Another "volunteer" vine....a believe it is a honeyvine....also grows on part of the tree. These vines give the birds the feeling of safety that they want while they come to the feeders.

I have placed a couple of shepherd crooks to hold feeders in the area, also.

The vine sometimes makes it hard to get a good photo now! I had to trim away a few dead bits and redrape some of it.

But you can see that the birds will perch on the dead branches quite happily while looking for food.

At the base of the tree, I have placed a small Dogwood volunteer that I found elsewhere and as it gets larger, I will eventually cut away parts of the old tree and finally all of it. But in the mean time the birds and I can enjoy my "dead Dogwood" in its disguise as the "Vine Tree"!
Think Green! Save a tree....even a dead one!

Thanks to Rambling Woods for hosting the Think Green Thursday blog. For more "green" blogs click on the icon at the top of this post.

I have a few other photos that I want to get posted, and they are "green" also.

This is at the wetland's meadow. Mike captured this little butterfly enjoying the flowers.

A little frog in the duckweed.

A turtle peeking up out of the same duckweed. Everything about the Howell wetlands is green in every sense of the word :-)

Well.....except the ducks.

Getting organized before diving through the railings to get away from us.

Barn Swallow youngsters....

It seems to be my week for swallows. When we went to the wetlands, there were a bunch of young ones around. These 2 look old enough to feed themselves, but they kept flapping away hoping mom or dad would come with some food. They didn't seem to mind me walking up near the railing.
The faces and attitudes they struck were so cute and comical at the same time.

They were pretty little birds and I took too many photos, of course....but I liked them.

How is this for attitude? I think he is sizing me up.

A bit "snooty" looking.

We all know what this means....."feed me"!

He looks a bit dejected here.

A feeble cry for sympathy.

Louder.

They had to move so we could walk past, so they flew up on the roof to continue their begging. You can see one in flight showing the forked tail.

I'm sure they were finding plenty to eat over the marsh and lake. Great place for them to live.

Flowers downtown.....

Over the weekend, we went downtown to take photos of a statue for Becky, and while we were there, we found a really pretty flower garden at a park. I had never been to this garden and the flowers were wonderful, as well as attracting butterflies. The Zinnias were my favorites! I loved all the colors and didn't even get shots of the yellow or white ones. The pinks and purples were my favorites. I decided to make this collage rather then a dozen individual photos for a change :-)
All of the flowers were beautiful and there was a nice variety.
An over-view of the main area.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that.

Lots of colors.

These silvery bushes were stunning!

I think this might be a Silvery Crescentspot?

There were Cabbage Whites "dancing" around in the air and flitting from flower to flower. I like this shot, and think it looks like it has a tutu on :-)

Getting one to hold still was tough.

I even got one in the air!

One little skipper.......I never see their wings open.

Several Monarchs were flying around! It was like seeing butterfly ballet between them and the Whites.

This last shot was at home, but I wanted to post this guy and he didn't fit anything else coming up.

Spider....

Anyone know anything about spiders???? This one is spinning webs under our outside light every night in front of the sliding glass doors. I tried to look it up by googling, but no luck so far. Don't have a very good belly shot.

New Harmony.....

Saturday afternoon we decided to drive to New Harmony. I was looking for butterflies and Raintree flowers. Didn't find any butterflies willing to pose. Found out I was too late for the Raintree flowers. However I took some good photos last year that are posted at this spot :

A drive to New Harmony and this and that... The Raintree flowers are now pods, which are pretty, too.
We walked down to the river to see the bridge to Illinois over the Wabash River.

I liked these vines on this tree.
It is difficult to not want to take photos of the Atheneum, even if you already have one. It always looks so interesting against the sky. It always seems a bit out of place in a town known for the Rappites/Harmonists and then Owens followers and their society....two early Utopian societies.

The stairs

After spending about a half hour trying to photograph the dozens of swallows that were swooping all over the field around the Atheneum, Mike decided to see if there was enough wind for one of his kites which happen to be in the trunk of the car.

Waiting for launch...10..9..8...

Up....

.....up.....

.....and away! The wind was very inconsistent and I had to spend so much time relaunching his kite that it was hard to take photos.

One of the swallows pretending to be a kite coming at me! Only half way descent shot I got and it is not good.
I finally realized that the swallows were all hanging around the wires and the bridge that you see behind Mike in the photo of the launch, so we went to explore.

Here are two on the wire.....I decided looking at their nests, shown below, and looking in my guide book that they might be Cliff Swallows?

Double decker swallows under the bridge. You can see several nests hanging there.

I was fascinated by the nests! So cool looking! Would love to watch them build one.

A couple of the swallows hanging on the nests. I was not getting very good shots....sort of dark under there.

This nest on the left looks more like a bowl

Line up on the bridge. They would spook when a car would drive overhead.

I didn't find the things I went looking for, but New Harmony is always full of something wonderful to see.