Bluegrass bathing beauties....

We drove to Bluegrass Fish and Wildlife area to have our lunch while watching birds...hopefully.

We pulled into one parking lot by a lake to take photos of the lotus flowers and suddenly several birds showed up to take baths and get a drink!Dickcissel on the left, 2 male Goldfinches, but what is on the right???
Here it is before the bath......bigger than the Goldfinches, and a more pointed beak. An Oriole of some sort? Looking in my book, it looks most like an Orchard Oriole, but having never seen one, I really don't know.

It really enjoyed the water!

3 in the water.

Goldfinch wading :-)

The tall Lotus flowers were what caught our eye and brought us into the parking lot to begin with.

They were really pretty. We've never been there when they were in bloom before. Usually I just see the dried seed pods.

Such interesting centers!

They were blowing in the wind, so it was hard to get the photos I was aiming for at times.

Well, those are my "bathing beauties". We saw a few other things, but will save something for tomorrow.

Old things + 1 new thing....

I couldn't think of a title for this post. It seems like I see the same things on every walk at the wetlands lately. I can't seem to find any new critters or birds or things of interest.My one new thing. I had to check with www.Bugguide.net to find out what this critter is. A Tiger Bee Fly. I have never seen one before and thought its wings were interesting.
This Red-Spotted Purple Admiral kept landing right in front of my feet. It was either take a photo or step on it.

Eastern Pondhawk male

Blue Dasher male

Halloween Pennant, I think.

Fungi

An unknown Skipper. These guys are just too hard for me to figure out most of the time.

Bee

Slaty Skimmer, I think.

Flowers....spiky flowers :-)

Wild blackberries

One turtle......too hot to get out of the water for the rest I guess.

Nothing much new. I seem to see mostly dragonflies right now. Haven't seen any exciting birds lately.

Quick visit to the heronry in Henderson....

We were headed through Henderson, KY yesterday, so we stopped to see if there were still any heron in the heronry.I was scanning the land/water area for heron fishing and instead found a deer staring back at me:-)
She decided to go hide in the bushes until I went away.

Still a few heron in the nests. I think this is a young one testing its wings while an adult keeps watch.

"I can almost fly!"

Down below in the water....which has receded a lot....there were several learning to fish.

Monday our Vacation Bible School starts and I don't know how much I will get out between that and the second week of Wimbledon.

2 Doves and 2 dragonflies....

Not much in the yard today A couple of young Mourning Doves! I don't usually see the young ones. It looks so "ruffled".
Cute!

Finally found a male Widow Skimmer down by the pond to go with yesterday's female.

And a Blue Dasher male doing a "handstand".

That's it!

Photos from home.....

In case anyone is wondering at this point, I have been home for a week. But I haven't been out taking photos much because :

1. it is very hot, and 2. I'm busy watching Wimbledon tennis.

I mean how can a person find time to take photos if they are going to play matches that take three days to complete and last for 11 hours! So I wandered around our lot looking for photo ops. I accidentally spooked this owl in the woods at the end of our pond! Cool! I believe it is a barred owl. This is the best shot I got.
Mostly he turned his back on me before flying away.

The silly House Wren is busy stuffing sticks in the gourd....long sticks....too long. He gets them in there eventually with much perseverance. I'm not sure if he is actually nest building or just stuffing the gourd, but I leave him alone.

Coming out! Need more sticks!

A dove in the drive

Chickadee pecking on a seed.

A little grasshopper on a dead lily.

Goldfinch male

My favorite double orange lilies.

Another little hopping bug of some sort.

Slaty Skimmer by the pond.

Widow Skimmer female that liked this one lily bud....which was not in a very good place for me to shoot downward ....too tall!

I got around on the other side of it. I don't know what that white spot on the eye is. It is in all the photos, and I finally realized that it wasn't a reflection spot.

Two sparrows discussing the food in the drive. The House Sparrow seems to like this old stale "getting moldy" raspberry scone bit. I guess when you are hungry, it looks better, than it did to me when I tossed it out the door. The Chipping Sparrow is waiting for something that looks more appetizing.

Song Sparrow out by the pond.

If I happen to go anywhere and take photos, I will post....otherwise, I'm watching tennis :-)

Rivers and rails: part 8.....Egrets and the end of the trip!

Our plan was to cross the Mississippi River at Chester, MO and head across Illinois and home. Just before Chester, near Kaskaskia, we saw a bridge that went across what was once the main river course before the river changed its course in that area. We were just meandering as usual, not realizing we were about to drive into ..... ......Egret-land! There were flooded areas on both sides of the road along the corn fields and there were dozens of Egrets stalking in the water! You have to understand that I don't see a lot of egrets so this was very exciting! We had to stay in the car to not spook them and were taking turns with the cameras depending on which side of the road the birds were, so some of these are Mikes and some are mine.
The green fields, the tall reddish plants, the blue water and the white birds made for a very colorful scene.

I think the one in the middle just caught something.

The reflections on the water were nice, too.

There seem to be two kinds....ones with black feet.....

.....and some with yellow feet like the one on the right. I don't know my egrets, so I'm guessing...Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets?

I couldn't crop the photos much and still have clear shots.

wings spread

The scenery was really beautiful! I wouldn't mind living here, but I bet at times everything is under water for months.

They really stood out in the red grasses :-)

About to strike maybe.

There were Great Blue Heron in the area, too.

Not a great flight shot of the heron, but I like that you can see 8 egrets in the background!

Heron landing.

A pair of Shovelers! The only ducks we saw there.

A barn in the distance beyond the fields.

One deer sneaking off to the corn! This place must be a wildlife paradise! I wish we could have stayed longer!

At one point a Bald Eagle flew in and grabbed something from the water stirring up all the egrets! Mike managed to get this one shot that shows the eagle in the distance and an egret flying away.

The eagle stirred them up a second time and they all flew away......

.....and went to this stand of trees to roost! This far shot is to show all the little white dots that represent egrets. We counted about 20.

Trying to get some closer shots....here are 5.

4 here

A Blue Heron and an Egret in the water down below.

There seemed to be a small town on this "island" between the waters of the river. We were following signs for a historic bell of some sort, but got distracted by the birds and never found the bell. Well, that ended our trip on a wonderful note and we headed across the Mississippi River and home.