Killdeer, ducks, dragons, etc......

I've made a couple of trips to the wetlands in the past few days.  The heron is still out there fishing and there are still turtles on the logs, but I thought I would post some of the other things I see.

 There have been Killdeer hanging around in the shallow water.  I think they are pretty birds, but they sure could take the prize for the noisiest birds, also!  They don't make a move without screaming out their cry at the top of their lungs.

There are two families of ducks on the slough right now.  This first family of Mallards is pretty grown up, but you can tell by the way they follow the adult that they are young ones.

 "OK....lets see who can hold their breath the longest!"

"You lose!"

 A cluster of young showing that they aren't quite as tall as their parent yet.

The other family has 7 little ones.  It was sort of confusing when I first saw them because the two adults look alike!  I couldn't figure out why there were two females.  However, after doing some looking on the Internet, I find that the male Mallard changes to "eclipse plummage" after mating and looks like the female for awhile. I didn't know that!  I thought at first they were a different type of duck.

 Love the little ones!

Out of the water before they saw me watching them.

Lots of dragonfly activity for a change!  This is the female Blue Dasher and she was laying eggs. 

 This is the male Blue Dasher.  You can recognize him by the black tail tip.  He is fairly small.

 The female laying an egg.  

 Lots of bees and other bugs on the milkweed.

 An approach to the bridge through the woods.

 The Common Whitetail female.  The male is a pale whitish blue color which is where the name comes from.  When they are flying I always think the male's wings look like they have square "flags" hanging downward.

 This is an Eastern Pondhawk female.....

 ....and the Eastern Pondhawk male.

Eastern-tailed Blue butterfly.  I saw very few butterflies.  A few Cabbage Whites and Sulphurs which were not in the mood to slow down or pose for me. 

This is a female Widow Skimmer and she is eating a bug.  Didn't realize that until I had the photo on the computer! 

 I'm showing several photos of these because I saw several of them in the meadow area.   The male is more common to me.  The male is blue and there is white next to the black on the wings.  Very easy to spot when they are flying.  I haven't had a photo of one yet this year.

 I was surprised by the difference between this one and the next one that has black wing tips.  Apparently some do and some don't!  Also an immature male looks sort of  like the female.

I think the black wing tips are more dramatic!