Green Heron......

The last time I went to the wetlands, I was fortunate to see this Green Heron land on top of one of the dead trees in the swamp.

He sat there for quite awhile letting me take lots of pictures.

At one point he stretched up his head and opened his bill really wide....

......looking like he was "yapping" about something.....

.....or maybe singing a song?? I didn't actually hear any sound come from him, but I'm hard of hearing, so who knows? But it sure looked funny!

Behind him the whole time there were 3-5 birds sitting in this other tree just watching him.

I never figured out what type of birds they were, but they kept their eyes on the heron the whole time it was there.

As I left the same heron or a different one was along the far side of the lake. It looks so much smaller on the ground.

Flowers at Hartman Arboretum.....

I know.....this is not a flower. But it was the only bird shot I had and I wanted to include it. This robin was having a nice time in the puddle soaking her feet and admiring her reflection.I can't identify all the following plants, so I won't try. Some were familiar but in unusual colors. Some I don't know. There were lots of signs with Latin names, but I wasn't taking notes...only pictures :-)




Love the color in these hydrangeas!

These were unusual with their pink centers!

I love phlox!

A dark colored sunflower that I took a terrible picture of....but you can see the dark petals and get the idea.

Another dark one, but not as dark as the other one.

Not terribly exciting, but I wanted to finish off these pictures before moving on to something new :-) It's a nice place to wander around, and I will go back and chase more butterflies another day.

Hartman Arboretum....

I just recently discovered the Hartman Arboretum, which is less than a mile from my house. The Hartman family own about 20 acres and no longer farm it, so Mr. Hartman decided to talk to the Master Gardeners and find out how to turn the land into an arboretum. They are only open to the public one day a week....Thursday....and I always forget about it.Here is a sample of one of the garden beds. This area was full of butterlies and bees and such, so I got distracted from the flowers!


I saw both the black and yellow forms of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. I spent about an hour chasing them around the garden and they were very uncooperative at posing with their wings nicely spread open right side up for me ......oh well.

I tended to get a lot of what I call "upside down" views. They love the Button Bush!

The Yellow Swallowtail variety

I tried cropping this shot to look closer at the body.

I liked this shot best with 2 of them on one flower! The top one has a damaged lower wing....mostly missing.

I seem to get more undersides then topsides.

This little Skipper was also flitting around.....Silver Spotted Skipper (I think)

One of those Clearwing Hummingbird moths was hovering around!

Lots of bees!......here on a Passion Flower

.....another bee

......and two more!

I took lots of flower pictures, too, but will save them for tomorrow since this is already quite long. It is really a nice place and I intend to go back the next time I remember that it is Thursday and they are open.....I'm sure the changing seasons will be wonderful. There are a couple of ponds and some woods as well as the flower beds.

Squirrel Sunday..

"God is great
God is good...

....now we thank Him....

....for our food. Amen"
Have a nice Sunday and remember to say "thanks!"

You'll never believe this.....

OK......this is kind of embarassing.

I don't really believe in coincidence. And I don't believe in psychic stuff.

And I don't THINK there was a little hummer reading over my shoulder when I wrote my blog on Thursday...................so how come the very next day.....Friday.....one showed up and stuck around all day???????????

The only thing I did different was move the feeder from the right side of the front door in the dead tree .....to the left side of the front door in the green tree. I didn't know leaves made that much difference to them.

Unfortunately, this location makes taking pictures really difficult!

There are so many leaves in the background that the camera won't focus on the hummingbird! It is also a very dark and shady location. Of course, if I really knew how to use my camera and the settings, that might be solved.

I even went outside and cut some branches off so there would be less distraction. Still not getting good pictures. I can't see the wings at all in half the pictures!

Must work on this. Hope they don't go away before I figure it out!

Anyway........if I had only known that I just needed to post a blog about LAST YEAR's hummingbirds and "sigh" real loud, I would have done it a long time ago!!!

Sorry little hummingbird....I should never have doubted you!

(You really weren't peeking over my shoulder......were you??)