Mouteau Park, meadowlark.......

I've come to associate Mouteau Park with Meadowlarks. It is the one place I know that I can find them each year. It is also where I go to look for Kingbirds. It is interesting to me to know that certain birds and other critters frequent the same place all the time. This is also the park that I find Halloween Pennant Dragonflies, and in the spring we saw Kestrels there hunting regularly. It's a good spot of butterflies and dragonflies of all kinds around the edge of the lake. They had recently mowed the grass in the part of the park where the Meadowlarks hang out and there were 3-4 of them there hunting for bugs.
They are always fairly far out in the meadow, so my photos are never close-ups, but I just love to watch them anyway.

We wondered if one or two of them were young ones....maybe this one?

They do love to sing! They were making a different sort of sound on this day and I tried to record it on a video, but it was drowned out by the car or other noises......more of a harsh clicking sound than their usual song.

Even though the sweat was dripping in my eyes, it was worth getting out to look for butterflies! We saw at least 5 kinds. The Buckeye was enjoying this white flower. I wish all butterflies would pose as easily as the Buckeye!

The Monarch is the opposite....I never seem to catch it with the wings open, especially when it is darting in and out of the grasses.

The Pearl Crescents are very small, but fairly easy to catch.

Looking at this photos....these may be at my house, but I did see a pair at the park, too. One seemed a lot bigger. I think the one on the left is the male.

Pretty sure this is the female looking at my guide book.

The lake at the park always has lots of dragonflies flitting around. Not sure what these two are...the top looks like a Blue Dasher, but the bottom one is too dark to tell. I often see Slaty Skimmers here, so maybe that is what it is.

As we were leaving I spotted a new butterfly! I think it is a Checkerspot! Since I don't know them, I will guess it is the Silvery Checkerspot, which is the one most common to my area.

There were several of them and all were torn up.

One of the better looking ones.
At first I thought they were the Pearl Crescents, but they are larger....otherwise, they seem very similar to me.

A pair!

This one seemed so sad with half of its wings torn away...how does it fly??? Those big wasps were enjoying the same flowers.

On a road along the backside of this park, we stopped to study the birds on the wires. Mike shot this......3 doves on the left.....9 blackbirds (?) of some sort on the right.

Ruby-Throated Hummingbird.....

I know I just posted hummingbirds last week, but I only get to see them for a couple months each year. This is the prime time right now for me to spot them at the feeder and sitting in the tree. This is the Ruby-Throated male even though the throat looks black in the photo. The Ruby-Throated Hummingbird is the only one that I see in my area, but it shows up very regularly for the summer months.
I seldom seem to be in the right place to have the throat catch the sun and look red.
Another one......maybe a younger male? I'm not sure. I thought it was a female, but it appears to have some color at the throat. It was catching the morning light on its head, but not on the throat. (Click any photo to see it larger)

Lifting away from the feeder it flares its tail.....maybe it saw another one to chase away. They are very territorial.

Suspended

Look at those little feet hanging down!

I like to see them perch in the tree. They can be quite fun to watch when they start preening their feathers.

A little different angle.....wish I could get rid of those distracting vines!

Just to fill up the post, I will put ina couple shots of this dragonfly.

It's a female.....I think it is the Blue Dasher.

Over in my other blog.... http://thisthatotherthing-mary.blogspot.com/ I've posted some of the hats worn at the Kentucky Derby for the yearly contest.

Following the Quilt Barn trail through Ohio County, KY....

Since we had most of the day to get over to Louisville, KY on Wednesday, we decided to hunt for some of the quilt barns in Ohio County, Kentucky which is sort of on the way. This is a typical quilt barn map put out by the county we were heading for. The best maps have addresses as well as a map. The maps are hard to follow and it is a lot of guessing. With an address and a GPS you can find them much easier! This map also provided names for the various quilt squares. They have over 30 squares up so far, but we were only going to try for about 10 of them that wouldn't take us too far out of the way.
The first barn I spotted was before we entered Ohio County, so it is not on the map....just a chance sighting.

I try to take a far shot of the barn and a close shot of the square. I was disappointed on this trip that we managed to find the 10 squares that were mostly on public buildings and newer barns rather than nice old barns. I know they have some on old weathered barns because they show them on the back of their map....we just didn't get to those, unfortunately.

"Arrowheads".......a nice square and easy to find and see.

I wasn't expecting to find one in the heart of the town of Hartford on the Police Station!

"Hope of Hartford"

They used a lot of public buildings and have even involved their school art departments in helping to design squares. Quilting is an art that is passed down through the generations and this is a nice way to get everyone interested. They are putting squares on all the elementary schools in their county.

Blazing Star and Ohio Star....sponsored by the Ohio Co. 4-H and the Ohio Co. Homemakers. I've never encountered free-standing ones before...these were at the entrance to a park.

"Grandmother's Pride"

This was both a nice square and a neat old barn.

The close-up shot.

"Four Blazing Stars"

And the close-up shot.

"Four Airplanes"

A good choice for an airfield! There are several airplane patterns in quilting.

The close-up

I used this very distant shot of this one for the moody sky overhead!

The pattern is "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight" and is shown.....

.......here in close-up.

They had a cool tank, too :-)

This one is not on the map. This is Dundee, once again...."Home of the Goat" from my earlier post. I don't know the name of this pattern.

Another Fire Department building in Fordsville, KY........."Patriotic Star"

The close-up of this star.

"Pink & Green Floral".....represents all the many applique patterns that quilters do. The building was just a long white metal building, so I won't show a long shot.

No square here....just an old barn. I would like to have seem more of the squares on barns like this, but of course you have to interest the owner in allowing it.

While in Dundee, we spotted this old school that is now a pasture for horses, apparently.

I thought it was a nice old building and I'm sure the horse will absorb some knowledge there :-)

Well....those were all the quilt squares we had time to find. The more picturesque barns are apparently further out and we did need to continue on to Louisville which required backtracking many miles to get back on a road that would get us there.

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I told Mike that he is very patient to help me find all these barns and stop for photos! He says its a lot like rallying :-) I hadn't thought of it that way, but he is right. We used to drive in local Sports Car rallies when we were younger and find the correct route was often just as hard....and no GPS.

Squirrel Sunday.....Spiderman wannabe squirrel

I guess if you are a squirrel and live in the heart of downtown Louisville, KY...........you don't climb trees, you climb walls!
There were two of these squirrels climbing around on the walls in this alley. I think they had been "dumpster diving".

Up, down or sideways....makes no difference to "Spiderman Squirrel"!

I tried to see where they went, but once they got up to a ledge they disappeared from view.

Around the corners.

Freedom!

(I bet "Star" would have trouble surviving in the urban jungle!)