This and That.....

OK.....it's Sunday and here is a squirrel :-)Mike took this one day. They haven't been very active.....just eating all the seeds.
A catbird that I just happen to see land.

Checked on the eagle briefly.....I can see the parent and the back of one young but they weren't doing anything.

It was so hot and humid I was having trouble breathing and just wanted to go back home. Our weather right now is Indiana's worst kind.

The heron nests are very active with a lot of wing flapping and such going on.

Heron everywhere.

This looks like a crowded area.

We've got Vacation Bible School at church every night this next week, so I may not feel like blogging much. Too hot to do anything.
I went to an outdoor quilt show yesterday and will try to get that up in my quilt blog soon for the quilt lovers.

Hartman Arboretum.....

Every Thursday, I try to go to Hartman Arboretum, which is just about 2 miles from where we live. The Hartman family have turned about 20 acres of their land into a wonderful arboretum of all sorts of flowers. It is a terrific place to shoot bees, bugs and butterflies. The flowers themselves are gorgeous and make me so jealous when I see how neatly tended these flowerbeds are and such a variety of flowers!
I was concentrating on the critters while Mike was picking blueberries at their self-pick area.

I love the way the center of this flower looks in close-ups, but the bee is nice, too :-)

2 little critters

These pink flowers were one of the most popular spots.

I'm hoping for more butterfly variety later in the year, but this was the best looking one there this week.

I love this....he looks like someone rolled him in sugar :-)

The bug on the left flew in and sort of "attacked" the bee in the middle and drove it away.

(According to BugGuide.net.....a Pennsylvania Leatherwing, or Soldier Beetle. Next photo, too.)

I love these purple flowers and they make lovely backgrounds.

These bees always seem to have larger bodies than wings.

Skipper and his "little buddy"

This bee has a torn wing tip.

The bees really bury themselves in these flowers.

2 for the price of one

I just like this one.

Lift off

I was thrilled to briefly see a Clearwing Hummingbird Moth, but it would not get in a good place for a photo of the whole thing. They always fascinate me and I searched all over for where it went to try for more photos, but it disappeared. Maybe next week.

Green "jewel" in the yellow blossom......however, I believe that is a Japanese Beetle, which is not anybody's friend.

This was a strange one.....wish the photo was better. A wasp of some sort? I was stung by a wasp last week, so I wasn't going to check it out closely.

I like these tall purple flowers. They had white ones, too.
I really should post more of the flowers without bugs.

Loon wall hanging....

I already put this in my quilt blog, but since I first announced here a year ago that I was going to try quilting a loon......I thought I'd show it here. Loons are fun to pick fabric for :-)

Flowers and birds at home and on the roadside.....

It's Day Lily season! Some people call them "ditch lilies", but I just call them beautiful! You can see that they stretch for hundreds of yards along the highway. This is just one mass I pass a lot with a good spot to stop. I could photograph a zillion more all over the county.
They grow by the hundreds and last for several weeks. I wish they would never end, but I'm sure the mowing crews are glad to have them gone. Sometimes they whack them down....sacrilege!

These are some of mine at home....they seem a bit more reddish. I have some reddish varieties, but I don't think they are blooming yet.

My favorite are these double/triple petaled ones. I only had one blooming when I took this, but will photograph more later.

This is a different type that I only have 1 plant. I need to move it to a sunnier spot.

The library has huge beds of these golden colored ones....

....as well as these yellow ones!

A close up of the yellows.

Several weeks ago Jenny asked me if we had the single-petaled pink roses. Well, I just spotted some in two places along the road this week!

Another favorite of mine right now are the pea flowers that line the road in places. I would love to have some, but forget to stop and get some seeds when the pods come on.

My tiny little Day Flowers are blooming and swarming all over my unruly flowerbed. Something is really chewing up the leaves and they look pretty bad.

While out shopping, I spotted this Killdeer and another in a parking lot.

This may be why I am not seeing a lot of birds at the moment.....

....hawk? cats?......I tell myself that it is just a few feathers and the bird survived. Don't tell me otherwise. I don't want to know.

Ozma swears that it was not her....she just watches.

A Blue Jay pecking around in the sunflower seeds.

Dove....one of several that stop by most days. I never see baby doves, but we seem to have plenty.

The downy trying the pole again.

The White-Breasted Nuthatch has not been around much, so I was thrilled to see it.

We thought this was a nest from last year in the garage.....until I touched that yellow towel and a wren came flying out at me. I'm not sure who was most startled....her or me!

Thought I would show the local crops....winter wheat nice and golden.

We had so much spring rain that much of the corn went in very late. I don't think this will be "knee high by the 4th of July".

I've gotten behind because of my Ohio posts, but hope to catch up this weekend. We went to Hartman Arboretum yesterday to look for butterflies and bugs....Mike picked blueberries there....and I have to check the eagle and heron rookery!

Muggy and Buggy part 2.....turtles, birds, geese, ducks

This is part 2 of the walk at Howell Wetlands that I started yesterday.The two little brown ducks I saw several weeks ago, are still there and turning into large pale brown ducks. I believe these are "Manky" Mallard ducks.....non-pure mixtures. I learned that neat term from Annie last year and it always sticks in my mind when I see the 4 Manky's who live there and now these 2 new ones. If they are really something else, I have no idea what!
I think their feathers are rather lovely. I have no idea where they came from and they don't hang out with the other 4 Manky's.

Look at those chest feathers and the sides.....pretty!

The turtle logs have fewer turtles and they are all covered in green duckweed.

This one looks like it is growing moss :-)

A tiny little green one that didn't slip into the water.

One big guy only half covered.

At least 3 families of the Canada geese seem to be staying around and I saw evidence that someone is leaving corn for them....against the rules. I always think of them as "she" as they groom themselves.

Intent on what she is doing....and so pretty.

The younger ones are learning and they don't look quite as "white" as the adults, but are now the same size pretty much.

Just another pretty face.

Getting that tail area.

This Grackle was working his way down the branch.....

....to get a drink from the green covered water.

One swallow sitting alone on the decking.

Dragonfly "planting" new little dragonfly eggs.

When the weather is muggy, and the air is getting buggy,
And the pond is getting very, very green...
It's easy to be spotting, the dragonflies a-dotting,
Little eggs all over the scene.