A day in a friend's garden.....

I wish this was my garden, but alas, I was visiting a friend when I took these photos.

I believe this is a female Widow Skimmer, but it is the first one I have seen with black wing tips.

A close-up of head and legs.

She had a favorite iris leaf that she liked to cling to, so I knew where to aim the camera ....with a little patience.  However, getting behind her was tough.

I also chased this butterfly around.  I believe it is a Great Spangled Fritillary.  Here it has a bee friend on the hydrangeas.

Finally got a shot with the wings open most of the way.  My timing was way off!

A side shot of the wings always helps when identifying, also.

My friend has some lovely lilies!

Some were covered with water and I was trying to capture that.

Lots of colors, lots of beauty!

My posting schedule is going to get erratic again.....Wimbledon starts on Monday so I will be glued to the TV a lot, and our church VBS will be every evening, at which Mike and I are in charge of the crafts.  I've got a few more things to post from Illinois and I'm enjoying watching my wrens....after that...who knows?!

Turkey Vultures.....

Turkey Vultures.....I don't think that anyone would ever call them a "pretty" bird.  Interesting maybe, distinctive...OK, but pretty?.....No!

We went to southern Illinois yesterday and arrived at the Old Shawneetown river front just as the Turkey Vultures were getting ready to settle down for the night.

Note the dirty feet......a couple of them landed in the mud at the edge of the river before this one flew up to this post for me to take photos of it.

A group of about 11 that were on the river front.

Most of them were settling on this power pole over in "new" Shawneetown.  The town was moved years ago after it had been flooded many times by the Ohio River. A few people still live in Old Shawneetown, and I'm sure this year they were flooded once again.....very heavily!  I think the vultures may be smarter than the people.

Close-up to show how many.....lots!

Some were still lazily flying around trying to decide which town they wanted to settle in for the night :-)

This and That, mostly from Posey County......

Last week Mike and I took a drive out to Posey County to the Hovey Lake area.  During the early spring when the rains were constant this area was highly flooded.  Hovey Lake is very near where the Ohio and Wabash Rivers come together.  Acres and acres of bottomland were under water for months.  The farmers in the flooded areas are just now getting their corn in and hoping for the best.

This bird was the first thing we saw as we pulled into the parking lot near the lake.  I believe it is a Great Crested Flycatcher.  I wish it had hung around for a few more shots!

I don't know if it eats cidadas, but these were everywhere!  I tried to look them up on-line and they are either the 13-year or 17-year cicadas.  I'm not sure which we were due to have this year.  They are very colorful with the red eyes and orange wing edges!

I took this shot towards the lake to go with the next shot.  I am on a hill and you can see the lake is below me.

Mike is standing by this building on the hill and his hand shows how high the water was on the building.  The dirt line it left is very obvious!  Wow!  That's a lot of water!

One of the cypress trees out in the lake had this nest box on it and I just liked how it looked with the blackbird sitting there.

From there we drove to New Harmony where I like to look for the Cliff Swallows that build under the bridge.  We saw lots of nests, but the swallows must have been out catching bugs :-)

We did see an occasional head peeking out......like the one on the left.  I would love to watch them build these nests.

Some of the art work in New Harmony.  I had not seen these before and thought they looked interesting.

Back home:   One day last week, I walked out the front door and there was this teeny, tiny mouse!  I have never seen such a little one wandering around.  It seemed lost.  I wonder if its mother was dead.  I crumpled a cracker for it and it ate a bit.  Later when I looked out it was gone. 

A couple of shots of the Song Sparrow at one of the feeders. 

Today it is raining again.  The farmers will be happy to have some rain for their late corn, I guess.

Squirrel Sunday.....

I'm not sure what this squirrel was doing, but it sure seemed to be having fun!

Wandering around at Hartman Arboreteum......

A couple weeks ago we stopped at Hartman Arboretum to see if the flowers were blooming and attracting butterflies for me to photograph yet.  Not too much blooming yet that they like, but Mike also got to check on their blueberry plants and went back this week and picked a couple pounds of them.

I love these hydrangeas.

Part of the "butterfly garden".

They have a woods where they are trying to grow some ferns and such in hollowed out logs and along the trails.  I enjoyed wandering around there taking photos of the plants and fungi.

I like this log.

A pretty fern.

There was an interesting assortment of fungi growing on the logs.  I don't know names but will just post the photos I like.

This one was down inside one of the hollow logs and I thought it looked the most interesting.

Back up in the meadow I kept chasing Red-Wing Blackbirds that must have their nests hidden deep in the grasses.  This female had a mouth full of bugs.

Milkweed flowers and bugs.

I also have a few photos from Mouteau Park......a Silvery Checkerspot

Damselfly....don't know name

Comma butterfly deep in the weeds.