Butterflies and birds from Bluegrass.....

I never finished posting my photos from Bluegrass.  Here are some more shots from that day.

 There were lots of Sulphur butterflies on the milkweed growing along the roadside.

Three on this flower!

 The "edge" shot :-)

 Dancing :-)
Actually it was lifting off, I believe.

Male and female Clouded Sulphur

Just a large field of thistles.

 The bees like the thistles, too.

Dickcissel

Mourning Dove sitting on a stop sign riddled with bullet holes (if I hadn't cropped it).  I assume she wasn't there when the shooting took place :-)

 Fleabane

 Horned Lark that would not hold still and turn around for me.

 Indigo Bunting

 Kingbird in hiding

Lift off!

The back view of another Kingbird.

This may be a new bird for me.
 I think it is the Willow Flycatcher.  Very cute little bird hiding in the willow tree along the lake edge.

 Robin with a mouthful of .....something?

The male Robin with a huge mouthful of worms for the family!

Brown Thrasher with something that it ate after I snapped a photo.

 A tree full of turtles

And one last butterfly to end the day!

Cabbage White



Bathing birds at the Blue Grass "beach"......

We went to Blue Grass yesterday and saw a lot of nice birds and some butterflies.  My favorite birds were the ones on the "beach" at one of the small lakes.  We sat there for about a half hour watching various birds come to bathe......and boy do they enjoy it!

The first bird to show up was a Brown Thrasher!

Looking around to see if anyone is watching him :-)

OK.....go to it! 

"Did I hear someone laughing?" 

Singing in the bath? 

We always see Goldfinches here and the male showed up and took a quick look around before.... 

.....making a few head down flutters. 

The female Goldfinch....

....I would call her style more refined....."the sit and flutter"

An Indigo Bunting male showed up next.

This bird and its mate were a total surprise.....I believe it is an Orchard Oriole female!

"Oh, that feels so good!!!" 

3 of the birds bathing together along the beach.

And the male Orchard Oriole, which I have never seen before!  I wish I had gotten a pre-bath photo of it.  It is a deep rusty color with a black head and tail and wings.

His style was one of great abandon.

"Ahhhhhhhh......."

The Red-winged Blackbird looked a bit snooty and afraid to get its wings wet. 

It finally fluttered about a bit, but was pretty reserved compared to that Oriole.

OK....enough wet birds, but they were sure fun to watch.

More stuff at a later date.

Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge.....

Every May we try to take a 2-day trip to Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge near Seymour, Indiana.  We always see lots of birds and animals there and it is a really nice place to visit.

The first day we were there it was rainy and gloomy, but the very first thing we saw was this eagle sitting in a tree posing for us, so that made up for the bad weather.  The second day it was in the same tree.

 There were still brown feathers among the white ones, so I figured it wasn't necessarily a breeding adult yet.

We did see one eagle swoop down over the lake and catch something and fly off with it.  We thought that one might be heading to a nest with its food for the family. 

Right out side the Nature Center, this little Eastern Phoebe (?) flew in and sat. 

 Then a second one showed up with bug in mouth.

Several families of Canada Geese with their babies, but not as many as usual. 

 We hiked to a small family cemetery that was interesting....very old.

 Didn't get a very good wing shot of this butterfly, so not sure what it is.  A Checkerspot or something in that family?

I was searching one of the ponds with the binoculars looking for otters or anything of interest and suddenly spotted this Kingfisher! 

Question Mark butterfly 

 Red-spotted Purple Admiral

Lots of Red-winged Blackbirds around the ponds 

A snail on the concrete walk.  Further along we saw evidence that something had been having a feast on crawdads.....broken empty shells left behind. 

 Squirrel with a treat of some sort.

Turtles....I can always find turtles :-) 

One turkey running around all by itself.  Usually we see them in groups. 

Turtle crossing the road in front of us. 

Viceroy butterfly

 Outside the Nature Center by the feeders, a little chipmunk with very full cheeks and a Red-wing behind it.

Common White-tail Dragonfly female along the trail to the cemetery. 

Two deer crossing in front of us the first day when it was gloomy.

Always a wonderful place to visit!  We saw other birds and things I didn't get good photos of.  Songbirds in the trees.  I like when the butterflies are there in the road and parking lots like they were this time.  I saw several other types....swallowtails...that wouldn't pose for me  No otters this year....my only real disappointment :-)  We searched for them both days in the pond where we have seen them before.