Compass plant and a whole lot of Coneflowers. 🌿

Another of the Great Blue Heron. #birds

Rained out today. That's OK. I relaxed and made this short vid of the ICF to remember my 2026 visits so far. It starts with the portrait I donated, a Blue Crane, and shows one click for every species of crane in the world. They are all being conserved and protected at ICF. #birds #ICF

It has rained all day, will rain all day tomorrow, some storms possible, but not yet. Will be an indoor weekend most likely. A little down time to get other things done hopefully. I think this may be Joe-Pye weed, but not 100% sure. Have a beautiful weekend everyone!

Sandhill Crane at a marsh, in it's habitat. Unfortunately they (the city) killed off a large reed bed this year, but it will come back. Their habitat is a small park on the back of a marsh. #SandhillCrane #birds

Eastern Amberwing on a flower. #inverts #Dragonfly #Amberwing

This little dude, a House Sparrow, is the top monk at the local monastery. He took this nesting box this year and has been atop it in the same darn spot every time I drive through. He's sweet looking. He owns his space like a master. #birds

That hawk that I called a red-tailed from this week, I don't think she was a red-tailed. After looking at the not-so-great shots, I would ID her as a Broad-winged Hawk. If that's true, she's a #lifer for me. No red tail, and chk out the wingspread and alula. Let me know what u think. Thx. #birds

Have a great new week everyone! 🌿

Sandhill Crane. #birds

Where's MY Milkweed? #Butterfly #Inverts #Milkweed

I did get out on Sat, but only for a few short hours. Saw a doe and fawn at the pond (in the city). Mama was eating water lilies and the fawn was doing zoomies every few minutes with rests in between. It was like taking your kid to the park I think. #WhitetailedDeer

What I learned about Robins this week. Unedited pic of that cute fledgling American Robin Lessons learned in ALT text. #birds #Robins

Talking about the weather today! It could be alot nicer, might rain, warm, dark and very cloudy. Hoping to get out a little this afternoon after errands. If I complain a little, perhaps it will improve, but no sun forecast until after 4pm. Great Blue Heron wants to see the sun too! #birds

The highlight of my morning walk today was a complete surprise. She was a stunning beauty. A Red-Tailed Hawk graced my walk with her presence this morning. She was looking dark morph, big (that's why I say female), and gorgeous. #bird

Here's the young Great Blue heron in flight. #birds

Saw this Green Heron at the Arboretum. Always fun to see a "Greeny". #GreenHeron #birds

Young Great Blue Heron preening. #birds #GreatBlueHeron

One more for tonight (it was a fun birding day Sat). This was an accidental exposure. I always shoot birds on shutter priority, but left it on aperture priority after using it with a shorter lens for something. I am pleased with the detail and may purposefully try that again! #birds #Goldfinch

Great Blue Heron at our Arboretum which is an urban marsh plus a small lake that runs together. The second photo shows what a unique habitat we have in the middle of the city near the university. I literally stand on a city sidewalk for photos at this location! #birds #habitat #GreatBlueHeron

Saw this Green Heron at a local pond amidst the water lilies. Many of our waterways are just choked with water lilies this year. #birds #GreenHeron

I also saw an Eastern Amberwing dragonfly on Saturday. #EasternAmberwing

Found a few better photos of the Halloween Pennant dragonflies. They were in the "wheel" position for a while. #inverts #HalloweenPennant #Dragonfly A close-up with alot of detail. A similar frame with good detail. A different angle on another plant.

I saw many good birds this weekend. It was a fun and warm day. The highlight was seeing four Great Blue Herons in one location. It think they were a family with two adults and two youngsters that were 1 or 2 yrs old. This was one of the youngsters. He/she was beautiful. #birds #GreatBlueHeron

Halloween Pennant dragon flies. Together, hopefully successful making more dragonflies. #HalloweenPennant #Dragonfly

Robin fledgling in my bushes this morning. There were two of them. Makes me smile a mile wide. You can see it's primaries have not even grown out to the end of the feather quill. Great fun to get a glimpse today. #birds #Robin

Lots of White Admiral butterflies this year! Their host plants include aspen, poplar, cottonwood, birch and willows, and although they will occasionally collect nectar, their preference is for sap, rotting fruit, carrion, and POOP #invertebrates

I saw a female redhead duck chased by grebe from this marsh 3 times this year, but I never heard or saw her land. Turns out Redhead ducks are stealth nesters! And the female does it all! I saw movement on the edge of a reed bed and after a while, they all piled out! There’s always one mom! #Birds 🪶

I probably won't get to editing pictures until tomorrow, but I did see this cool Cornell link that teaches interactively about bird anatomy. #birdanatomy #Cornell Probably might be best viewed on a laptop instead of a phone. academy.allaboutbirds.org/features/bir...

All About Bird Anatomy from Bird Academy

How much do you know about bird anatomy? Test yourself with an interactive reference guide to all the important anatomical systems in a bird.

academy.allaboutbirds.org

I DID get out birding on Saturday. Smoke cleared and it was a nice hot sunny day. Saw some dragons, cranes, and a family of four Great Blue Herons.The herons kept their distance, so I had to live with that, but got a few.The sun felt great after sitting in air conditioning all week. Pics when I can.