Sunday 12 July 2015

An Afternoon of Birds and Butterflies

I was glad to have a free afternoon and good weather on the same day and decided to walk a route around the farm.  Birds were my primary focus, but many species of butterflies and dragonflies also quickly caught my interest.  For the most part, it was the insects that were the most co-operative for photos.

With monarchs being relatively scarce this year I was surprised to find this individual hanging around a patch of milkweed.  I plan to return to this spot and check for eggs.


Common whitetail dragonflies were the dominant dragonfly of the afternoon.

Continuing on down the lane, I passed several wet patches that proved to be excellent buffets for the butterflies.


 
It was at one of these wet holes that I spotted my only mourning cloak of the day.

The tall grass also held numerous insects.
Skipper butterfly.  I don't know this family well enough to say what kind of skipper.
The mosquitoes were not so bad today, but the deer flies were out in full force and they all seemed to want a taste of me.  Finally leaving the deer flies behind, I had a chance to taste some of the many black raspberries currently in season.

I saw and heard a wide variety of bird species today, but only got one half decent photo, a young wood duck.


2 comments:

  1. Your skipper appears to be a European Skipper. Worn, as expected at this time as they are nearing the end of their adult life cycle.
    I had a few of those berries myself this past weekend!

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  2. Thanks for identifying the skipper Blake. I'm still not great at identifying some of those insects, but I'm learning.

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