I saw movement but it took my eyes a few minutes to spot this little songbird staring back at me.
The Merlin Bird ID app tells me this is a Common Yellowthroat, to my eye looking a whole lot like many other young or female warblers.
He was on the hunt, jumping from branch to branch, checking behind these waxy leaves for bugs or worms.
I got a quick full body peek while he contemplated his next move, which was to zoom into the heights of this tree.
This was the first Gulf Fritillary I’ve seen this summer, one of just a few total butterflies I’ve noticed.
The wild purple statice, a non-native that grows along roadsides, in disturbed areas and old fields, seems to be thriving everywhere.
This stand of statice was along the side of a pond and the butterfly worked the tops, the road and pond side, and down into the depths of the plant which in some places was over my head.
June 26, 2020
Donnelley Wildlife Management Area, SC
These two Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks looks like they are in a field but this is actually a grass-choked pond / swamp so they were walking on a spongy surface.
They were alert to my presence and another nearby pair ducked down into the grass out of my sight.
These two kept bobbing up and down.
And kept an eye on the sky.
These two Wood Ducks were sunning on the end of an Alligator platform until I passed by.
Actually, there had been three; one had dropped into the water as I rounded the bend.
The other two seemed to be communicating…
… stay, or go?
The female made up her mind and jumped feet first into the pond.
The male made a showier exit…
and a delicate splash down.
of the photographer.
This image goes with Ted’s post at TPJ Photo, Mud Gator, which could have been titled “Why Did The Alligator Cross the Road?”
I digress. Ted and I have pretty much given up on alerting the other to photography opportunities when we are out but I turned when I heard him call my name. This is what I saw:
The two Black-crowned Night-heron nests I spotted at the beginning of May apparently failed as they disappeared shortly thereafter. There must have been at least one other nest in that little island as I almost literally bumped into this juvenile on Thursday standing on the nearby boardwalk.
He practiced rousing…
… and showed me his beautiful wings.
A little unsure of himself, he hopped along before taking off back to the island.
Further down the path I had a view of him perched on a dead branch hanging over the water.
White-eyed Vireos are a fast, elusive song bird.
This one was intent on food. He picked a worm off a leaf and flew down to an open branch to eat it.
But first he beat it a few times.
I’ve seen song birds gather a stack of worms or insects in their beak and thought he might be rendering this one ready for a flight to a nest.
No, this one was for him.
One gulp and it was gone.
I seem to be seeing Green Anoles everywhere lately, and climbing on all sorts of things.
This dried pod is from last year’s Trumpet Vine which surprisingly hasn’t popped open.
The Anole was showing off his Dewlap, also known as a throat fan. They do this to attract mates and to establish their territory, alerting an intruding male that he’s gone to far.
I’m not sure why dragonflies bother with these hard shelled insects, not sure just what they are.
They are pretty small and I think the dragonfly was having a hard time getting it down, chewing and chewing.
Our back yard has hosted a variety of dragonflies this summer. They take advantage of a few fallen branches I’ve left in the corner.
In mid February I posed a question “Will These Sticks Make a Nest?” with doubts about the whole thing staying put.
This is one of my images from that post showing the scrawny nest and poor housing support.
I’ve been back a couple times since then and seen the parents had built the nest up quite a bit and two chicks had hatched.
I finally got some decent images this week.
There was just the one chick. Most of the other GBH chicks in nearby nests have fledged. Sometimes the young will return to the nest even after they are feeding themselves, probably for familiarity.
If this one hasn’t flown he will soon as the parents stop bringing food at some point and he’ll have no choice.
