Dick and I spent the "weekstart" (the opposite of "weekend," of course, being Monday and Tuesday instead of Saturday and Sunday) at
Bernheim Forest, our favorite nature place in the area. Dick spends so much time there volunteering, that we enjoy a chance to get out and explore for our own fun.
Although birding wasn't the primary focus of our ramblings, I can't resist taking bird photos whenever the opportunity presents itself. Vultures are always good subjects when they fly slowly overhead. If you look carefully at this Vulture though, you can see that it looks as if it is being chased by a dragonfly! I love these serendipitous shots!
Bernheim is working on a project to restock the quail population on the property. They hatch the eggs, and feed them till they are ready for release. We ran across one of the workers on the project who let us take a look at them. Sometimes raccoons find the cage, and chase the babies around till the partner raccoon can grab it through the fence. Apparently they like to eat the heads.
Last weekend artists designed bird houses, which they hung along a trail. This is my favorite - a true sign of the times.
As the sun crept down, we spied this Green Heron perched on a rock in the shallow end of Lake Nevin. The profile of this heron is so distinctive, you don't have to have a close look to know what it is. The weather has been so dry here in Kentucky, that all the creeks and lakes levels are down quite a bit.
As I waited in the car for Dick to return the lodge key, I heard something singing sweetly in the branches above, and thought I better look for it. We had seen a Redstart flying through the branches, lots of LBJ's (Little Brown Jobs - otherwise unidentifiable to us), and scads of migrating Blue Jays. I hoped for a warbler I could get a good look at, and this time I lucked out. I think this is an immature Magnolia Warbler. (I later asked a good birder friend, who said she thought this was a Pine Warbler instead.)
What a sweet little thing it is!
Yes, I'm stretching it a bit to call this a bird, but it
is an Eastern Pond "Hawk," one of the hundreds of dragoflies hunting over the Great Prairie. I expect to see them around water, and am surprised to see them over dry land as often as we do.
Click on the photo for a larger version, and sit in awe of the delicacy and strength of these transparent window pane wings! They look like a work of art in glass to me.
The most enjoyable part of spending the night at Bernheim Forest is dawn and dark. We sat down by Mac's Lake, and the full moon was so bright we didn't need a flashlight to return to the lodge. When the sun started to rise we went for a pre-breakfast walk, just to enjoy the fresh light and cooler temperatures.
This summer has been dreadfully hot and dry. Two more record high temperatures were set while we were at Bernheim this week. The rainfall is 2 inches below normal for September and another 1.5 inches below normal for August.
Have you ever noticed all the yellow flowers that bloom in the fall? Why are they all the same color? Tavia, my wildflower expert, says yellow attracts the butterflies and other pollinators. There are also ultraviolet colors in the flowers that we can't see, but the insects can.
Goldenrod is the state flower of Kentucky, and there are more than 30 species found here. Goldenrood pollen does not make you sneeze though. It's too heavy and sticky to blow in the wind. Ragweed is the primary source of allergies.
Trees are affected by the drought too. Walnut, sycamore, and tulip poplar normally lose their leaves earlier than other trees, but they also turn yellow before falling off. This year, I fear there may not be many colors for the fall festivals. As we walked down the trail, the dry blowing leaves sounded almost like rain as they tumbled to the ground.
When we hike in the country, I start to think about what life was like in the pioneer days, 200 years ago. I'm very much a city girl, I'm afraid, and I have trouble imagining what it would be like to live away from other people. Look at this picture of Harrison Fork, in Nelson County. You can see many small valleys that look like this - the stream is up against the side of the valley, and the rest is broad and available for raising a crop. The pioneers straightened the streams, removing the bends and meanders, to increase their acreage. This particular creek is down to bedrock, which is hard enough to be used as a road. In fact, it looks like wagon wheel tracks in several places. An endeavor like this must have taken a community effort to dig a channel, then move the stream and fill in the old bed. Now Bernheim has several projects to put the meanders back into the streams to improve wildlife habitat.
Nuts and berries are flourishing. This sawtooth oak was a real head scratcher, until we found a nametag on one of the trees.
Butterflies, beetles and bees don't seem too troubled by the dry weather. Dick took a net to practice catching butterflies, and they all seemed aged with drab colors and tears in their wings.
How many insects can you find on this thistle...
...or this wingstem? You won't see the chiggers, but they see you. I'm going to be scratching my ankles for another week at least! 
