After much patient waiting, the butterfly and hummingbird flowers are in bloom, attracting lovelies such as this female Ruby Throated Hummingbird, and a Red-Spotted Purple butterfly, which is the first I've seen in our yard.
The mosquitos have been there, ready for a sweet snack on my legs, for many months. They don't seem to care what flowers are blooming.
It's been hot and humid lately, and I just haven't gotten too far from the house. I hate sweating if I can avoid it. Today the temperature is only in the 70's and the humidity is low, so I went to Creasey Mahan Nature Preserve to help with the open house. The Nature Center's observation room behind a one-way window is just what I've needed for these summer doldrums. The garden is in full bloom, and we had a great day with flowers and the creatures that need them.
Our first visitor was a determined little chipmunk. "Is it safe?" he asked, looking around. Up the sunflower stalk he climbed and helped himself to a breakfast of fresh sunflower seeds. The chipmunks in my yard would be so jealous. No baffles to frustrate this guy!
Sunflower heads provide not only the seeds to eat, but the table to stand on to reach more seeds!
The female Goldfinch perched on some iris stems, watching the male with a smile on her face at his antics. Well, it looks like a smile to me...
Red bee balm attracted a hummingbird, just as the book promises. The long red flowers were more temptation than she could resist.
It's hard to tell if this little bee collected all the pollen on her legs from cone flowers only, or if she brings a potpourri of pollen back to the hive. What will this honey taste like, I wonder?
Green frogs hide in the lily pads, waiting for just the right insect to approach. Or maybe they just enjoy the pleasant afternoon.
Flower shapes never fail to amaze me. Each one is tailored for just the right pollinator.
I couldn't guess how many Mockingbird nests there were at the preserve this year, but they all fledged at the same time, apparently, since the sky and branches were filled with loud juvenile Mockingbirds. They have the flight thing down pretty well, now they just have to learn about finding the best source of food. After that, they can start listening to cell phone rings to learn what songs to sing!
If you plant the garden, they will come....
The Louisville Zoo and Norton's Hospital have a joint program to improve your health by a walking club. The Zoo opens at 8:00 am for walkers, before the rest of the crowd arrives. This morning was delightfully cool, so we drove to the zoo to be there when they opened for walking.
You get a different perspective without a lot of other people around. Since our last zoo visit a year ago, they have started several construction projects to improve the ingress and egress on Newburg Road, and to create Glacier Run for the polar bears, who are currently on vacation at another zoo during the construction period. As the animals came out for the morning, they were quite talkative.
Secretary Bird, me? No Way!
Do you think it's time I started using Oil of Olay for these wrinkles?
Just look at me...aren't I the most beautiful bird you've ever seen? Beautiful face...
beautiful tail feathers.....
...and, well, I always try to show just my good side to the camera.
ROAR! ROAR! No matter how much I try,
She gets like that sometimes. I try to stay out of it.
Did your mother tell you to chew with your mouth closed?
Well, this is why!
The Big Meadow at Bernheim Forest is just full of summer wildflowers this weekend. Standing on the edge, you are impressed with the tall waving grass and yellow coneflowers. As we walked to the center with our butterfly leader, we saw the individual flowers - bee balm, yarrow, orange butterfly weed, fleabane, small white flowers we couldn't identify.
The wind was rather strong, which felt good to all the sweaty butterfly hunters, but discouraged the butterflies from venturing out. Dragonflies are tough though, and we saw more of them than the butterflies.
Pipevine Swallowtail
Great Spangled Frittilary
Eastern Amberwing
Isn't it beautiful? We are so fortunate to have a place like this to enjoy. I enjoyed hunting for small wildflowers, trying to grow and bloom before the trees shaded them out in the early spring. The prairies and meadows are overwhelming. From a distance, you see green and small splotches of color, but the variety and abundance of flowers just take my breath away. And I recommend a Tilley hat with a broad brim to keep the sun away as it blazes on the flowers, plus a strong sunscreen for anything not covered by the hat!
Fishermen always tell tales about the big fish that got away. Binx has a tale about the big chipmunk that got away from him recently. After we returned from Missouri, Binx wasted no time darting out the door to explore the back yard after being stuck in the house for a week. He knows those pesky chipmunks are out there, digging holes in the flower beds, and generally making a nuisance of themselves.
Like a flash, he sped across the yard and came back with a chipmunk in his mouth. What will he do with it, I wondered. Could I find a cage and get the critter in it for release at a nature preserve somewhere? Would Binx actually (gulp!) 
Pippin watched all this through the door, filled with admiration. "Here it is!" he said, "Hiding in these flowers."
With a squeak of desperation, the chipmunk wasted no time in heading for another hole and safety from the cat. Binx, however, was unperturbed. "That will teach those rodents! Just because one got away once, they will all know that they can be caught, and the next one may not be so lucky!"
One of the reasons for our trip to Missouri is to visit Dick's oldest living relative, Aunt Edith, so we traveled to Moberly to visit her, her son and grandson, also visiting this weekend. Aunt Edith wanted to check on the graves of several relatives, so we all drove to the cemetery in the old home town. As I strolled around looking at markers of people who were born in the early 1800's, I noticed a Robin's nest atop one of the markers next to some silk flowers. Curious, I peered inside and found two newly hatched babies, and one egg still unhatched. The day was surprisingly cool, and the babies needed their mama. Although I think I was quiet, one hungry baby lifted it's head and opened up for mama. A Robin flew from tree to marker to marker, anxiously waiting for us to leave. Cemeteries don't only hold death, but life as well. Pretty cool, isn't it?
When we left the cemetery I saw a large white bird along a distant lake. "Stop the car!" I said. Sure enough, it was a single American Pelican standing quietly by the side of the lake. By now, Aunt Edith isn't sure if I am just a crazy person, or a certified bird wizard who conjures up birds in strange locations so they can be photographed. Don't I just wish! Sigh.
Aunt Edith loves genealogy and family history, so we traveled to another town to see the statue of a great-great-great-something grandfather, General Sterling Price. Dick looked him up, and he was quite a personage--legislator, governor, Civil War general for the Confederacy. Despite all the good things he did for the young state of Missouri, we will remember him as refusing to surrender at the end of the war. He took his troops to Mexico to join Emperor Maximilian instead. Remember the John Wayne movie, Rooster Cogburn, where he plays a one-eyed Marshall who captures the bad guys with the help of Katherine Hepburn? (one of my favorites) In it, his only two friends are a Chinaman and his cat, General Sterling Price! Everyone lined up before the statue for pictures. Aren't families great!
Our final stop for the morning was along the sites where she and Dick's father had grown up. Here was the one room school house. There were the slag heaps from coal mines, warm enough that the snow never melted. They wanted to see what the old home looked like, which she discouraged, but we drove out anyway. No one was home at the new residence on the property, and we decided it would be smarter to honor the No Trespassing signs. However, while they looked around I enjoyed the wildflowers and songs of country birds. Here is one that I can't identify. It sat on a phone line, signing loudly. (Whoops! Did you catch that? A bird using sign language would really be a first!) At first, I thought it might be a Meadowlark, with the yellowish belly and black necklace, but it's smaller than a Meadowlark, sings a completely different song, and the bill isn't right. Any ideas out there in the audience? Whatever it is, it will be a lifer for me!
The vote is in, and the winner is Dickcissel. That makes two lifers for the week, this Dickcissel and the Henslow's Sparrow.
In a while we will drive to Columbia for dinner with another relative. Tomorrow we'll be shown off to all her friends at church, then the long drive back to Kentucky. I am married to such a wonderful man --how many men like to visit their 89 year old aunts? Of course, she told him that she would curse him at her funeral if that was the only time he ever came to visit! 
"Happiness is as a butterfly, which when pursued is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly may alight upon you." ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne
As you enter the Butterfly House in St. Louis, the attendant closes the outside door and gives you the butterfly rules. Don't touch the butterflies. Don't remove any plants. Don't touch the butterflies. Then the inner door opens and you enter a world of color and movement unlike anything you have ever seen.
The butterflies, small and large, move constantly. Sometimes they brush against you as they flutter by in flocks. Delighted laughter is the first response of both adults and most children. Other children shriek in fright as the colorful insects near their faces. Identification guide in hand, you wander into the humid jungle of Central America, neck craning to take it all in.
The Blue Morpho catches your eye first, since it is a bright almost neon blue color, and easily the largest butterfly there. However, it doesn't like to perch at all! If it does land, the wings immediately fold into an upright position displaying brown with eye spots and not a bit of blue. The other Morphs go to their quiet friend and bump into him. “Tag! You're it!” they seem to say as all of them streak off together.
How can you get a good photo of a Blue Morpho? I'm not sure that can be done with a live one. I tried focusing where they flew through, thinking to catch one in motion. I only got some blurry spots of blue, since they fly faster than I can see them, press the shutter and have the picture take. At the banana bar, one might flash a little blue in between slurps of rotting banana. How about movies? Again, I aimed where they were flying, and of course, they flew somewhere else.
A white and black Paper Kite decided that my sunscreen was just irresistibly yummy, and rode around on my leg for at least 20 minutes! Obviously, they don't tell the butterflies not to touch the humans! I wonder how many other visitors went home with pictures of my leg with the Paper Kite?
Butterflies attract each other with their bold colors, but many change to drab browns for defense when they land and fold their wings. Others blend in with the background even with open wings. One looks like a dead leaf, but I don't think we saw it at all. You really need to have pictures both the wings open and wings closed positions to identify any butterfly.
As I processed 169 photos in the evening, I gratefully pulled out the brochure with pictures and names of all the butterflies so I could record mine correctly. Well, only a couple of mine appeared among the 24 in the brochure. I added them to the species “unknownus.” Then I saw the fine print. “The butterfly species depicted here are those most commonly exhibited in the Tropical Conservatory. On any specific day, there may be additional species, and some species listed here may not be in flight.” Yep, that pretty well sums it up.
If you get close enough, their faces are really interesting, with huge eyes, and a roll-out proboscis for sipping nectar.
Sweating profusely from what felt like 120% humidity levels, we decided to take a break and go outside to the natural gardens for local butterflies. The lovely day was cool and cloudy, and the butterflies hid where ever it is they go when they don't want to come out and play. The Garden hosts pavilion areas which are available for weddings and other event. Wouldn't that be a great place for a wedding?
