Peak summer sights…

Aaah. The smoke and haze have moved on, and the blue skies are back. Once again, I went for a bike ride first, got a flat tire, which was awesome, and finally hit Estabrook at about a quarter to 8. By then the sun was nice and high, and the air was warm, so the bugs were out and about. I checked the pollinator garden on my way to the pond, and the swamp milkweed blossoms are starting to open, so here’s a monarch sampling that sweet swamp milkweed nectar.

At the pond, a great blue heron was preening in a tree on the east side, and here it is against that amazing blue sky and wondering what I’m up to.

As I walked around the north end, I could spot the four younger wood duck ducklings up on various logs, and by the time I got to the west lawn, they decided to paddle over and join me.

There was at least a pair of kingfishers flitting around from island to shore and back at the north end, and here’s a female who paused for a picture.

As I was taking the kingfisher picture, I could here at least two, maybe more, blue-gray gnat catchers in the trees overhead, and this is probably a recent fledgling who hasn’t yet learned how to avoid getting caught in a picture. I’ve been hearing them since they arrived in April, but once the trees leafed out, they have kept out of sight.

On my way back south, I crossed the meadow and came across this silver-spotted skipper butterfly visiting the ribwort plantain, aka narrowleaf plantain or English plantain (Plantago lanceolata) blossoms.

Back along the river trail, I came across this chipmunk who paused a moment too long and then got stuck in an awkward standoff with me where all it could do was pretend that I didn’t see it. The moment it thought I wasn’t looking, it took off like a shot.

By the falls, a pair of herons appeared to be playing tag, and flew back and forth a couple of times. With so many opportunities, I was finally able to capture a decent flight portrait.

Finally, as I was approaching the southern exit from the park onto Wilson drive, I spotted a couple of fawns, but they tucked into the brush before I could get a good picture. Then, as I contemplated the error of my ways, Mom came back out to cross the pavement to the bigger thicket on the north side.

As seems to be often the case with white-tailed deer, once one gets safely across, then comes another.

And in this case, because this mom had twins this year, the first fawn was followed by a second.

So, on top of the four deer we saw yesterday, that makes at least seven total in the park these days. Sweet!