Better luck on the second try.

Daylight came late yesterday, and the rain came early, so I didn’t have much to show you, and I opted to try again this morning. The sky was dark again today, but the clouds thinned out a bit, and they never leaked, so things went much better.

A single green heron has been hanging out at the pond for a while, and I glimpsed it yesterday, but today it seemed more concerned with drying out than evading my camera.

Better yet, a great blue heron was also at the pond, perhaps because the river is so high, fast, and brown lately, but we haven’t been seeing them at the pond much yet this year.

On my way over to the river, I heard our new buddy again, the red-headed woodpecker.

As I hiked north along the river, I spotted motion in the now-flooded side channel, and I was stunned to see a beaver dragging out a small branch it had just gnawed off some tree. I didn’t have a shot, however, so I high-tailed it up the trail in hopes of catching it where the channel connects to the river, and I arrived just in time. Phew!

Once it got out into the river, it was easier to see the branch it was towing behind.

I watched it through my binoculars as it swam to the northern island, and it climbed up right where we saw one climb up earlier in the month. I sure hope this means it has mouths to feed.

On my way back south, I managed to catch this chipmunk up in a crabapple tree, which I do not get to see very often.

It soon scampered back to earth, however, and joined one of its comrades in munching on the many mulberries littering the ground instead.

Back at the south end, I stopped by the thistles blooming along the west edge of the soccer fields and was thrilled to find our first common buckeye of the season.

There was also our first skipper of the season, this sharp little fiery skipper.

The weeds attract more than just butterflies, and here’s my very first cobra clubtail dragonfly (Gomphurus vastus)

Finally, our second damselfly of the season appears to be my very first familiar bluet (Enallagma civile)

Lastly, the one picture I did get yesterday is of this soaking wet female belted kingfisher on the far side of the pond. She did not look thrilled with me taking her picture.