A morning better than I had expected…

The thunderstorms had finished rolling through by sunrise this morning, so I was able to get out earlier than I had expected.

My first treat came very early, as I was crossing Wilson Dr, when I heard the call of a peregrine falcon high overhead. Happily, it wasn’t going anywhere fast, and I was able to catch sight of it as it glided in for a landing on the WITI TV tower at the far south end of the park. Then, it was kind enough to hang out while I hustled around to the west side, where it had landed, and it even put on a bit of a show with its wings out in the breeze. “Thanks, Sweet Pea!”

My next surprise came at the pond, where I found this dejected-looking solitary sandpiper resting on a log. I read that they are mostly night migrators, so perhaps it was grounded by last night’s storms and is now just resting up to try again tonight.

It wasn’t so much of a surprise to see this green heron, since we’ve been seeing plenty of them lately, but it was a treat that it flew in to perch so close while I was working on the best sandpiper picture I could muster.

I did see at least one warbler, but it was quite shy, and my pictures are barely good enough for an ID, so let’s just skip straight to the bugs. Here’s a cabbage white butterfly sporting a very pleasant creamy yellow hue.

And here’s our first New England aster of the fall season. When I first saw it, I thought to myself, “that’s lovely, of course, but a pretty insect would really put a cherry on top.” And then, as if on cue, this tiny bicolored striped sweat bee buzzed in and really made the picture.

We’ve seen them before, and the ones I usually see have black and white stripes, so I thought this one must be someone else. Instead, it turns out that females have the black and white stripes, while males have black and yellow stripes, so that’s who this guy is. That also explains why he’s not collecting pollen and doesn’t even have the dense hairs on his hind legs, called scopa, for holding it, as she did. In fact, I read further that no male bees do, the lazy bums.

I see that the forecast is looking pretty good for tomorrow morning, so let’s hope it brings me better luck with the warblers.