The ducklings, fresh off their hot debut yesterday, where nowhere to be found this morning. Nowhere that I looked, anyway. Mallards and wood ducks were on the pond, and I did startle a great blue heron, for which I am very sorry, but he did get a nice send off from a red-wing blackbird for his troubles.

Which reminds me of a fascinating phenomenon I witnessed yesterday. We’ve all seen the exciting aerial combat of little birds chasing off bigger birds, but yesterday I saw a rabbit chasing a crow across the middle parking lot, I kid you not. I was too stunned even to think of taking a picture. Perhaps the crow was stunned, too.

Rabbits weren’t the only critters I saw scampering across the parking lot either. I’ve got a shot of this cutie running, but just before it ducked into the woods, it posed long enough for me to zoom, focus, and frame this nicer one.

There must have been something about the asphalt yesterday, because this guy just couldn’t get enough of it. Sure, we’d all rather see him delicately clinging to some bright green reed with a blurry bright blue pond in the background, but sometimes I just gotta shoots ’em where I sees ’em. Anyway, he’s an adult male common whitetail dragonfly (Plathemis lydia), and he wouldn’t let me get any closer.

This morning, for reasons I may never understand, must have been crayfish morning in the northeast corner of the pond because I’ve never seen one in the water before, and this morning I counted four at the surface within a few feet of each other, and this one was the most photogenic.

They were all quite alive and kicking, too, as they readily demonstrated the second I took a step too close.

Plenty of other little guys were out and about this morning as well. In my expert opinion, they are, from left to right, a spider, a snail, and some kind of little worm-like larva hanging from a silk thread.

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Oh, what the heck. Since I’m loading this thing up with pictures today, I might as well show some flowers, too, right?

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They appear to be, from left to right, Shining Ladies’ Tresses aka Yellow Lipped Ladies’ Tresses (Spiranthes lucida), a native orchid, right by the pond, a yellow flag iris (Iris pseudacorus) right beside the river (after I told Anne that they would never look photogenic beside the river), and Woodland forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvaticum or M. sylvatica). The latter two, I am sad but feel compelled to report, are both described as invasive species here and here.

Finally, the reader picture of the week is sent in by me because I found a gorgeous eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) (not the common yellow swallowtail (Papilio machaon) I had originally thought) willing to pose for a picture at last, just not quite in the park. It was on the flowers right in front of my building, which is just across Wilson Drive from the park, and ain’t it a beauty? Special shout out to Lois for making sure our gardens always look so tasty. It flew off several times, but always came back for more.

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Well, that’s more than usual, and I hope you were at least able to scroll through all the pictures. Let’s hope I left something to see for tomorrow, eh?

I got out a little earlier this morning, and I’m sure glad I did because I got to enjoy this spectacle of Mrs. Mallard taking her new ducklings on what might be their first tour of the pond. The light was still low, and they were always moving so my camera struggled to capture even this image, but I think it gets the point across.

And while we’re on the topic of great things in small packages, check out this tiny pollinator, which appears to be a hoverfly. It also goes by flower fly or a syrphid fly, and since “about 6,000 species in 200 genera have been described” in “the insect family Syrphidae“, I might not be identifying this one further any time soon.

Oh, and it’s working on a bladder campion (Silene latifolia) blossom, which we first saw on June 1.

I hear Tropical Depression Cristobal is due to arrive this afternoon with gale-force winds and torrential rain, so I’m not sure what we’ll have for tomorrow, but we’ll find out soon enough, eh?

You’ve got to be wondering, how long can this go on? I know I do. After all, how many birds even are there, anyway? At some point, we’ve got to have seen them all, right? Right. But today is not that day.

I was by the pond, heard a new, cheerful call, simply looked up, and immediately saw this sharp looking little guy. He’s a great crested flycatcher, as far as I can tell. Note the brown crest over a grey face. In other pictures, you can better see the creamy yellow belly. He was busy hopping from branch to branch announcing his arrival to anyone in earshot.

Meanwhile, the parade of damselflies continues with these two beauties I haven’t yet managed to identify.

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Finally, a red-eared slider, which I don’t think we’ve already seen, was out in the sun. He or she ought to have that nasty-looking green rash checked out, eh? Just kidding. That appears to be just algae, and he or she looks just fine.

That’s it for today, and I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

It was a cool grey morning, and a great blue heron and a green heron were at the pond when I arrived, but neither were in the mood for pictures. One lone male mallard flew in, but there was no sign of the wood ducks. Even the muskrat was sleeping in, it seems.

Luckily, there is a whole lot of blooming going on. In addition to the virginia waterleaf, eastern daisy fleabane, and golden alexanders (Zizia aurea) all over the place recently,

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the towering cow parsnip (Heracleum maximum), creeping bird’s-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus), and a foot-tall anemone, maybe Canada anemone (Anemone canadensis), have all just opened:

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Plus riverbank grape (Vitis riparia) and American cranberrybush (Viburnum trilobum), have joined the fray, which the birds might like later in the summer or fall.

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Not to be outdone, the bugs also stepped up their game. The cool temps did keep the mosquitos in their hangers this morning, which was nice, but also made this resplendent female ebony jewelwing damselfly (Calopteryx maculata) languid enough for me to take these pictures.

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Well, that’s all I’ve got for today, kids. Keep those hot tips and pics coming, and maybe I’ll feature yours the next time I come up empty with my own.

The recent usual suspects were all out and about. The muskrat was having breakfast on the west lawn, a few mallards and wood ducks were on the pond, and loads of red-wing blackbirds and grackles were flitting about. Meanwhile, I could hear robins, cardinals, chickadees, goldfinches, catbirds, wrens, and orioles in the trees. As far as I could see, however, there was nobody new in town today, and while some new flowers are on the way, they’re not quite open yet.

Yesterday afternoon, I did catch a couple more dragonflies, but their identification still eludes me.

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You know what that means, boys and girls? It’s time for “reader photo of the week”! Yay!

Our photo of the week was sent in by Doctor Robert Sansonetti from all the way out in Portland, Maine. He writes:

Hey nature dude!  What is this??

To which I immediately reply:

My best guess is a snake.

Then, after quickly consulting with my trusty herpetologist, Dr. Google, I follow up with:

More specifically, a Milk Snake.

And a mighty fine looking specimen, too. Apparently, they’re having a glut of milk snakes in the northeast. Anyway, Dr. Bob, ever thinking through the health implications, with his doctor trained brain, replied.

Close call then. I’m lactose intolerant. 

As the anonymous volunteers at the Pedia of Wik so eloquently put it:

Mating in dragonflies is a complex, precisely choreographed process. 

They continue, breathlessly:

 This distinctive posture is called the “heart”.

Probably, don’t try this at home, kids.

In any case, those are Mr. and Mrs. skimming bluet damselfly or Enallagma geminatum, as the ancient Latins liked to say. If you’ve ever wondered to yourself “just how many types of dragonflies and damselflies even are there in Wisconsin?”, head on over to the Wisconsin Dragonfly Society and wonder no more!

Meanwhile, that’s not the only action at the pond. It appears that we have crayfish, and somebody had a tasty one for lunch yesterday.

It looks raw and pretty fresh, so I’m thinking the kids that visit to catch frogs or go fishing didn’t eat it, and I bet the snapping turtle would eat it but not bother bringing it up on shore nor leave any parts behind. So my best guess is that the muskrat did it with his incisors right there on the northeast lawn. I sure hope he had some poivron, onion, and celery to go with!

Man, is there anything not living and breeding in this pond?

Oh, and before I forget, many thanks to the generous benefactor who left me the 50,000 Indonesian Rupiah banknote in the parking lot! Anne’s already planning to spend it on our second honeymoon.

Hmmm. Where to even start? Lets’ go with the new guys.

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That’s right, the dragonflies were all over the pond yesterday afternoon in the nice bright sun. On the left is a male dot-tailed whiteface (Leucorrhinia intacta) and on the right is a male twelve-spotted skimmer (Libellula pulchella). Hey! I don’t make these names up. I’m just the messenger here. The skimmer really liked that particular dried up old stalk sticking out over the water, and he returned to it over and over again after flying sorties over the pond. If I didn’t get a good picture out of that, it’d be time to quit.

Those aren’t even the only new faces in town.

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On the left is a tadpole, of course, and there were dozens, if not hundreds, of them in the shallow water just off shore. It was quite a sight to watch them scatter as soon as they spotted me. On the left looks for all the world to be a bird dropping, by design, but it is actually the chrysalis of the red-spotted purple (a butterfly). The caterpillars are supposed to look no better, but the butterflies sure do finish on a high note, eh?

Lastly, the mammals must have all just come back from the hairdresser because they all seemed to be in a posing mood.

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They are, from left to right, a white-tailed deer in the brush near the top of the bluff, an eastern cottontail near the east side of the pond, and our new little buddy, the muskrat, at the breakfast buffet on the lawn sloping down to the west side of the pond.

Man, if this keeps up, I’m gonna need some more film.

In the meantime, nice big versions of these pictures, and others that didn’t quite fit into the narrative are on the new pictures page and/or on flickr, where you can even zoom in to enjoy every last glorious pixel.

Oh sure, the birds have been laying eggs like crazy for months, no doubt. We’ve seen the goslings, after all, and I’ve even found three discarded shells on the ground already. Oh, and don’t forget about the spittle bugs. This morning, however, I was happy to be reminded that birds and bugs are not the only critters laying eggs in the park.

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That’s a painted turtle on the steep west shore of the island putting those big, spade-shaped hind feet of hers to good use, as far as I can tell. I guess they’ve been up to more than just sunning themselves on a log.

Meanwhile, the muskrat seems to have taken exception either to all the attention I was paying to the turtle or to the lousy picture I posted last week and decided to swim not five feet in front of me so I could take a better one.

Ain’t her or she just the cutest things you’ve ever seen?

Finally, the plant kingdom spring pageant continues unabated.

That appears to be the blossom of Cornus alternifolia, also called the green osier, alternate-leaved dogwood, or pagoda dogwood. The leaves sure look like dogwood.

That’s right, the King Billies are finally here, after their amazing journey all the way from the mountains of central Mexico (or maybe parts of Florida).

I also just spotted one out my dining room window as I type this, so the odds are that there are more than one, and if you look, you might see one, too. To those of you with pollinator gardens, thank you!

They’ve arrived just in the nick of time, too, because all the birds this morning be like this.

Jeesh, they’re making my job hard lately, but I did get to see a couple of baltimore orioles chasing off a crow, which was fun and fascinating, at least for me.

I’ve also got some nice flower pictures, but I think I’ll keep those in my back pocket in case the birds continue to be uncooperative tomorrow and no new miracle of nature flies in to save me at the last second.

It is a cool, overcast morning with not much going on, and I didn’t capture a single image of the animal kingdom. There was one mallard on the pond, and we’ve already seen all the other birds I saw or heard; robins, red-winged blackbirds, grackles, wrens, cardinals, catbirds, etc.

Instead, I did manage to find a few new wildflowers in bloom.

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From left to right, we have the common daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare), the bladder campion (Silene latifolia), and the tall buttercup (Ranunculus acris), as far as I can tell.

Without looking, who can guess:

• which one is flagged as “Invasive – Eradicate!“
• which one the Ojibwa use to make a a physic infusion
• which one is flagged as “Careful, this plant is hazardous!“

Welp, that’s all I’ve got for today. Better luck tomorrow, eh?