Blue Moon Rising at Great Meadows NWR

Gray Catbird

Common Ground-Nut

Eastern Kingbird

American Lotus

Blue Dasher

 mystery bloom

(2nd sighting and still no ID)

 Great Blue Heron

The Blue Moon occurs when there are two full moons in a given calendar month.  Tonight's moon was a Blue Moon.  We were well positioned on the side of the impoundment and waited roughly 15 minutes for the bright moon to appear.  It looked more orangey in person than it does in these landscape photos.  The color is pretty accurate in the closeup, though.  Nice night to be out.  Now to wash off the bug spray!

Butterflies at BHCL

 Northern Broken Dash

 Robin's Plantain Fleabane

 Peck's Skippers, mating

 Tansy (non-native)

This plant looks like a daisy that has been plucked!

 Northern Broken Dash

 Rabbit-foot Clover (non-native)

Pearl Crescent

 Pale-Spiked Lobelia

 Indigo Bunting

Pearl Crescents meeting on goldenrod

I saw a monarch, too, but couldn't get a photo!

Back to Waseeka Wildlife Sanctuary

I had to head for the shade today.  Too hot for full sun.  Waseeka seemed like a good choice.  There were lots of nice native wildflowers in bloom!

Steeplebush (native)

Gray Catbird

Purple Milkwort (native)

Coastal Sweet-Pepperbush (native)

probably Eastern Phoebe (juvenile)

Peck's Skipper

Pearl Crescent

Purple-Headed Sneezeweed (native)

Panicled Tick-Trefoil (native)

two Cedar Waxwings high in the treetop

Great Spangled Fritillary

and another

Pale-Spiked Lobelia (native)

Back to BHCL

Back to work, back to household chores, back to reality.  It's not an easy transition after such a wonderful vacation!

Getting back to BHCL was the easiest part of settling in to real life again!

 Great Spangled Fritillary

Sulphur Cinquefoil

 Eastern Tailed-Blue

Knapweed (non-native)

 Common Wood Nymph

Blue Vervain (native)

Pearl Crescent

Common Ringlet

a sea of Queen Anne's Lace

 Savannah Sparrow

(the frumpy housewife bird)

 Cedar Waxwing

(the runway model bird)

Great Spangled Fritillary

 Helleborine Orchid (non-native and basically post-peak)

Meanwhile, back at home, the hummingbirds are fast and furiously visiting the restocked feeder.