Things with Wings

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Today's Birds

House Wren

I think this may be a juvenile Rufous-sided Towhee.
Update: I just learned 9/10/2012 that some birds have "new" names. This bird is now called an Eastern Towhee. Uh oh, I may be showing my age (or at least the age of my bird book!)

Goldfinch

Cardinal (male)

Goldfinch

Blue Hill Reservation Butterflies

I took the Summit Trail at Blue Hill and walked around the Weather Observatory. Enjoyed quite a nice variety of butterflies.

Black Swallowtail (male)

Common Ringlet

Gray Hairstreak

Monarch

Black Swallowtail

Horace's Duskywing

American Lady

Horace's Duskywing

Black Swallowtail

Common Ringlet

Monarch

American Copper

Click here to see more photos from another visit to Blue Hill.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Spider Killing Bee

This poor bee chose the wrong flower to pollinate.

I knew something was wrong when the bee stayed on the flower longer than a few seconds. It took me a while to "see" the spider. It had great camouflage!

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Hot Turkey

How do wild turkeys stay cool? Find a shady spot and lay low.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Massachusetts butterflies

These species were all in or around my yard at lunchtime today.

Striped Hairstreak ovipositing on some horrid weed in the gravel along the driveway

(This is a first sighting of a Striped Hairstreak in my own yard.)

Peck's Skipper on butterfly bush

Silver-spotted Skipper on butterfly bush

Peck's Skipper

Hummingbird Moth

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Nature at Horn Pond Woburn

Great Blue Heron

Sachem Skipper (unconfirmed)

Wild Indigo Duskywing (unconfirmed)

Cabbage White

Halloween Penant (unconfirmed)

Blue Dasher (female)

Monarch

Friday, July 20, 2012

Loons

Since we vacationed in New Hampshire this week, we ended our visit with a loon cruise on Squam Lake. Sightings are not guaranteed, but we had good luck! Squam Lake is also famous for being the location for the movie, On Golden Pond.

Cruises were scheduled at 11AM, 1PM and 3PM. We called for tickets in the morning, and the 3PM cruise was filled, so we signed up for the 1PM. Our captain told us that in the morning, the loons are likely to be busy fishing and since they are a diving duck, spend much of their time underwater. Therefore, morning would not be the best time to go out. By 1PM, he thought they'd be done fishing and we'd have a good chance of seeing them.

I spotted the first one, but it was a good distance away and didn't make for a very good photo. Another one popped up right next to it. George spotted the third one. The captain spotted the fourth one, which was the one that we were the closest to and was not bothered by us and hung around for photos! (I should mention that they would not drive up to any loons as that might disturb them. It was ok to be close to it only if it was the normal path the cruise (Pontoon boat) took anyway.

He wagged his feet several times. They aren't really sure why the loons do this, but theorize that it is a way to keep cool.

This last loon was in a cove off of the main lake and the water colors as well as the lighting on the loon were both fantastic! A great outing I would recommend to any nature lover! Beautiful scenery around the lake too.