Back yard birding

Oh no, I messed up! I promised myself that I would post at least three times each week, but there has been so much happening recently that I couldn’t keep up. Mea culpa! It probably doesn’t bother anyone except me, but it really bothers me. So tonight I am posting some pictures I took today, and tomorrow I will get back on my Tuesday, Thursday, and weekend schedule.  

We purchased a swamp milkweed plant on Saturday, hoping to attract more butterflies, but today the only butterfly that landed in our back yard was this little one. Except for a very few, I can’t identify butterflies. Hopefully I will learn. I’ve been told that this is possibly a Peck’s skipper butterfly, so I will go with that. Here are a few images I captured this morning when it was sunny.  (The skipper and the pink flower were taken with my 50mm lens -more about that in a future post).

Peck’s skipper butterfly

No bird, no butterfly, just flowers in a pot!

An American goldfinch at the birdbath

A blue jay that needs grooming!

Northern cardinal

American robin

After supper, I returned to my bench in the back yard, hoping to see a hummer or two and possibly a monarch butterfly. Got the hummingbird. They were very happy to pose, especially this little female, but the butterflies were nowhere in sight tonight. That milkweed plant wasn’t earning its keep, but here is the lady  hummer. She perched in my neighbor’s tree and surveyed the situation and then made repeated visits to the feeder. The male came too, but he didn’t hold still for his photo opp.

So that was today in the back yard. I’m glad you came by for a visit.

See you tomorrow!
Trail Walker