.,.. I'll BEE late for lunch

Big day today, filled with winged creatures! Did the Audubon walk which started at 9:30 --- I got home at a little after 4 pm. Wow, do my feet hurt!! But what fun! Didn't see a lot of birds, but there were butterflies and dragons and damsels galore. During the last hour, there were only three of us, one being an expert in dragons and damsels. He was telling me about this particularly large dragon that can take down most other dragons - and just as he was telling me, i saw this behemoth creature land ahead of us! Yes, folks, it is the Swamp Darner (Epiaeschna heros)!

And if you dare to look at him in LARGE you will see that he has a bumble bee in his moth. Lunch. He sat calmly on the branch and devoured his meal, dropping the legs as he ate. Apparently he doesn't like dark meat? I have to say that it was very exciting!

Other fun things that I saw today included...
Female Banded Pennant Dragonfly
Stunning Halloween Pennant Dragon, a real beauty
Monarch Butterfly
White spotted sable moth
a lovely ladybug (or ladybird)

Last night the chickadees showed up with their babies, which was such a thrill to watch. Mom and dad were showing them how the feeders and suet worked. Mostly the young 'uns fluttered their wings and begged to be fed, but they did all eventually eat on their own. This is the first time I've seen them since they fledged several weeks ago. It was hard to tell how many young they had with them, but it looked to be at least 5, possible a few more in the overhead trees. Yay!!

Thanks for propelling my little hummingbird onto the Spotlight page - she wants to know if that means more sugar water and I assured her that it would. So, now I'm off to make a new batch of sugar water...

Hope you're all having a great week. And, hey, it's HUMP DAY!!!