Zinnias Do A Good Job Attracting Butterflies!

I took a break from yardwork the other day and was pleased to see a couple of butterflies show up near the flower gardens which makes planting them all the more worthwhile! I noticed the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail kept landing on the hibiscus but didn't seem to be interested in feeding on the flowers.  It ended up on another plant with much smaller yellow flowers.Both the Monarch and swallowtail spent most of their time on the Zinnias. That seems to be the flower of choice for butterflies in my garden this year. 

Green Herons At the Pea Soup Frog Pond

I haven't been birding much lately but I had an interesting outing the other day. There is a little walking area about a 1/2 mile from my house that I go to do some casual birding on occasion. 

I usually stick to the open field areas where I typically see things like mockingbirds, goldfinches, Barn Swallows and Killdeer there. from above looking down I have always noticed there was a little pond below but it was too surrounded by woods to get to it but someone recently cleared a path around it with some heavy equipment. It's not a pond that i would want to drink water out of or swim in. It looks like someone just poured a giant can of pea soup in there but the frogs seem to like it.When you find a pond that has lots of frogs in the summer you have a good chance of finding the crow-sized Green Heron. It turns out there were actually 5 of them hidden in this little frog pond! They are crow-sized and blend in pretty well in wooded surroundings. It was interesting to see one in this position sort of postured more like a waterfowl than a heron.

Don't ever judge a habitat by how pretty it looks! Birders even find interesting birds in places like sewage treatment plants and dumps so green water won't doesn't discourage them a bit!

First Of Year Yellow-crowned Night Heron

 During my free time I've been glued to my yard doing general yard maintenance and tending to the gardens. I finally decided to break away for a little bit this weekend and was able to find my first Yellow-crowned Night Heron of the year. 

Notice how it has that feather coming off the back of the head. I think this is only seen during mating season. I also found out that they sometimes eat small turtles. They have a powerful stomach acid capable of dissolving their shells.