Friday, July 23, 2010

Monarch Close-up


I decided I could get even closer-up in cropping my butterfly photos.


Thursday, July 22, 2010

Monarch on Coneflowers

This monarch butterfly was enjoying the coneflowers in front of our living room window this afternoon. It was a rare time that a butterfly sat nicely to have its photo taken; the admirals we've noticed recently seem to sit with their wings erect so the colorful sides aren't very visible.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Southern Cloudmass

As I left work yesterday at about 5:30, these massive clouds to the south compelled my attention. The radio was reporting thunderstorm activity along the I-90 corridor, but here in Northfield it was clear and hot.


I was interested in the horizontal streaks appearing in front of the main cloudmass, visible in the next two photos, taken zooming in considerably on the scene shown above.


 Looking south down Water Street...


This last photo, below, taken from Prairie Street approaching Jefferson Parkway, gives another view of how very large and solid the southern storm system was..

Monday, July 12, 2010

Conehead Cardinal


My son took this photo of a male cardinal showing its crest at full height at the feeder yesterday. Whether you think dunce-cap or conehead, this has got to be one of the pointiest-headed views of a cardinal possible.
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Thursday, July 1, 2010

Best Guess at Mystery Birds

We were a bit mystified by these unfamiliar-looking birds with thick-looking heads that are paler than their bodies, which we passed on a walk Tuesday evening. After doing some online sleuthing, my initial suspicion was confirmed and I'm almost certain these are female or juvenile Brown-headed Cowbirds. As allaboutbirds.org notes at the link above:
Even though Brown-headed Cowbirds are native to North America, many people consider them a nuisance bird, since they destroy the eggs and young of smaller songbirds and have been implicated in the decline of several endangered species.

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