Crops & Clips: Flashback to June, 2019 #1,012

 As I do each month, I enjoyed looking back over my archived photos, taken three years previously, to remember how things were then and contrast it with what to expect here in Connecticut this year. As usual, I searched for images which reflected favorite memes: critters of all kinds (especially birds), skies and clouds, reflections, flowers and fences, as well as scenes which speak for themselves. 

We spent the entire month in Florida, where on June 3 we found a Killdeer capturing a long slender creature that looked like a big worm or a small snake. Actually, it was a legless salamander, either a siren or amphiuma, (See below)* 

Nearby, I found a Killdeer nest with five eggs in an exposed area of the traveled path. They usually lay four eggs. The bird could have had trouble covering all five of them. In any event, although it showed no signs of disturbance such as footprints or ATV tracks, this nest was empty when I next visited the area only a day or two later: 

The next day we heard, then saw a reclusive Yellow-billed Cuckoo:

A Loggerhead Shrike occupied a perch atop a dead tree:

A Little Blue Heron was transitioning from its white immature plumage to the dark blue of an adult. It exhibited a striking symmetrical molt pattern:

A Tricolored Heron foraged lakeside:

A Great Egret waded in the reflection of a neighbor's fence: 

A  White-tailed doe walked along the lake with her yearling fawn:

A startled buck leapt up out of the high grasses:

Another doe forded the flooded prairie:

This forlorn Yellow-crowned Night-Heron roosted in the remnant of the clear-cut rookery:

A male Northern Cardinal emerged from the foliage:

A White Peacock butterfly rested on a Cocoplum leaf:

Lantana blossoms hosted a male Julia longwing:

Nearby, a faded and tattered female Julia:

View of the Pine Bank before sunrise:

Over our back yard lake, a full double rainbow:

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This is a photo, taken in January, 2011, of a Little Blue Heron which captured either a siren or possibly a young amphiuma, commonly called "ditch eels." They are not fish, but rather legless salamanders:

Great Blue Heron with an amphiuma which it then swallowed whole, head first, November, 2017: 

"Greater Sirens (Siren lacertina) average between 1 and 2 feet in length, while Two-toed Amphiumas (Amphiuma means) can grow to lengths of 3 feet or more—one of the largest salamander species in the world. Both of these salamanders have an elongated body shape with reduced or absent limbs." REF: Giant Salamanders of Florida

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Linking to:

Garden Affair

Nature Thursday

Skywatch Friday

Weekend Reflections

Saturday's Critters

BirdD'Pot

All Seasons

Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday)

Wild Bird Wednesday

My Corner of the World

Timeless Thursday

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Please visit the links to all these posts to see some excellent photos on display
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