Crops & Clips: Flashback to May, 2018

 As I do each month, I enjoyed looking back over my archived photos, taken three years previously, to remember how things were then and maybe get some idea of what to expect 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. 

This was our final stay in our Illinois condo. It had served as our second home for eleven years, but keeping two residences was getting to be a chore. We vacated it late in May and closed the sale remotely during the next month. 

Early May is the height of songbird migration in NE Illinois, providing lots of color in the May photo archives. The first entry was a Baltimore Oriole:

Yellow Warbler:

Red-headed Woodpecker:

Rose-breasted Grosbeak:

Eastern Bluebird:

Common Yellowthroat:

Tree Swallow:

Less colorful but nonetheless intriguing, a Great Horned Owl:

A few years earlier, within walking distance of our condo, we had discovered the first nesting Lark Sparrows in the county. To be honest, MaryLou spotted them and noted that they were unusual. 

When I looked at them through the binoculars I  recognized their strikingly bold face patterns. Lark Sparrows were back again this spring:

They can be difficult to see out on the dry prairie:

In the same field were Savannah Sparrows...

...and the smaller Grasshopper Sparrows:

A pair of House Sparrows snuggled on a fencepost:

Bobolink:

Also in the prairie, a Killdeer guarded two chicks:

Along the woodland path, Trout Lilies bloomed:

Wake Robin flowers were opening:

Blue Violets are the Illinois State Flowers:

Our daughter's family had gained two new pups within two weeks, a black Standard Poodle (Casador) and another Tibetan Mastiff (Moncada) to join Agramonte:

Agramonte greets the newest member of the pack:

The last of our furniture was towed away:

Sunset over neighborhood Jones Meadow Park:

On final approach to the Fort Lauderdale airport, we could find our house and familiar landmarks (click to enlarge):

We ended the month in Florida. A back yard highlight was a Tricolored Heron:

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Linking to:

Garden Affair

Fences Around the World

Nature Thursday

Skywatch Friday

Weekend Reflections

Saturday's Critters

BirdD'Pot

Camera Critters

All Seasons

Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday)

Natasha Musing

Our World 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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Late winter clicks & crops

Here in south Florida we have enjoyed clear, dry and sometimes cool weather the past couple of weeks. Dry conditions have lowered the water levels in the wetlands, concentrating aquatic prey and attracting long-legged waders, such as this Tricolored Heron:







Great Egret in early morning flight on March 1st:



Great Blue Heron fly-by the same morning:



Another Great Egret punctuated this view of the north shore:



Mottled Duck coming in for a landing:







Bald Eagle flyover:





The Scarlet Skimmer (Crocothemis servilia), native to east and southeast Asia and said to be the only established introduced dragonfly species, is now fairly common in south Florida: 

 

Julia butterflies became very scarce during the two years following Hurricane Irma in 2017, but this winter their numbers have rebounded. 

Male Julia heliconian:



The female Julia is brownish in color and has stripes which go entirely across its forewings:



Zebra heliconian, Florida's State Butterfly:



On the home front, a female Anhinga dried her wings on the goose decoy which serves as a float for the intake of our lawn irrigation system:

 

On March 7th, we had early routine dental appointments which caused us to be home for a particularly colorful back-yard sunrise:





The next day was cloudy. Overnight, the All Terrain Vehicle drivers had fun inscribing "donuts" on the gravel path. This one was almost a perfect circle:



Out an hour before sunrise, we heard the songs of the Eastern Whip-poor-wills, sometimes two or three at a time. This winter I first heard them in November and they finally departed on March 9. Click here for a link to a recording I made on March 4.

Then, on March 15 another Night-jar, the Chuck-wills-widow which breeds here, took up the predawn chorus. So far I have been unable to get a photo of these two nocturnal birds. Since 2009 I have recorded 178 species in this patch and taken pictures of nearly all of them on site.  Another local bird in my "heard but not photographed" category is the Great Horned Owl, although I have seen them at other  locations.

Great Horned Owl, (2018, Illinois):

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Linking to:

Fences Around the World

Skywatch Friday

Weekend Reflections

Saturday's Critters

BirdD'Pot

Camera Critters

All Seasons

Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday)

Our World Tuesday

Wild Bird Wednesday

My Corner of the World

________________________________________________

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