The Birds and the Bugs

Today was bird survey day, and fellow volunteer, Marilyn, was supposed to go along with me to learn the ropes.  She will be taking over the survey when I leave.  However, she forgot about it, so I headed out on my own.  It seems the birds had decided to use other areas to visit today, so it was a pretty dismal count.  You just never know what you’re going to find on these surveys.

 

After lunch, I headed out to try to find and photograph the remaining species on my list for Stephanie.  She had added a mourning dove to the list; a common species.  But try as I might, I couldn’t find one mourning dove to photograph today.

I did find a ruby-crowned kinglet, however.  Those of you that are birders know that this little mighty mite never sits still for more than a second!  It’s a challenge to photograph because as soon as you get it in your sites, it flits off somewhere else.  It was pretty warm today, so it was busy catching bugs on the wing. (you can probably guess the most abundant bug:))

No otters; no bobcats; and no mourning doves were to be seen, but plenty of white-fronted geese, great blue herons, killdeer, white-tailed kites, neo-tropical cormorants, greater yellowlegs, and snowy egrets were found. 

There were even herds of illiterate cows around.  :)  Guess they just ignored the sign…

Remember when I posted this picture of an unknown insect a couple of days ago that was sent to me by my friend, Jack?  Well, he took the advice of one of my commenters, CYNDI, and sent the pic to WHATS THAT BUG.  Turns out it is a type of walking stick that can accurately shoot a sort of venom out of it’s legs and right into your eye!  Mind you, Jack took this photo while laying prone on the ground!  Not sure he would have done it if he had known about that venom stuff, but he is a kind of wild and crazy guy.  :)  Anyway, after submitting the photo, it has been named the Bug of the Month!  Ha Ha!  Who would have guessed??  Jack will now be known as Bug Man Jack to me from this day forward!

 

I’m thinking I may submit a picture I took last May to WHATS THAT BUG to give Jack a little competition.  After all, who wouldn’t want Bug of the Month on their resume?

                                                                     THE END!

 

Thanks for stopping by…. talk to you later,  Judy