Deer Creek Drive in July!

After two very hot, humid summer days, one spent in the pool, I woke up to a very cool, pleasant morning.  I called my Sister and asked if she felt like a drive....Of course!!! So off we went....our first stop was the city park, Yoctangee.  I wanted to check on the Swan family.....

There they were under the tree grooming.  The baby has really grown...Almost looks like an adult.

So now we headed to Charlie's Pond.......
The sky was so beautiful and the small canal was ...well so peaceful....

 Field of Gray-headed Coneflowers.

I just love them....makes me happy.













Then we were so lucky to see the Thirteen Stripped Ground Squirrel....My sister took these pictures for me....he was on her side of the car....

 He was as interested in us as we were in  him...They can only be found in a few areas around the state, we are lucky to have them close.....











We also saw a lot of Killdeer....running on the road...I even had a race with one! LOL...I let him win!

Now to Deer Creek...

We had lunch at the Lodge and this was the view we enjoyed while eating.

After lunch we drove to our favorite places....first we hiked down to where the Osprey nest is.

 The Osprey were gone....

But we did see about a dozen Summer Azure.....

One even landed on my shoe......

Question Mark

 I believe this dragonfly is called a Widow Skimmer....











These grasshoppers that when they fly have wings that look like a butterfly.  They really blend into the ground. I looked him up and think his name is Carolina grasshopper.

Found some blackberries getting ready.....

                                            Tall Bellflower....so pretty

                                           View of Red Bud tree looking up to the sky....

                                     
                                     Quite a few of these guys hopping around....

                            Common Whitetail.....they almost look like a small bird flying around.

A wonderful beautiful area except it was very close to the rife range and noisy!

A fallen tree had this strange alien writing on it.....LOL....really is made from bugs..but don't know anything about them...

 We saw several fields of Queen Anne's Lace..... I have never seen so much Queen Anne's lace.

We were thrilled to see this Monarch....we also saw lots of Swamp Milkweed and Butterfly weed..
So hope this one has laid lots of eggs!

                                            Day Lilies....  I read that they are edible!

Then we came to this one picnic area and we discovered this Eastern Kingbird feeding two babies.

The babies ....

The parent flew in and made them behave....they sat quietly after that....

Got a big ole bug for a snack!

 One of the babies is ready for the juicy bug!

Eastern Kingbird......

The babies always seemed to know when a parent was coming to them.....they would look in that direction......

We really enjoyed watching....but we still had more to see!

As we were leaving the area we saw this handsome Wood Thrush.  He was hopping around on the ground like a Robin does...but his color wasn't right...when got a closer look at him ..we knew he wasn't a Robin!  

We drove over to Dick's Road to see what we could see there....these lovely Southern Dogface butterflies were there.  So yellow...wow...just gorgeous!

The Teasel, both white and purple/pink was everywhere and some taller than my Sister!

                                                          Teasel...non-native from Europe and over 250 species...The dried heads were cultivated by wool companies, fixed as spindles and used to raise the nap or tease the wool cloth...I thought that very interesting...

This Bronze Copper was just a jewel to find.

               
                                                I think this is a Blue Dasher...

Butterfly Weed

Queen Anne's Lace...

Just thought this was a neat picture...












          I guess this is called a blind....for hunters I guess....but we used it to watch for the creatures of the lake........

                                 Cat Tails....

This juvenile Green Heron surprised us....

                                and some very big turtles sunning themselves.....

We drove around to this side and we found Belted Kingfishers......

They were sitting on top of the duck nesting boxes....

 The male and female would fly out and catch bugs and land back on these duck/bird boxes....

Then a big closer we saw this guy...I think he might be a juvenile....he was gorgeous!

He was looking all around....

One a branch under him was another Green Heron!

I am not sure about this little fellow...I think it is a juvenile Eastern Towhee...but if anyone knows what he is for sure...let me know!

Saw several juvenile Wood Duck....It must have been a nursery!

This isn't a very good picture but through the binoculars we saw a Great Egret way in the back and there was a Blue Heron and either side....

It had been a great day and on our way home we went down Canal Road.  We were talking about how great the day had been.  I was thinking that we hadn't seen a Red-headed Woodpecker in a while and my sister said the same thing!  LOL  Then I glanced at the pole by the road and what do you think we saw!?  Yes a Red-headed Woodpecker....this isn't a very good picture but we were so shocked.....

 The light was in the wrong place for this picture....We parked at the falls, which were dry and looked out over the pond....way in the back were some Red-winged Blackbirds but there was something else........

                                      A family of Green Herons!!!!  What a treat...we watched them until they flew into the woods by the canal.....

 It was a perfect end to a wonderful day....I never tire of going to these places because it is different every time we visit......I hope you enjoyed our adventure and am working on a couple of more that I hope to post soon....Thanks for visiting my Blog and until next time!

                                              Enjoy the summer and be safe and happy!