End of summer drive!

The last Sunday of the summer, a sad time.  It was a beautiful day!  I decided to get out of the house and go to the park.  I picked up my sister and to the park we went......

We saw the baby Swan swimming by himself!  After watching for  a few minutes...we saw the one parent keeping the  other ducks away......

Then the "teenager" Swan came swimming by....by himself...and you could tell he was very excited and proud.....

 
Here he is swimming by me like ..."see me!  I am alone"  
But the other parent was not to far away....swimming a few feet behind him was Mother...and ever now and then she would swim up if she thought he was going into danger....

It was so neat watching...then everyone got tired and decided it was nap time!

There are four Swans...which is the North nest family and the single Swan....

There was another couple, who might be the South nest pair that were still on the water......

So just before we left we saw another duck that isn't normally on the lake....

A female Hooded Merganser... She was grooming herself...I didn't see any others around...

Next we headed to the Annex.......

At the boat ramp we saw there was a lot of ducks and some Great Egrets...We decided to try and get a little closer....

There was 5 Great Egrets and some shore birds as well as the Canada Geese.....

This Green Heron was fishing off the island....

This is a Greater Yellowlegs....

It is hard for me to tell the difference between the Lesser Yellowlegs and the Greater...but think this is the Greater....let me know if I am wrong....










 Canada Geese and Great Egrets....

We walked out to the middle of the River bed...35 bypass in the background.

                          Some of the vegetation growing on the dry river bed.....

A Ringed-billed Gull in the middle of the Geese and the Egrets....

                            The Blue Heron in the brush....I think he thought he was hidden from us because he remained there a long time....

Lots of Killdeer....everywhere...










Then overhead two Ospreys were flying around.....beautiful!

I loved the foot prints in the sand!

We saw several different butterflies....this one is a Variegated Fritillary...

View of the 35 bypass...

Was really neat walking under it to the other side....
















There were Cliff Swallow nests all along the bridge underside...

The we decided to go to Canal Rd. to see what the pond looked like .....It was almost dry...We really need rain and a lot of it.....
This is the pond with these cheerful Clouded Sulphur butterflies....

This turtle looked like he was doing a trick for us!  

We took a short walk back the right of the Tow Path.....Lots of Walnut trees and ....

The Walnuts were dropping from the trees!!!!    We were lucky that we didn't get hit by a falling Walnut......

The we walked a way on the Tow Path.......

Saw these Killdeer and Red-winged Blackbirds along the Scioto River....I thought all the Red-winged had migrated...but seems to be a few still hanging around.....

Then for drama!!!! My sister spotted this Garter Snake....He didn't move ...he was probably more afraid of us that we were of him.....

We saw this beautiful Monarch...so fresh and new.....

Then the wind started blowing....and really blowing.......

So we decided to head to Deer Creek....it had been such a beautiful day and we just didn't want it to end......
                       On Dick's Rd...we saw these turtles and the Grebe in the background...

The walk way had been recently cleared, so we could walk out to the water...

But it was almost completely dry....we did see these shore birds..... I think they are semipalmated Sandpipers......they blend in so with their surroundings.....

You have to look careful....did you see them?   We also saw Goldfinch and Belted Kingfisher.

There were lots of frogs....when we got to the edge of the boardwalk...they would hop off....

  

More beautiful, new Monarch butterfly.....we were now up to 5 that we had seen...which was very unusual...if we saw one...we felt lucky.......

 The wind was still blowing....you can see the waves on the lake at Deer Creek.....

We saw a Blue Heron in the Osprey nest.....and overhead there was a pair of Osprey flying around.

We turned down this drive way and started to see Monarch butterlies....

 This Eastern Comma was in the same tree as the Monarchs....We were amazed at how many Monarchs we had seen today.....

Then we turned down this other circle drive and started seeing more Monarchs...We got out of the card and as I was following one it flew up into this tree and when I looked up at the tree....well

It was amazing and breathtaking!!! There must have been at least 100....When another butterfly got close they would all open their wings and flash that orange...amazing!!!!  We couldn't believe we had stumbled on these migrating Monarchs.....It is something I will never forget....

I hope you enjoyed the end of summer adventure......Summer went so fast....Here it is almost October...they trees are already starting to change their color....

So until next time....enjoy the day and venture out....you never know what you might find.....