Critters

It's been a busy week.  I spent a couple mornings going to the Special Olympics National Games, since they were in our city.  I don't think they got any national news coverage, though.  It seems like the networks cover fewer and fewer stories, and run some they have into the ground.  CNN was blaming the news people "on the right" and the Department of Agriculture for not getting all the facts before airing or making a judgement, but CNN was reporting Ms. Sherrod's comments out of context before they found out they were.  They are just as guilty as anyone for the problems that ensued for her.  (I don't think I've ever vented on this kind of thing, so please bear with me.  I could go on about some complaints I have about the news networks, but won't.  Yet, I do watch some news every day.)

Anyway, I took my camera the second day of the Special Olympics, but remembered the batteries were low, so left it in the car.  When I returned, I saw a butterfly on some bushes, and remembered my camera.  There was enough power left to take a few photos of what I believe is a question mark butterfly.  I think it was Iowa Gardening Woman who showed one last week.  I'm not sure what kinds of bushes these are, but there are a lot of them around the parking lot.

I found some more photos from the week for Misty Dawn's Camera Critters.  The link is in the sidebar.

I don't often get photos of monarchs with their wings open.  It took lots of tries to get this one.

When I opened the front door to check the mail a few days ago, this squirrel was eating perched on the hook.  I took a few photos from the closed screen door, then opened it and took some.

The squirrel wasn't aware of my presence yet, here.  I'll write a little commentary of what the squirrel may have been thinking.  I wonder what it really was thinking.

"Oh, it's you again!"

"OK, I'll look cute for you while I get another bite."

"OK, you've taken a bunch of photos, don't you have anything else to do?"

"Oh, good here comes another squirrel for you to pester."

"Have you noticed I've been eating across the street more, and not in your garden?"  (Yeah, well I don't trust that you'll stay away for long.)

The grackles have been singing from high places.  This one was there for awhile calling out with a loud voice.

I had the previous photos loaded and waiting for me to write about, but went outside to do a little gardening before the arrival of our grandson.  Well, look what caught my eye, and sent me in to get my camera!  It was so big, I thought it might be a giant swallowtail, but after referring to a book, those are darker colored.  This appears to be a male Eastern swallowtail.  I got lots of poses of it.

I found a different kind of wasp on the short toothed mountain mint.  I can't remember if I've seen this kind or not, but this is the first one I've seen this year.

This isn't the clearest photo of the other black wasp we have, but I like to show more than one insect near each other on plants.  Is that a lightning bug?

I took lots of photos because the wasps were moving around a lot.  I kind of like this one, even though it was a total accident that I captured this angle.

As I was taking the above photos, I heard neighbor dogs barking and looked up.  Heidi is such a good girl most of the time.  She was very calm, but looking at something in the street.  Can you guess what it was?

Look at that silly squirrel!  It seemed like it wanted her to chase it.

It ran into the yard across the street, and looked to see if Heidi was looking at it, and then, looked to see if I was.  Do squirrels crave attention?

Heidi must have decided she's not as interested in squirrels as she used to be.  She stayed in her spot and continued to watch the world.

As we were about to go in, I saw a grackle getting a drink in the bird bath.  I took a quick photo as the water was going down, then it turned and flew away.

I hope your weekend is going well, and your encounters with critters are good ones.