An Abundance of Wildlife

We actually had rain yesterday and overnight last night, and there may be more coming on the weekend. This seems to have awakened some of the critters in the Dykeman Spring Nature Park out of their heat-and-drought-induced midsummer torpor, especially the turtles, who tend to sink to the bottom of any deeper water and bury themselves in the muddy bottom until things cool off. Here are some of the residents of the park who sat still long enough for a portrait.

This Eastern Cottontail was sitting in the middle of the Dykeman Walking Trail daring me to keep walking

A Common Whitetail dragonfly in the Dykeman Spring wetland

A Painted Turtle sunning on the bog pool next to the north duck pond

This particularly large and ancient Snapping Turtle, who I call The Behemoth, had just come up for a breath of air, with the mud of the bottom still on his back

This Green Heron flew up out of the wetland into this tree to hide from me, and kept a wary eye on me for quite a while

A Variegated Fritillary butterfly in the upland meadow

My new Summer hat, a handwoven palm hat from Tula Hats out of Austin, TX

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger