Beth's Patch #100

Tonight, my area of birding "Beth's Patch" which includes the front and back yard along with the beach and bay in front of my house reached a milestone.  The Great Blue Heron flew in around sunset and stayed to feed along the edges of the bay.  This bird was number #100.  Two Mute Swans that flew over about 2 weeks ago were Beth's Patch #99.

My Yard ~ Monarch Emerging

Today we had a Monarch enclose from the chrysalis.  It is getting late for a Monarc to emerge and fly 2000+ miles to Mexico to overwinter.  It is amazing to see the crumpled butterfly emerge and watch the wings being pumped up and then dry.  A miracle from God.

Yard Birds

Some birds that visited the yard this past weekend  included:

Palm Warbler

Carolina Wren

My Yard ~ 12 Butterfly Species

How wonderful it was to have a nice sunny day that helped to bring out lots of butterflies.  I know that they'll soon be gone and want to take the time to enjoy them while they are here.  There were Sachem and Fiery Skippers, Cabbage Whites, Orange Suphurs, Cloudless Sulphurs, Common Buckeyes and Monarchs, Red Admiral, American Ladies along with Pearl Crescent and Variegated Fritillary.

Cloudless Sulphur

Variegated Fritillary

Birding ~ The Meadows

This morning a text went out over a messaging service called Keekeekeer that an American Bittern had been seen at the Meadows this morning.  I have seen an American Bittern before at Forsythe but not great looks so I decided to take a trip over to see if I could find it.  Initial walk out the main path I came up empty but walking back I stopped to talk to some people who had been on the walk. They were in the general area of where the bittern had been so we started to look for it with our bins,  I wasn't having any luck so I decided to look behind me before leaving to go over to the Point.  There sitting out in plain sight on a mowed area was the Bittern.  It sat there watching us watch him for over 1/2 hr before I left.  When I entered him into ebird he was Life bird #373 for me.

Cape May Point ~ Lake Lily ~ Common Gallinule

Rare Bird Alerts sent me to Lake Lilly for this Common Gallinule.

My Yard ~ Monarchs in the Garden

Caterpillar feeding on milkweed

Many Monarchs in my garden in various stages.

Monarch caterpillar in "J"  position

Monarch Chrysalis

Monarch in the garden