Critters

I've been working on my Camera Critters post for a couple days, doing a bit at a time.  I didn't see as many butterflies this week, but I haven't been out as much, either.  I do see a monarch every day, at different times of the day, including early in the morning.  This morning, I met our grandson and daughter-in-law at the cemetery so we could feed the waterfowl the extra fiber whole wheat bread that passed its date a few days ago, so I got some photos there, too.  We still didn't see any ducklings, but there are lots of places they could be hiding.

A few days ago, I saw this bedraggled black swallowtail on a pepper plant.  I tried to get it to move, because I was about to water, but it didn't want to.  Finally, I got it to go to another plant, but didn't want to disturb it any further.

I haven't gotten photos of butterflies on the verbena bon.  this year, but is that a mosquito on this one?

Friday morning, Larry called me to tell me I should go out with my camera because of the cool clouds in the sky.  He said they were rapidly changing.  By the time I got the collar on Heidi and gathered my camera, I think I missed the big display.  Still, I got some OK cloud photos, and when I walked down the block to see if I could see more clouds, I saw some critters.

This rabbit is in the neighbor's yard, where it has plenty of things to eat, even though it likes to come for the tastiness of my flowers as well.

As I was heading back home, I was too slow to get what would have been a cool photo of a couple of doves on a nice wooden fence.  They flew off as soon as they saw me looking at them.  The squirrel, on another neighbor's feeder stayed put, enjoying a feast.

When I got to the front yard, I saw some blue jays fly overhead.  One of them perched at the tippy top of a tree.

Not to be outdone, a grackle, I think, perched on another tree and did a vocal performance.

Now, here is a story of what I'm thinking is a pecking order at the pond.

The first birds to come enjoy some of our bread were the swans.

When the ducks saw the action, they came to eat, too.

Behind them, were the geese.

One goose, peeked up and looked at me a minute, posing for some photos.

Then, it decided to join us on land.  I wasn't thrilled about that.  Linda showed it some bread, then threw it in the water to go fetch, but it was promptly eaten by the competition.

Just as we were backing away from the goose, someone came and put dried corn in a container I hadn't noticed before, and there was a race to get to that food.

The ducks got some eating done, but the swans were right on their "heels" and most of the ducks made room for them at the corn.

I wonder if there was any left for the geese.

 Click on the Camera Critters link in the sidebar to see more critter photos or find out how to link yours.