jblinde's Favorites

I was leaving the park and caught sight of this STFL just as it caught the grasshopper. The STFL began alternately trying to swallow the grasshopper and beat it around/toss it up in the air. It took a few minutes before the STFL was able to swallow the grasshopper.

At Shoal Creek Conservation/Education center in Joplin MO; it was easy to find off of I-44. I didn't have a lot of time but I did find some good dragonflies along the river and the trails.

I don't know if dragonhunters are common in MO but I was quite excited that this one was happy to sit and pose for several photos.

The LLELA bald eagles- two adults and one juvenile- were out this morning along the river. One of the adults was right by the outlet works; the other adult and the juvenile were further down the river bank near the turn off for the Bittern Marsh trail.

At first glance I thought this was some kind of grasshopper; and then my son (who has better eyesight than I do) said he thought it looked like a dragonfly. Sure enough, dragonfly emerging from its larval case.

As I was getting ready to leave the nature park, I heard a high pitched sound that sounded like a bird crying out; I looked up and saw a Mississippi kite in a tree right above where I was standing. About a few minutes later, another Mississippi kite showed up, perched on the same branch, and it looked like that the second bird gave something to the first one; then it flew off. I then noticed that the remaining bird was eating something; I think it is a cicada but hard to tell for sure with the photos. After it finished its meal it resumed its calling out.

Yes, I went birding in the below freezing weather- it wasn't too bad as long as the wind wasn't blowing. The birds were quite active although they didn't necessarily want to stand still and pose. LLELA- Cottonwood Trail

The bobcat was hidden by the light and the rocks- I would have missed it except that I was looking in its direction when it moved slightly. About 15 minutes later it had moved across the trail to the riprap along the river just below the outlet works.

I went back out for the second time to the ponds to see if there was any chance I'd see the gallinule again, although I had low expectations. As I walked up to it, a female blackbird squawked a flew away, and at that moment the gallinule came out from behind the reeds and walked on/among the lillypads for several minutes before being startled back into the reeds.

I was standing on the boardwalk watching some common green darners and turned around to see this wren standing on the boardwalk a few feet ahead of me. It crouched down and appeared to scoot along the boardwalk, then stood up, bent down as if to peck at the boardwalk, scooted down some more, then stood up and flew away to a standing log a few feet away. It stood there for about a minute, then flew to the top of a sign post, stood there for a minute, then flew off into the woods. At first it looked like it was having spasms of some kind, but it flew off just fine.