I had made my regular walk to the pond to check on the Bufflehead ducklings and Canada Geese goslings and was once more pleasantly surprised by the abundance of wildflower blooms!
New to the array were the Black-eyed Susan and Hyssop blooms! Also among the many blossoms were butterflies and other bugs - it is such a pleasure to be walking in the wildflower fields!
Let's have a look...
Field With an Abundance of Black-eyed Susan Blooms
A Closer Look at the Black-eyed Susan Flowers
Another View of the Black-eyed Susan Flowers
Daisy fleabane Among the Black-eyed Susan Flowers
Interestingly was the number of these small skipper butterflies fluttering around in this field adding their own special beauty!
Close Up Small Skipper Butterfly on Black-eyed Susan Bloom
Another View of the Small Skipper Butterfly on Black-eyed Susan Bloom
Close Up Small Skipper Butterfly on Red Clover Bloom
Three Small Skipper Butterfly on Daisy Fleabane Blooms
Another creature that was enjoying the blooms was a big brown spider.
Close Up of Brown Spider on the Black-eyes Susan Bloom
Here's another closeup of the small skipper butterfly, this time on the hyssop bloom.
Close Up Small Skipper Butterfly on Hyssop Bloom
Some of the other blooms I found on my walk was the red clover, vetch, alfalfa and locoweed. Each adding their own beauty!
Close Up Red Clover Blossoms
Close Up of the Vetch Flower
Close Up Deep Purple Alfalfa Flower
Close Up Creamy White Flowers of the Locoweed
One other flower that was becoming quite abundant along our lane was the Macoun's Buttercup. It looks pretty now but produces a bur like seed head with stickers that attach to your clothes and animal fur, their way of spreading their seeds.
Close Up Macoun's Buttercup
At the pond I was happy to see the cute Bufflehead ducks swimming with their mom.
They are so interesting to watch for they are divers and now with them getting bigger they were diving right under the water.
Stages of Bufflehead Ducklings Feeding Diving Under Water
As I got closer momma duck pulled her ducklings in closer but they relaxed when I crouched down more in the grasses and went about feeding.
Momma Bufflehead Duck Pulls Here Ducklings Together Little One Stretches Wings
The ducklings were really growing starting to look more like their mother with their markings but I was surprised at how small their wings were, leaving them so vulnerable.
close Up Bufflehead Duckling Stretching It's Wings
The geese and goslings were still hanging around the pond feeding in the field beside it.
The grasses had really grown so I couldn't get that good of photos until they noticed me and headed into the water. Even there they swam towards some bushes.
Pair of Geese With There Goslings Feeding In the Grasses
Pair of Geese With Gosling Swimming
And the big surprise I got was with a black bear showing up beside the road.
I wanted to share this with you although I didn't see it on my walk (a good thing) I saw it when I was driving to town.
Now there is an increase of black bears for,because of covid, there is no outfitting this year (another good thing). These bears had been drawn into this area and now they have imprinted on it so our neighbors are seeing more of them around. We have a lot of big dogs right close to us which keeps the bears away.
Young Black Bear in the Grass by the Road
Young Black Bear Standing Up Looking Around
Young Bear Coming Onto Road
That's it for this week. I hope you enjoyed the wildflowers and little critters that hung around them, the update on the ducklings and goslings and the surprise sighting of the black bear!
This is my #WednesdayWalk hosted by @tattoodjay. He collaborates with @elizacheng and her #MakeMeSmile initiative see her latest post here
Also the first photo of the field full of black-eyed susans is my entry to Photo 52, 2020 Challenge, Week Number 30: Flowers Details here
Bird images are for the #FeatheredFriends community hosted by @melinda010100
The photos were taken with my Canon PowerShot SX60 HS.