Sunny summer days always bring out the butterflies and one came so close that I photographed it on the back of one of our walkers:

Here is a Monarch Butterfly on the plant that it eats and lays its eggs on: Common Milkweed:

Wildflowers are always spectacular in summer:

Park scenes:

This morning’s group:

Species list:  mallard, turkey vulture, belted kingfisher, tree swallow, gray catbird, American robin, blue-gray gnatcatcher, cedar waxwing, warbling vireo, yellow warbler, American redstart, red-winged blackbird, northern cardinal, rose-breasted grosbeak, indigo bunting, American goldfinch, song sparrow.  (17 species)

NATURE POETRY

Into My Own

ONE of my wishes is that those dark trees,
So old and firm they scarcely show the breeze,
Were not, as ’twere, the merest mask of gloom,
But stretched away unto the edge of doom.
I should not be withheld but that some day	5
Into their vastness I should steal away,
Fearless of ever finding open land,
Or highway where the slow wheel pours the sand.
I do not see why I should e’er turn back,
Or those should not set forth upon my track	10
To overtake me, who should miss me here
And long to know if still I held them dear.
They would not find me changed from him they knew—
Only more sure of all I thought was true. – Robert Frost

Miles Hearn