You can always count on having a good variety of birds at Col. Sam Smith Park on any day of the year. For that reason I lugged my long lens camera about for the entire walk. The only problem was with the group photo. I had to move about 50 yards away from the group in order to include everyone.

With the beautiful, sunny skies and terrific wild flower display, we saw many, many Monarchs.

By November, there will be many species of ducks and mergansers wintering here but today we had only Mallards.

We also had Magnolia and Yellow-rumped Warblers

and Red-eared Sliders.

Other birds:

Species list: Red-necked Grebe, double-crested cormorant, great blue heron, mallard, osprey, spotted sandpiper, ring-billed gull, belted kingfisher, northern flicker, blue jay, black-capped chickadee, red-breasted nuthatch, American robin, gray catbird, warbling vireo, magnolia warbler, yellow-rumped warbler, house sparrow, northern cardinal, American goldfinch, song sparrow. (21 species)

NATURE POETRY

Many swarms of wild bees descended on our fields:
Stately stood the wheatstalk with head bent high:
Big of heart we laboured at storing mighty yields,
Wool and corn, and clusters to make men cry!                 – George Meredith (1828–1909)

Miles Hearn