Buttercup - Ranunculus (there are over 300 species, can't say which this is) - is hard to photograph in bright sunlight in the field, but this one turned out rather well.

  Woodchuck - Marmota monax - dives into its burrow at Kaercher Creek Park. Perhaps better known in these parts as a groundhog, these giant ground squirrels which range from Alaska to Labrador and south to Georgia reminded the early German settlers of the grundsow of their native land although this another species altogether. The Groundhog Day nonsense was an ancient superstition related to the grundsow which the colonists transferred to out North American woodchuck.

  Song Sparrow - Melospiza melodia - sings from atop a fencepost on the edge of the pasture.

  Eastern Tailed-Blue - Everes comyntas - female - is brown above where the male is blue. I'd have to identify the plant she is on to be sure, but I believe she was laying an egg when this photo was taken.

  Silver-Spotted Skipper - Epargyreus clarus - another first for the season.

  Black Swallowtail - Papilio polyxenes - female - flutters low to the ground in another photo taken here on the farm. This is the first of its species or any of the swallowtails I have seen this year.

  Blue Jay - Cyanocitta cristata - photographed at Lenhartsville. I got a slightly clearer picture of one in Hamburg the other day, but it was from the rear, so I'll share this one.

 

Red canoe awaits a fisherman at the mill pond in Lenhartsville.

  Tadpole swimming freely in a puddle is a bit difficult to photograph well, but I will keep trying to get a better shot. There appear to be about 200 in a large puddle in a small triangular plot here bounded on two sides by driveways and Mountain Road on the third. Partially wooded and the rest of it given over to storage of vehicles and equipment and material stockpiles, it hasn't been farmed for several years and is home to a variety of wildflowers that attract over a dozen species of butterflies.

  Red-Winged Blackbird - Agelaius phoeniceus - male -in full display and calling out loudly across the pasture.

  Cliff Swallow - Petrochelidon pyrrhonota - passes by as I was photographing the reflection of the midday sun in the pond at Lenhartsville. There is a colony of these nesting under the Penn Street Bridge.

Brown-Headed Cowbird - Molothrus ater - male - takes a stroll on a limb in a stand of evergreen trees in the yard. Three of these trees planted about ten feet apart have grown together into a solid mass nearly 30 feet high providing shelter for a multitude of birds.

 

Green Heron - Butorides virescens - although you may have to click for the enlarged version to see it. I didn't know what it was until I got home and looked at it full size. All I could tell looking through the telephoto lens was that something shaped rather like an anvil was at a place where no such object should be. I know the features of the pond so well that, even though the bird never moved while I was there, I knew it had to be some sort of animal.

  Gray Catbird - Dumetella carolinensis - one of several I saw that morning at the Tilden Industrial Park.

  European Starling - Sturnus vulgaris - is not one of my favorite birds, but this is about as good a close-up view as I expect to get, so I'm posting it anyway.

  Moon reflected in the mill pond at Lenhartsville in the afternoon about two weeks ago.

  Meadow Fritillary - Boloria bellona - has made its appearance at the farm, the first of out three common fritillaries to do so. So far, I've logged fewer than a dozen species this season, but it's only mid-May and we have had a lot of rainy and cool weather this spring. Tomorrow's high predicted to be in high 70s - Yippie! That's much better conditions for butterflies to fly and for me to tramp about looking for them.

  Bumblebee - Bombini (can't get any more specific than that, I'm afraid) - doing something I don't recall seeing before, feeding on a dandelion after it has gone to seed.

  Juvenal's Duskywing - Erynnis juvenalis - among the earliest of the skippers to appear in our area. Skippers are distinguished from true butterflies by the structure of their antennae. Having bodies that appear rather stout for their wings and being of generally drab appearance, skippers are often mistaken for day-flying moths.

  Gray Hairstreak - Strymon melinus - the first sighting this season and much better photos than I got of this species last year.

  Quack! This is the first time I can remember seeing a duck's tongue. BTW, this is a mixed breed duck with some Mallard heritage as shown by the curly feathers near its tail.

  Cedar Waxwing - Bombycilla cedorum - is the first time I have sighted this species. Another of the many species to be found in and around the stormwater detention pond at Tilden Industrial Park.

  European Starlings - Sturnus vulgaris - pause with nesting material atop the old corn crib where they are planning to inflict upon us another generation of their raucous breed.

  American Coot - Fulica americana - has wide lobes between the joints of its toes to aid in swimming, unlike the webbed feet of ducks which they resemble in other ways. This one is swimming past a Great Blue Heron at the Tilden Industrial Park.

  Eastern Tailed-Blue - Everes comyntas - male - puddling on a hiking trail at Blue Marsh. This was the first time I have photographed one of these tiny but abundant butterflies this season and it was my first visit to the lake.