Summer Meadow Pics by Vincent

I've been meaning to get these pics up for a while now. This is a collection of meadow pics taken by David's brother Vincent toward the end of June. A very wet summer brought forth an explosion of wildflowers, mushrooms, lichens and moss ~ it's a beautiful thing. Especially after 3 years of hot dry summers. We're seeing wild flowers and mushrooms we haven't seen before...

Pixie or Faerie cups

soft lush mossy ground

This is called Old Man's Whiskers or Prairie Smoke. The pic above is one Vince took in late June and the photo below is a pic I took a few weeks later at it's full blown stage. Such a pretty flower ~ for a name like Old Man's Whiskers : )

Meadow Arnica

Mushrooms of infinite variety. and more loveliness

Thanks for these great meadow pics Vince!

Fledglings, feeding and feathers

Busy birds one and all. Here are a few photos of our dear, delightful barn swallows. They are voracious eaters of mosquitoes which is only one reason we love them.

And not forgetting our four legged friends. Seen here taking a stroll across very wet hay meadows.

The little guys. Barn swallow babies. It is truly amazing how fast they grow.

A female Rufous Hummingbird

~ Mist on the meadow ~

One of our much loved Evening Grosbeaks

Flight school for swallows ~ in the pouring rain

A Red Winged Blackbird and his fledgling enjoying some easy pickin's from the feeder.

Almost everywhere we look right now the feeding of young 'uns is underway!

A pair of sweet Tree Swallows captured on camera by David the other morning.

And in closing I leave you with a Chinese Proverb: A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.