The primary nesting season is coming to a close so Girlfriend and I went for a walk in the meadow with little chance of the dog disrupting any ground nesting birds.

Holy Silphium Perfoliatum Batman!

The wildflowers have exploded all over the place!

Click on picture to enlarge

See any favorites?

Tom

Has anyone ever heard of a black lab turning brown?  Ours certainly is.

I'm not making this up.  Girlfriend is slowly turning brown.  At this rate I figure we'll have a chocolate lab by August. 

I've been spending as much time as I can out-of-doors and already have a Larry the Cable Guy red neck tan.  So maybe the dog is fading as I turn brown?  The Labrador equivalent of a tan?  Go figure.

Girlfriend is being trained this summer to follow whistle commands.  Smart dog - she's picking-up on it quickly.

The morning training includes a check of the nest boxes.  Most are empty as the young have fledged.  We'll clean the boxes - removing the old nest, any dead birds and unhatched eggs.  This will give the parents a clean box for a fresh start on a second brood and less risk of spreading diseases.  These pictures were from a foray this past weekend.

Remember this late hatch from the last update?

Here they are now-

We also found scads of this stuff blooming in the meadow.  Can you identify it?

The R2D2-like call of a bird with striking markings caught our attention and we spied a flock of these-

The sighting of this bird was a first for me so I added it to my life list.  Can you name it?

Last fall I nuked a patch of reed canary grass.  I was hopeful some native seeds were patiently waiting in the soil for a chance to be released.  Now there is a sizable patch of this-

Any guesses?

Girlfriend also found this- 

Very fresh and about a yard-long.

More updates later.

 Tom