Dickcissel, Dragonfly, Deptford Pink

This is the 2nd part of my photo finds on Thurs....I left off out on the county roads E of the Hills, winding my way north...

I finally spied a dickcissel (named for the sound of their call: dick-dick-cissel...the cissel sounds buzzy), always difficult to snap as they're small and have to be shot at a distance so they won't fly away...

The Eastern kingbird was cooperative as ever, helps makes it one of my faves...

I'm not seeing all that many dragonflies, and getting photos is even more rare but this common whitetail skimmer posed for me...at this point I was at the Ft. Meade Rec area campground, which has a trail that goes uphill into an open field...

Where I found plenty of wildflowers in bloom, including the purple prairie clover...

And the threenerve fleabane, one of many asters growing wild here...above, a tattered wood nymph on fleabane...the petals are a pale lavender...

At the parking lot area, some lark sparrows were bug-hunting...

The chicory has been growing for awhile now...

The deptford pink is a tiny flower, 1/2" w., but the really deep pink color, not captured well here, really packs a punch...

The wild bergamot, or bee balm, is in bloom, the showiest of the mints...the one above is quite popular with its fritillary butterfly and bee-like visitors...below, mid-bloom they look quite comical, like a crazy hairdo...

The owl clover isn't a legume like other clovers, it's a figwort...not hard to miss in a field of other wildflowers as it grows low to the ground.