Spotting a Spotted Sandpiper

Tuesday the weather was good so I hit the road again, heading for Silver City in the NE Hills...making my usual stops along the way...

My very first stop, along Box Elder Creek, proved to be my most interesting part of the day...a spotted sandpiper was bopping along as it waded in the creek, several yards away...

...A great blue heron soared overhead as I was watching the swallows swooping around near the canyon face on the other side of the creek...

After a bit I realized that some of the swallows were violet-greens! Not a lifer but I had no photos...I thought I again wouldn't, as they would not hold still, but for some odd reason this v-g swallow landed on the ground...at a safe distance, so not the best shot...

Most of the swallows were cliff swallows, with nests both in the rock crevices and the home-made mud nests stuck on the rock's face...

I also stop periodically at Steamboat Rock, further along Box Elder Creek, even though I so rarely get any photos there...I did enjoy listening to this crooning robin...it seemed to be trying whole-heartedly to knock the socks off some hidden gal higher up...

Taking Co. Rd. 208, I stopped along an (as yet) unnamed creek and walked up an overgrown lane that leads to a trailhead...heading back, I discovered a couple heart-leaf arnicas...arnicas only occur occasionally in the Hills, and I only see them one-two times ea. year...

A sound startled me...a squirrel, galloping towards me, then up into a nearby tree, where it...tinkled!

The butterflies are out in full force now...not cooperative for the camera...turns out this is a lifer, a common ringlet...

...An orange sulphur I believe...lots of those about...

The road to Silver City also leads to Jenny Gulch Picnic Area, where you can slip a boat into the W. end of Pactola Lake, bypassing the fee booth at the E end...

I parked at Deerfield Trailhead 40 in Silver City, also taken over by butterflies...there were a few frittilaries...this may be a variegated fritt...

The trail crosses Rapid Creek right off...

...I could hear lots of birds but see none of interest...did spot orangey 'shrooms in the clover...

I walked as far as the 2nd bridge...nearby I finally found a feathered friend to photograph...a willow flycatcher, which may or may not be a lifer...probably not...(Western wood-peewee looks similar, esp. when waaaay above, backlit....)

The longspur violets are blooming everywhere, hard to get a sharp photo of (like so many other wildflowers)...why is a looong story...

And lastly, back at the trailhead near my car, a common yellowthroat was zipping about in the willow shrubs along the creek...still didn't get any good photos, thought I did better but oh well...next time...