The brutal heat we’ve had in this area relented a little and I spent some time concentrating on getting bird images today.  I watched this young male Wood Duck swim over and hop up on the log to take a close look at the Painted Turtle that was resting in the sun.

The Great Egret below was searching for a meal and its patience in keeping still allowed a nice shot.

Green Herons have been plentiful in this area for several weeks. The one below was also patiently in search of its next meal and was able to utilize its long stretchable neck to pluck food from the water while standing on its perch.

A nice surprise for me was photographing a hummingbird ‘in the wild’ for the first time.  My hummingbird shots are always a product of having a feeder nearby to draw them in but today this hummer just happened to land in a tree a short distance away to do some feather cleaning and I was able to take a number of photos.

I stayed at home today to watch the hummingbirds that were making steady appearances at my two feeders. The light was just right to show off this male Ruby-throated’s neck feathers which can appear bright orange to dark red depending on the angle of light.

While hanging around in the backyard (in the 100 degree heat), I discovered I don’t have to travel far from home to sight some of my usual photographic subjects of late….butterflies and dragonflies.

My yard was home to numerous Blue Dasher dragonflies, landing on plant stems, fence posts, flower pot hangers, anything that was sitting still.  My Black-eyed Susans were also attracting butterflies. I think the one below may be a Pearl Crescent but I’m not positive.

Usually, I’m the one seeking out the birds, butterflies, dragonflies, etc. at Huntley Meadows park.  Today, I was the subject of interest for this Red Admiral butterfly who spent some time checking out my 200-400mm f/4 lens, my tripod, my hat, me…

It was a good day for more close-up photographs of the smaller creatures in the park.  Below, I focused in on the eyes of this Blue Dasher dragonfly.

I spotted a Red Skimmer dragonfly nearby to photograph.  These seem to be less frequently seen but really stand out with their orange color.

I wasn’t the only one in the park keeping an eye out for dragonflies.  The Green Heron below was practically ‘bug-eyed’ on this one doing a fly over.

The tiny butterfly below, a Skipper I believe, was enjoying the plants of the wetlands and allowed me to get close enough for a nice portrait.

There were a lot of birds in the park, including Great Blue Heron, Great Egrets, Mallards, Canada Geese, Red-winged Blackbirds, Bluebirds and number of Goldfinch making a meal of the Cattails that have popped up recently.

I was invited by my sister’s family to take a ride up to northwestern Maryland to visit Herrington Manor and Swallow Falls state parks today. Herrington Manor is a nice park with a good size lake and cabins for rent.  There is wildlife there and we spotted several young deer and a number of turkeys with poults near the entrance to the park.  The park also has a field that is maintained with wildflowers that draw in numerous butterflies such as the tiger swallowtail below.

What Herrington Manor didn’t have was a lot of people. In fact, the park appeared nearly empty which was strange on such a good weather weekend.  This was not an issue at Swallow Falls, located just a couple of miles down the road. There were tons of people there, and many of them were taking a dip in the Youghiogheny river.  The park has four falls, including Muddy Creek Falls, the state of Maryland’s highest free falling waterfall at 53 feet (below).

With the number of people swimming, and diving off rocks near the other falls, it was not easy to photograph any of the falls without also capturing the army of folks enjoying the park. I concentrated on some smaller areas to capture the water flowing over the 300 million year old sandstone and shale rocks that make up the park.

The heat was turned on today here in northern Virginia.  The water level at Huntley Meadows park was very low forcing some Green-backed Herons, like the one above, to search for food in limited areas.  Luckily one of those areas was near the boardwalk allowing some close-up photography.

There were a number of Killdeer searching for food in the mud fields left by the receding water, getting their legs and beaks covered in the muck.  The one below shows the characteristic two black bands across a white chest and the red eye ring of an adult.

This time of year, dragonflies are seen by the hundreds. The varieties are fascinating and they trend to be easy to photograph up close at Huntley Meadows. I certainly enjoy photographing them….below are the Red Skimmer and Blue Dasher Dragonflies.

You will almost always find steam rising from the waters of Great Falls park in the early morning. The mornings around sunrise are a great time to visit the park since there are few other visitors and you feel like you have the whole park to yourself.

The early morning also allows the best water photography here, at least until the sun is overhead making the frothy water breaking over the rocks too hard to expose properly.

Even though there were few other human visitors, there were plenty of feathered visitors this morning including this Canada Goose below who was enjoying some feeding in the middle of the rushing water.