Though we didn’t, obviously, spot any earth-shakingly rare species at the Shaw Nature Reserve, what we saw kept us happy and going for a long time! Let me start with this image of the delightful

EASTERN BLUEBIRDS

sitting so companionably and greeting-cardly together!

A lifer for me was the

INDIGO BUNTING:

Here it is, singing:

Once again, soaring on the thermals, far above us, we got the TURKEY VULTURE: Far away, an EASTERN PHOEBE sat and watched us! Some more lifers (id'd later by Danny Brown) were: this female ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK: this male EASTERN TOWHEE this YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT: and this bird which is obviously some FLYCATCHER (though I can't say precisely which!) All those birds were really far away so I have NO apologies about the quality of those photographs! Grassland birds seem to either sit far away or high up...not that other birds are much better.... On the way back, I got a quick shot from the moving car, of this RED-TAILED HAWK being mobbed by the GRACKLES after it did a swooping, stunning (but obviously unsuccessful) dive-attack on a target that I could not see (probably a nestling) Here's a juvenile Eastern Bluebird singing: There were not as many BUTTERFLIES as I would have thought, given that the glades were full of wildflowers. However, I managed to photograph this GREATER SPANGLED FRITILLARY: this tiny BLUE (don't know which one, exactly) and this one, which, at home, would be the COMMON FIVE-RING sitting happily on Malvika's shoe! INSECTS Casey, who is a native Missourian, has so much "casual knowledge" (he doesn't parade it, but he casually mentions facts!) about various things. I saw several insects in the stream that he id'd as DIVING BEETLES but I couldn't get a good photograph of them, so just click on their name to read the Wiki entry about them. However, he did show me the fearsome fangs of this BEETLE: I got this beautiful DRAGONFLY (don't ask me which one precisely!) on the rocks near the stream: we found these insects, which reminded me of the COTTON-STAINER BUGS at home: They were on the flowering tree I've photographed below, too: The variety of PLANTS and WILDFLOWERS was lovely to see. I have no time for all the ids, but here are some that I photographed: well, these are DAISIES ...even I know that! This beautiful tree, which Malvika has id'd as the ALLEGHENY CHINKAPIN, was full of flowers, on which those mating bugs sat: We saw only two MAMMALS ...the ubiquitous COTTONTAIL RABBITS and right at the end of our visit, a WHITE-TAIL DEER from the car; we could not get a shot of the deer,

so here’s a closing shot of the most delightful baby rabbit!