Summer at the Wetlands

After weeks of humid, hot weather we finally had a nice weekend. We celebrated it by going for a hike at the wetlands trail at Raccoon Creek State Park. We enjoyed many butterflies - mostly Eastern Tiger Swallowtails, Black Swallowtails, and Questionmarks - and the wildflowers of summer: Joe-pye weed, various sunflowers, jewelweed, and the very popular thistle. The trail was often overgrown and we were thankful for our hiking staffs, which we used to blaze our way through the wilderness. We watched a female mallard and her grown chicks on the lake and listened to numerous bullfrogs. Countless catbirds made it clear that they did not like us being around. After ducking under several fallen trees we came to a challenging tree and decided it was time to turn around. We observed the following wildlife: a blue heron at the spillway, catbirds, a hummingbird, mallards, a water snake, and a shorebird (possibly a juvenile Greater Yellowlegs).