Cool! I’d love to see a hawk distracted by a butterfly!
Yeah those skimmers are really cool. And I have occasionally seen them catch something! There is clearly a benefit to their approach, otherwise they wouldn’t exist.
We’ve been enjoying a ton of summering birds on DF’s farm: blue grosbeaks, indigo buntings, great crested flycatcher, yellow-billed cuckoo, a yellow-breasted chat often calling, wood thrush, brown thrasher, orchard oriole, eastern kingbird, eastern bluebird, summer tanager, white-eyed vireo, common yellowthroat, pine warbler, northern shrike, a few sparrows I need to id by song plus a couple more singing warblers. We had a gorgeous redheaded woodpecker come through the yard, and have pileated woodpeckers around. The usual mockers, cardinals, Carolina wrens, blue jays, barn swallows and house finches nesting on the house, chimney swifts, purple martins, eastern meadowlarks, red-winged blackbirds, of course. Red-tailed hawk and fish crow, common crow, cattle egrets.
And no house sparrows- yeah! I assume because we are out in the country.
