I spent some time on artwork making monoprints. I'm still experimenting with various techniques and am pleased with some of the results. I am enjoying it, despite the effort to setup and cleanup. When I haven't done it in a while, I say to myself "Now how did I do that?" I get to learn it all again each time.

Nothing says summer like Dragonflies, vibrant, colorful, and flitting about like angry little fairies. I love to watch them protecting territory, coupling in their unique head to tail way, dotting eggs into a pond, and returning to perches on high branches or reeds above the water. I really need to pay more attention to them. Blue Dashers were all over El Dorado Nature Center, yet on the other side of town I saw none. Similarly Neon Skimmers were common at Deforest Park, yet uncommon at the Nature Center. I am sure to continue my Dragon quest into August. I saw a few butterflies, other insects, and spiders that caught my attention enough to photograph them.

Some of our early migrating shorebirds are coming back to So Cal after breeding up north. The early arrivers are sporting their breeding plumage. Note how patterned the Willets look now instead of in their drab gray winter clothes. I saw a Willet territorial fight. The larger Willet grabbed the beak of the smaller one and proceeded to kick and dunk it. Both Willets flew away after the altercation.

Unfortunately bulldozers in the LA river seem to have altered where the water flows, and so far I have seen few shorebirds there. This is usually one of the prime areas for shorebirds.

At local parks I was still seeing immature birds. As they are molting into adult plumage, their scruffy looks make me smile. An immature Snowy Egret had me fooled. It's bill and legs were paler and more colorful than the adults. Apparently I wasn't the only one confused as to what the bird was, but several experts helped me out. I thought that after that my name would be "Miss Identification". While not a rare heron, I enjoyed watching it fish for Bullfrog tadpoles. At another park a Great Blue Heron was eating crayfish. An immature Green Heron tried to catch Dragonflies.  Predator/prey relationships are interesting to me. It is also interesting that many people love birds but not insects and spiders nor see animals eating other animals. People love to photograph and post pictures of their own food on Facebook and Instagram. Since birds don't have smartphones, I have to post their food photos for them.

I went on a local whale watching trip out of San Pedro and took a few dolphin photos. I appreciated the humor when a crew member said that we were not likely to see whales, because it was pretty dry out there. At least I think he knew it was humorous. No one else laughed.

Somebody called the Marine's for the July Irvine Ranch butterfly count. Well, at least the Marine Blue butterflies. They were the most abundant. A few Ceraunus Blue butterflies wanted to join the Marines, but they didn't fool us; they look similar and the photos help with identification. I think we made up for last month's poor butterfly numbers with an abundance this month. The butterflies were hard to count and harder to photograph as they would not sit still for photos! Butterflies were not the only ones out in numbers. Chimney bees and harvester ants were everywhere. One of our team was attacked by the ants when she stood too long in one spot near a nest. Yes they sting and bite! We found a horned lizard. I wish there had been more. They eat harvester ants.

My wetlands bird survey was rather quiet. A highlight for me was a young Black Phoebe eating a large grass spider (Agelenopsis aperta).

A Pelagic Trip out of Dana Point had pleasant weather and good company on the boat. That is all I can really say about it. There were plenty of Western Gulls, the usual birds on the breakwater, and literally thousands of Black-vented Shearwaters, but otherwise, we saw few birds. Most were small black dots in the distance. My photos were mostly for documentation purposes and to have something to delete when I got home. I enjoyed the closer view of the crowded beach as we passed Huntington Beach Pier. 

After enjoying the rocking and rolling we felt from the Ridgecrest earthquake, we went to New York City to experience the five hour massive blackout on the Westside. My husband and I made a very quick trip to New York City to see my mother and aunt. We managed to take in a couple of sights, but I only had my cell phone camera. Of course I couldn't help but find a Red Admiral butterfly on the roof of my aunt's building in the middle of the city.
 

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Enjoy the show! I always appreciate corrections to ID's.

Local stuff:    https://kimssight.zenfolio.com/new_jul-2019
 

Butterfly Survey:    https://kimssight.zenfolio.com/irc_jul_2019

Bird Survey Los Cerritos Wetlands:    https://kimssight.zenfolio.com/hellman_jul-2019

Pelagic Trip:    https://kimssight.zenfolio.com/pelagic_jul-2019

New York City:    https://kimssight.zenfolio.com/nyc_july_2019