This falcon--either a peregrine or prairie falcon--perched on a snag on our neighbor's land to the south. I took the picture in late evening, as you can tell by the angle of light, and handheld with the zoom lens. Even to the naked eye, it was clearly bigger than a kestrel would have been at that distance, and the distinct "moustache" rules out a merlin. The next day, I saw an undeniable peregrine just miss its strike at a white-winged dove, so this could certainly be an immature peregrine on migration.
Pitcher sage is one of the fall forbs of the tallgrass prairie. This particular plant grows between the creek woods and the "dragonfly alley" as we're walking toward the southwest meadow. Here the flowers have weighted one of the three long stalks (over four feet long) so that it's tipping almost horizontal.	Here's an intermediate stage of creek development. Gravel in the creekbed will provide habitat for aquatic insects and their larvae, surface area for the "good" algae that improve water quality, footing for birds to bathe and others to walk in the water without pricking holes in the liner. Later, flat rocks will "back" the gravel, with the liner turned up in front of the flat rocks (instead of that rolled area you see now.) Already birds have shown a preference for the more natural surface for drinking and bathing.
The female dickcissel lacks the male's bold black V, and from a distance could be just another large stripey-brown sparrow...but the golden breast and yellow "whisker" and streak above the eye prove she's not. A flock of these lovely little birds showed up one day at Owl, and ate in a group near a female cardinal.
I suspect this is the same squirrel as I first photographed here at Owl. Here, the "stalking of the wildlife block"--a commercial food block of compressed seeds of different kinds--by the canny bushy-tailed rat. The block is on the ground, about two feet closer to me than the branch the squirrel is on.	A cardinal was feeding on the wildlife block and the squirrel was clearly indignant--"That's MY dinner!"--but too scared to jump down and drive the bird off.
Among the delights of daily (almost daily) walks out on the land is the discovery of new tiny beauties. This one, with wings folded, is barely as big as my thumbnail, but when it spread its wings....it's a Common Streaky-skipper, Celotes nessus, and to me it looks like finely pleated, hand-painted silk.
Finally, two clearer pictures of the Wilson's Warbler that's been hanging about and enjoying the stream. This is a first-year migrant (no black cap.)

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