Verbesina alternifolia (Wingstem or Yellow Ironweed)
Cathy and I took a walk this evening, heading from our neighborhood park down Manor Run (the creek that runs through) to Sunfish Pond and eventually to North Branch Rock Creek. It was a pleasant evening, quite warm but nice out. There is quite a bit of yellow ironweed (Verbesina alternifolia) all through the woods and it seems quite happy, although even that is starting to notice the lack of rain. August was fairly dry, even for August and we haven’t had any rain in September so far. We really could use a nice, long, soaking rain.
Butorides virescens (Green Heron)
We looped around and came up to Sunfish Pond via a different route. As we looked over the pond, a pair of green herons (Butorides virescens) took off and flew in a big loop around the pond, finally coming to rest at the far end. This one was on a fallen tree and the other was on a branch, a bit further away. I only had my 100mm lens, unfortunately, so this is cropped from the best picture I was able to get. A handsome bird.