Pictured is a 1986 Excella Airstream and my new Canon 500 mm lense. We like to travel and we wanted to take our dog "Dusty" so we thought we would try camping. Since we had never done this we had a lot to learn. Fortunaley my good friend Ron had a camper and he was very helpful in getting us started. We camped a couple of times on some property we just bought. We went to a state park in Ohio for our first road trip. This was fun and "Dusty" liked it. The only problem was that it was cloudy and overcast and the bird photographty wasn't as good as I hoped. We had planned a trip to Texas in October to do some antiquing and bird photography but my plan has been delayed. Last friday I was taking a motor scooter test and during the test fell and broke my leg. Hopefully I will be up and going in couple of months. For right now I am confined to lazy boy and a walker. If anyone has any good bird sitings email me at gcneco@excite.com.

Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia)

Pictured is a pair of Common Buckeyes and even though they are common in East Central Illinois, I really don't like the name "common" associated with any of nature's animals. They seemed to be playing follow the leader. I'm not sure which was the male and which was the female but you probably could bet the farm the female was doing the leading. I haven't mentioned the equipment I was using lately so here it is. I was actually looking for fall warblers which are now starting to make their way south, so I was using my birding photography equipment. I use a Canon 20D camera, a 300 mm lens with 1.4 extender, and 580EX flash with Better Beamer attached. This would not be most people's choice for butterfly photography but as you can see it worked out pretty well, I think.

Eastern Wood-Pewee

PeeUWEEE is a sound we often hear around our house. The Eastern wood-pewees call their name time after time. They are often seen leaving the branch of a tree, grabbing an insect and returning to the same branch to wait for the next meal. Pictured is a pair of immature pewees. At this age, they are very capable of feeding themselves even though they stay close to mom and dad hoping to get fed. The wood-pewee is often confused with the Eastern Phoebe which is also fairly common in our area. The main difference between the two is that the wood-pewee has two prominent wing bars and does not pump its tail.

Monarch Mimic

No, the butterfly pictured is not a Monarch even though it is often mistaken for one. This is the Viceroy. The Viceroy is smaller than the Monarch, flies with less powerful wingbeats, and has a distinguishing black postmedian band on the hindwing as shown in the pictures. Because they closely resemble each other, the Vicerory is a mimic of the Monarch and birds will avoid the palatable Viceroy because they think it is the distasteful Monarch. The next time you see a butterfly you think is a Monarch check closely - it may be a Viceroy. You could also taste the butterfly to see if it is bitter, but we don't recommend it.