Hi there, everyone

    I was out at Heritage Trail Metro Park this morning and had a great walk
as well as getting to study a mature Green Heron's activities. It was
gulping down some prey just as I got my binoculars on it. It took cover
 about 10 minutes later behind some pond-side weeds and such.     That
observation was instructional for me as this was only the 2nd career green
heron sighting for me,the  first being up at Hoover Preserve.

    I noticed right away upon arriving, that the butterflies were out in
large numbers but the real treat was just minutes away as I was going down a
little utilized trail- off trail about maybe a 100 feet away lie a large
stand of yellowish weeds (I doubt if they were goldenrod) which was
absolutely loaded with monarchs,maybe 1,000 or more in that stand and maybe
a few hundred more in the same kind of weeds  closer to the  pond where the
green heron was spotted.

   Lastly, a very good number of viceroys were spotted in the trees
along the main trail from the parking area northward. The black swallowtails
were found close to the pond's edge near the heron.

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