July 10, 2022 - Metro Area Nature Photos - 1

There are definitely opportunities for taking wildlife photos in a metro area. Last week I took a walk with my camera near our apartment in a northern St. Paul, MN, suburb. Even before I left the parking area, I found this Eastern Cottontail Rabbit munching grass on the lawn.

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White Campion is a wildflower that grows in an unmowed area on the apartment building grounds.

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A Gray Catbird was exploring the mowed grassy area. No doubt it was looking for food to take back to a nearby nest full of baby Catbirds.

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TThere is a small lake nearby with a walking path around part of it. As I was walking to this lake, I passed a wildflower area where I saw this Yellow Goat’s Beard seed head. It looks like a Dandelion seed head but is many times larger. The flower that produces this seed head is yellow. It opens early in the morning and closes by early afternoon. It’s only open for that one morning, so unless you time it just right, you won’t see the yellow flower.

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This same wildflower area has many Common Milkweed plants, a favorite of Monarch Butterflies. I was surprised that I didn’t see any Monarchs, however.

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Here’s another wildflower that was growing there. It looks like the Marsh Hedge Nettle photo I have on my website.

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Here’s a closeup of one of the individual blossoms from the previous photo. Next week I’ll have some more photos taken on this nature walk.

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