Uh...It's a...Uh...Um...Fall Warbly?...maybe...

 See that blur in the center?

Yep, that was my day with the warblyz.

AARGH!

A few weeks ago lots of folks were posting sightings of fall migrating warblyz at Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve. It was very cloudy with impending storms, but what the heck, what else is there to do? I saw lots of warblyz...in the trees...behind the leaves...in the dark. I figured out what a few of them were and I even managed a few quite unsatisfactory photos...even crappier than usual!

It never rained while I was there...sunny...cloudy...sunny...cloudy...typical Cleveland weather. It was warm and a great day to be out looking for migrators that may sit still for a moment. And that's why thee are so many insect photos today...

By the way, that blur at the top? That was a Magnolia Warbly...honest.

 I did see lots of Scarlet Tanagers that day.

Everyone was heading over the lake from Canada, eh.

 

 See that little tiny spider on the left?

That Tanager studied him for the longest time, then finally decided it wasn't worth the effort.

 

 The last of the Summer Azures.

 Having a staring contest with a Viceroy butterfly.

He won...

 

 A lovely Monarch butterfly on Goldenrod.

Look closely at the wings of the Viceroy and you'll see a bar going across them.

Monarchs don't have that bar on the hind wing.

An easy way to tell them apart!

 Uh...lets see...

I do believe this to be a Bay-breasted Warbly.

Yep, them lil fall warblyz sure can be confusing!

 

 My buddy Harry the Gray Catbird was confused too.

 "MEOW! I think it's an eagle...meow!"

Catbirds are such kidders...

 I love it when a bee...or anything!...sits still!

That's an Eastern Carpenter Bee.

He left his tool belt at home.

 And this is how I knew the warbly in the first photo was a Magnolia.

That tail is unmistakable.

 This Great BLue Heron was trying to figure out how to reach the fish WAY down below in the lake.

He figured it out after a long while...he flew to a different area.

 A nice jogger was staring at me as I struggled with my big lens on the ground to get a photo of this Eastern Comma butterfly.

I'm sure it looked odd, I was twenty feet away, aiming at the base of a sign post.

"Weirdo's with cameras..."

 You can tell it's a Comma by the comma...clever.

 Ya know, I'm getting too old to crawl on the ground trying to find a Grasshopper that will sit still long enough for a portrait.

Ouch.

Getting back up is worse.

 There were THOUSANDS of these little one half inch leapers!

 The Double-crested Coromorant gang up to no good as usual.

 When I saw this, I thought it was a very unusual skipper butterfly. The eyes were so light!

Then I emailed my good buddy Jim McCormac  of the ODNR.

He corrected me right away...it's actually a moth.

Corn Earworm Moth.

If I would have slowed down and looked at the antennae, I would have noticed they were straight and not clubbed like a butterflies would have been.

Thanks Jim!

 I'm convinced that this is a Blackburnian Warbly.

I thought at first it was a Blackpoll as there were many about, but the face pattern is too dark and there's too much color on the breast.

What do you think?

 This is the only shot you'll see today of a Black-swallowtail Butterfly.

I gave up chasing him...

Stay tuned for more fall warbly adventures coming soon!

Hard to believe, but I didn't give up and went to Wendy Park to try my luck again...

By the way...still no Otters...