Wandering around Alpine

There still are very few butterflies around town, but I think, now that the long cold winter is behind us, it'll be a good summer for butterflies due to all the rains. While I was out looking I came upon a female Black-chinned Hummingbird nectaring at flowers. Black-chinneds do really well in town it appears. We have lots of them at our feeders in town too.

I did find one good butterfly today, and it was right in our own backyard. This is a Small Checkered-Skipper. I saw one once before at Gage Gardens in Marathon but this is the first in Alpine. I'm surprised I haven't had any at CMO what with all the mallow there.

Also at our house I observed a juvenile Orchard Oriole begging an adult for food, but I couldn't capture a photo of it way up in the canopy of an ash tree. Here they are separately though. I lost track of them in the vegetation. Possibly the second photo is of the female and not the juvenile.

Adult male Orchard Oriole

Juvenile Orchard Oriole