Ballas Park ....

... collage. 

Today's weather was absolutely fabulous so we decided to check out the wild flower field at Ballas Park.  This park offers a nice walking trail that's about a mile long .... although we have never walked the entire trail that surrounds the flower field.  We usually walk up to the look out ... which is merely a mowed area with a circle of benches ... then we might walk a little further then back to the parking lot.

There is also a fishing pond that we like to walk to in order to check for dragonflies and skimmers.  We didn't see very many at the pond today.  The butterfly in my collage is not a monarch .... it's her look-alike ... a Viceroy.  I don't really know that much about this butterfly as we don't really see them all that often. 

Here are some facts regarding the viceroy butterfly ... courtesy of Dickinson County Conservation Board (you can find just about anything on Google!):
1. Viceroys are mimics.
Viceroy butterflies mimic monarch butterflies, and it was long thought that was because the monarch was toxic and distasteful to predators while the viceroy was not. However, in the early 1990s, scientists found that viceroys are also distasteful to predators, and their bright colors are a warning. The mimicry actually then goes both ways.
2. Viceroys aren't picky eaters.
Most adult butterflies feed on nectar, and the viceroy does too. However, viceroys also eat dung, carrion and fungus.
Viceroy caterpillars are white and black and eat the leaves of willow and poplar trees.
3. Viceroys love wet areas.
Since viceroy butterflies lay their eggs on poplar and willow tree leaves, they are usually found in areas that support those kinds of trees --- meadows, marshes and wetlands.
4. They don't migrate.
Unlike their lookalike, the monarch, viceroy butterflies do not migrate. Instead, caterpillars in the first or second instar --- or stage --- will hibernate, rolled up in a willow or poplar leaf.
Because of this, you won't usually see a viceroy butterfly until about 15 days after willow or poplar leaves emerge each year.

On the way home we stopped at a local farm stand and picked up some fresh corn on the cob .... yummmm!