Good days for butterflies. At least for the Eastern Tiger Swallowtails right by the wash station. As these photos attest, they love the Mexican sunflowers. 
Another photo:
And is the one in the last picture below a female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail or a different species entirely (Black Swallowtail?)? I don't know. 
Yesterday morning a volunteer named Ryan spent a few hours weeding the watermelon field with Kenji. Pigweed, Jimson weed, morning glory and foxtail were the most common plants that were pulled out. It was hot and very humid, so soon both, Ryan and Kenji, were drenched in sweat. Good practice for Ryan, who in September will start his agriculture-related Peace Corps stint in a Francophone African country (he does not yet know which one). While Ryan and Kenji were weeding, Michael Heller and Keith Hudson, a young volunteer who loves farms, were stacking hundreds and hundreds of bales of hay. Hard work.
During lunch we were sitting at the wash station when Kenji saw a large bird. "An eagle!" Kenji exclaimed. Sure enough. A bald eagle! By the time I took a picture the eagle was high up in the air, so please excuse its fuzziness.
Rob quipped that as national symbols are concerned Clagett Farm has it covered. We have wild turkeys, which Benjamin Franklin wanted to designate as the national symbol, and now the bald eagle, the actual winner of this honor, shows up at the farm.
After lunch Janie, a dedicated volunteer, helped Kenji to mix soil for our second seeding of fall brassicas.
The dogs, Tuzeek and Cassie, pretty much took it easy and stayed out of the sun. They know what to do when it's hot.
We often see wild turkeys in the farm. This usually happens in the earlier part of the morning or in the evening, when they walk out of the woods to feed in the pastures. That's why I was surprised today to see a flock of wild turkeys right in the middle of a pasture during the hottest part of the day. I took a few somewhat blurry photos, but when I tried to get a bit closer the birds became alarmed and flew over my head into the woods. Here are two of the better images.
Two adult wild turkeys.
A turkey hen with at least ten chicks following her around.
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