That's it! Thank you very much. Reading up on the cyanide content, I'm not so sure I want it (or especially all the seedlings popping up) in my yard as I have dogs. If one should decide to snack on the leaves... Melissa

That's the caterpillar of one of the Skipper butterflies, probably a Silver Spotted Skipper. Legumes are a primary host plant. I'll post a picture for your comparison. Here is a link that might be useful: Silver Spotted Skipper caterpillar.

Thank you so much!! I will do that. First I better tell you the area we're in. We live in Illinois between the Mississippi River and Rock River in the Quad Cities (Ever hear of the Rock Island lines or John Deere of Moline, Illinois?...well, we're from the Rock Island/Moline area.) Here is the wading bird that's so dark looking. I'm so sorry these photos are so small and hard to see...there was a huge marshy area between me and the birds. I'm in the market for a better zoom lens, but WOW have you seen the price of them?? This is the swooper...some sort of plover or sandpiper maybe? At first I thought it was a swallow of some sort...then when I saw the photo I thought maybe a killdeer, but I don't think so. Sorry these are poor photos too...it flashed by me so quickly, I just snapped away as a spur of the moment thing! Would someone please confirm that this is a female redwing blackbird? This one was from a different day in the woods. There were lots of orioles, bluebirds, red-bellied woodpeckers, and a myriad of other birds in this area. I was wondering if it could be a female oriole...the tail doesn't seem long enough. Again, sorry for the quality, it was a long way away from me. I did unspeakable things to this photo to get it to even show any markings but the color is just not there. Thanks so much for any help! Ginni (the bird challenged)

Oh, sorry, I didn't mean they were hunting, they were just gliding around in circles, very, very high, from what I have read, this is common behavior for red-tailed hawks around this time of year and has something to do with mating. I was able to get a good look with my binoculars and they were definitely hawks. They have been doing this lately, more so on sunny days, usually at least two, sometimes more, but that day there were more of them than I have ever seen! Very pretty!