Five...

...days in a row I've blipped a hummingbird
...maximum number of hummers I counted in the yard at one time toda
...this is also the thirty FIFTH hummingbird I've blipped this summer!

I'm on a roll, apparently.  And I plan to ride it as long as possible, so settle in and 1) prepare for more hummies, or 2) skip my journal for the next few days if you are tired of hummingbirds.  

Visited two favorite trails today and, although once again the temps are brutal, I saw quite a few flycatchers and warblers.  I even had a great blue heron come flying low down the trail straight towards me - hard to say who was more startled, him or me.  One of us screamed.  I think it was him.  

The monarch project is going pretty well - I have 3 chrysalids and 8 caterpillars ranging from 2nd to 5th instars.  Unfortunately, one of the smaller ones got what appeared to be the runs yesterday afternoon.  I quickly isolated him and sought advice from a monarch group I belong to on Facebook.  Very helpful people gave me some tips on various things to try, which I did.   Sorry to say that he still doesn't seem to be doing well, although he is putting up a good fight.  I think tonight will tell the story and he'll either recover or go to the great caterpillar milkweed afterlife.  When you think about it, in the wild only about 10 % of the caterpillars survive to chrysalis, so if I lose one out of 11, that's way better than the odds in nature.  The others all look healthy and are growing and molting quickly.  And if all goes well, I should have my first few butterflies within the next 3-5 days.  

Four other shots on Flickr starting HERE with a hummer that was actually my favorite shot of the day but way too similar to one I posted 5 days ago.  

Thank you for stopping by!

PS:  Shooting details -- Nikon D750 with Tamron 200-500 lens at 390 mm.  Shutter 1/1600, f/8, ISO 800.  The black background is a result of shooting with dark woods behind the garden, which reads as black.  The only edit to this image is a crop.