Double the fun

For a day that started out very quiet, it ended up being an exciting afternoon in the garden.  Somewhere in the early afternoon, these two showed up and they've been busy feeding and fighting all afternoon.  I'm sure they'll be gone tomorrow, so I had to go with this shot as my "one" photo today.  It's not perfectly exposed or focused, but it is so darned difficult to get two hummers in the same frame!  Best as I can tell, they're a juvenile male and juvenile female, maybe siblings?  

I wonder how they find my garden?  I have to think that they see the flowers, or maybe it is the commotion of the other regular back-yard birds?  It's very interesting to me that the migrants who've been coming through this week appear more interested in the flowers than the feeders - and they are going for different flowers than what the summer crew seemed to like.  Makes me think they have individual likes and dislikes.

The other nature-news of the day was that I had two chrysalises that looked ready to be butterflies today.  The one that I was certain was going to elclose today is staying stubbornly in the chrysalis so I'm assuming its going to come out over night or first thing tomorrow.  The other one, came out while I was doing something else and promptly fell to the bottom of the enclosure (only about 6 inches) where I found it laying on its back.  I quickly got it on a twig and righted it, but one wing was all curled up and tiny so I wasn't feeling optimisitic.  Amazingly, 10 minutes later, both wings were of equal size and looked well formed.  My only concern is that the wings seem very flacid right now ... so, this one will stay overnight in the enclosure and we'll see what he looks like tomorrow.  

And, I found another freshly emerged male monarch hanging from the underside of a hosta leaf, next to his empty chrysalis - how on earth I didn't see that thing hanging there is beyond me!  Anyway, I moved him to the garden where he finished drying off.  He then had a quick zinnia snack and flew off - a very healthy looking specimen!

So there you have it - another fun-filled day in the Bistro and Monarch Nursery.  Four other shots starting HERE on Flickr - two monarchs and two hummers.

Toodles!

Debbi