Finally!

A few of them members of Team Monarch were finally spotted in the nectaring arena where the official competition is set to begin soon. They were very disinclined to have their photos taken, but this reporter managed to catch this one. As you can see, she ducked her head behind a blade of grass to avoid having to make eye contact and risk a request for an interview. This photo was taken this morning while the arena was full of a variety of butterfly teams warming up for the preliminary heats that were to be run later in the day.

My walk this morning - which I took solo with only Swee'pea as company - nearly killed both of us as it was so damned hot and sticky already - I should have gotten out even earlier than 8:15, which was when we left the house. At one point as we were returning home Swee'pea collapsed in the shade on a nice patch of still wet grass and refused to go on. I was standing there with my camera, noting that although the birds have largely gone silent now, there seemed to be a lot of them in the trees right around where we were dawdling. And in the extra you can see the best thing ever! Not a great photo, but a great confirming shot that shows I actually saw a Yellow-billed Cuckoo! I only added cuckoos to my life list this past May when we saw both Yellow and Black-billed Cuckoos in West Virginia at the New River Birding & Nature Festival, and though I know they technically can be found around here, I'd never seen one. Until today!! Hurrah! The only photo I got was a lucky catch of it rapidly leaving the frame...  ;-)