Full Frontal...Hummie!

As my time with the hummingbirds draws to a close for the summer,  I find myself taking way too many shots of them - most get deleted and a few, like this one, I'll keep.  This is one of the juvenile males - you can see his first bright red big-boy feather quite well here.  He was positioning to attack another hummer that had gotten too close to "his" garden and feeders.  

In between chasing each other all over the garden and through the upper canopy of the woods, they also take a little time out to chase the hapless titmice, to dance with the devil and to brazenly taunt each other with some pretty rude moves.  Still, I am utterly smitten and will be sad when the last one leaves.  

I did a little macro safari around the yard today and found another EIGHT monarch cats (all early instars), which I dutifully brought into enclosures.  I also found a very tiny stink bug nymph on the milkweed.  He didn't much like having the giant eye that close to him and kept running to the other side of the leaf.  

I checked my 32 monarch chrysalids and it looks like a several are getting close to eclosing.  After two days of no new monarch "births", I'm kind of looking forward welcoming a few new flutterbys to the world.  

Hubs is just on his way home from the dentist where he had two fillings replaced and a crown.  Not fun and I expect his mouth is going to be pretty sore tonight.  I'm making pasta but prepared to throw a smoothie in the blender if he can't manage the pasta.  He's much braver about the dentist than I am, but it's still no fun having that much drilling in your mouth.  As for me, the drugs the doc prescribed have kicked in and I am already feeling much better.  Lucky for me, I caught it very early - a benefit of having had so darned many of them in my life.

Thanks for the many lovely comments on my little beetle yesterday - as well as the hearts and stars.  

Happy Tiny Tuesday, people.  
Debbi