Sshhhh....

Don't tell Scoobie...but there's been another chippie in the garden...an interloper, albeit a very cute one.  She lives in the rock wall in front of our house, so I've named her Rockette (just in case she's a he, it's easy to convert).  And, in Extra, you can see that Scoobie spotted her and was keeping eagle-eyes on her every move.  Of course, at this point, Scoobie probably has 20 or 30 pounds of seeds in his larder, the little piggy, so it's not like he's desperate for food.  (Linda/SimpleMoments, this image is for you!)

Whatever I did to my back yesterday was worse this morning so I spent quite a bit of time stretching and doing some yoga trying to loosen things up.  At the moment, I feel quite a bit better, so I think all the stretching helped.  Hubs has, however, strongly suggested that I stay out of the new garden today.  Probably good advice. 

Temps in the 70s today but tomorrow's highs will only be in the 40's so fall is definitely upon us.  The maple trees have lost most of their leaves; hickory trees are in full color and starting to drop leaves; and oaks are just starting to turn.  Lots of pollinators in the garden today, but I wasn't having much luck with shots, probably due to my back being so twingie.

I did post two other shots on Flickr starting here with another shot of Rockette, immediately followed by a portrait of one of the young cardinals.    

Thanks for the love on yesterday's jaunty sparrow - he and quite a few of his buddies were at the edge of the woods today, picking seeds off of goldenrod and asters and intermittently singing their sweet song.  

Happy Friday...

Debbi

And a question for the macro folks out there - do you use a macro rail and if so, any suggestions/recommendations?