The Widow Skimmer

The upside to this week's heat is that all the odes have come out to play.  It always kind of surprises me how many species I get in the garden considering that I'm about a quarter mile from a stream.  Today I caught a glimpse of this handsome male Widow Skimmer which sent me into the house for a camera.  As is typical of this species, he kept returning to the same perch, giving me some good opportunities to shoot him.  Late afternoon gave the light an interesting quality.

I ran what felt like a gazillion errands today, getting ready for our first trip in the RV this weekend.  And Hubs even went out at noon and washed it (see Extra).  By this time tomorrow, with some luck, we'll be in Pennsylvania where we plan to spend the weekend relaxing and figuring out how everything in the RV works.  Mom and Dad are on speed dial, since I can't imagine that we aren't going to have questions.

The wrens are definitely getting ready to fledge - today I was about 15 feet from one of the boxes and one of the nestlings was in the entrance of the box peeking out at me.  And whenever an adult enters the nest box with food, the amount of noise is pretty impressive.  I hope I get some glimpses of them after they fledge, although they tend to be pretty reclusive.  

I plan to do a box check on the bluebirds tomorrow.  Both parents are doing an amazing job of bringing food into the box every few minutes all day long.  And, at almost a week old, the nestlings are starting to make tiny little peeping noises that can be heard from 10-15 feet away.  Simply adorable.

Udon noodles in a Thai red curry sauce for dinner tonight - believe it or not, a very simple and quick meal.  And then we will watch the second half of last night's debates (we couldn't stay up for the whole thing) and start tonight's debates.  I'm very keen to see some of tonight's candidates.  

Happy Thursday, people.

xo
Debbi