Rim Lighting, with a side of Bokeh

Meet Yard Bird #41, the American Redstart, a species of wood warbler.  This is a juvenile and it will almost nothing like this next spring - it will either be a brilliant orangish-red/black or bright yellow/white/gray.  This species is one of the ones that makes identifying fall warblers so challenging.  Not helped by the fact that when he darted into photo range, the lighting was not ideal with the sun behind the bird.  But, warblers being what they are, I didn't figure I'd get a second chance to I fired off several shots and picked the best.  The bokeh is created by the thinning of the leaves in the big maples in the background allowing spots of sun to shine through and creating what I think is very nice bokeh.  

I also had a season first Great Spangled Fritillary in the garden this afternoon.  It is one of the butterfly species that has been especially scarce this year, so a bit of a thrill seeing it, worn and tatted though it was.  The tribe of young titmice were also around to bring a round of smiles.  And the pair of cardinals are still feeding their two fledglings.

If you'd like to see one of the young titmice and the butterfly, both are posted on Flickr, starting HERE

This morning when I went out on the deck, I was shocked to find a freshly eclosed monarch drying off on our ficus.  We move the ficus out of the house onto the deck every summer as it seems to love the humid conditions.  How the monarch 1) got into the pot and several feet up the little tree, 2) without me ever noticing, is nothing short of amazing.  I can't believe it never saw the chrysalis - or the caterpillar hanging in j-formation for at least a day, for that matter.  Well, all was well and he took off middle of the day.  At about the same time, I released a female that eclosed in my container.  They joined a half dozen migrants who were feeding in the garden.  May they all travel safe with tailwinds and fair weather...

Hm, I think I may be over my average of 300 words today.  Verbose...

xo
Debbi