Fabulous Forty Three (and 44))

Tea on the deck this morning, swatting mosquitos, just about ready to surrender... when I spotted a flash of yellow.  Lens instantly pointed, shots fired.  And to my delight, I had captured a beautiful male Canada Warbler!  This species is only seen here during migration as they breed further north and winter in S. America.  And they are a rare visitor in our yard, so a bonus species to see.  An added bonus that he had some sort of small insect in his beak, fueling up for his long migration.

On the heels of this warbler, I saw another splash of yellow and put eyes on a male Magnolia Warbler (see Extra), also a bird only seen in our area during migration.  Followed by a female American Redstart (another warbler species, but one who breeds here).  This was in addition to the half dozen or so hummers swarming the garden, titmice, chickadees, finches and cardinals.  At least on pair of cardinals is still feeding fledglings which may be the latest I've seen that here.  All in all, a good hour this morning even in spite of the mosquitoes (a result of our recent rains).

Followed that with a nice FT chat with my parents.  And now I'm waiting for 4 monarchs to emerge from their chrysalis form.  I will hopefully release all four today or in the morning at the latest.  

Last night I had the trail cam on the patio ... and caught a mama bear and two of her cubs helping themselves to the seed I'd scattered for the birds on a small table.  I had thought raccoons were eating the seeds at night since there were no signs of disturbance (such as broken tables) but it was apparently the bears.  One forgets sometimes how softly they move about their environment.  I've uploaded two vid clips to YouTube, one from last night and one from several weeks ago
Cubs discovering bird seed
Emerging from the woods - the Eyes

Haven't made the chocolate choice for today, but definitely dark.

xo
Debbi