Young Cardinal

This is one of a very late brood of northern cardinals.  I saw he and a young female being fed by both parents about two weeks ago.  I've not seen the young female since so suspect she didn't make it, but this young male is now feeding himself and starting to molt into his mature plumage.  You can see that his bill is still dark which is a sign of a young bird; when he finishes his molt his bill will be a brilliant reddish orange.  

It has been pouring rain today and the temps are hovering in the low-mid 50's.  I had to cancel Jax's daycare since he hates rain and it would have been a wasted day for him.  Instead, he's been proving what a good boy he is by holding his bladder for hours before I finally dragged him out when the rain slowed a bit.  He did all his business in record time!  

I've been laundering all the dog bedding and doing some last-minute cleaning in anticipation of my parents arriving tomorrow.  Also ran to the grocery store to stock up on some staples for their visit.  I will deploy Hammerhead in the morning to do a last-minute vacuum.  Not that it will prevent the animals from casting hair off at will.  

I saw the first white-throated sparrow of the season this morning - always a shocker to see the first of the winter birds, especially when I am still seeing some summer migrants moving through.  

I have three monarch butterflies that desperately need to be released.  I have put fresh flowers from my garden in the container so they have nectar but they really need to go and unfortunately it is too cold for them to fly right now.  So, I am keeping them inside for one more day.  We sadly found one that had emerged in the garden and fallen to the ground - by the time we found it, it's wings were too badly damaged so I did what had to be done.  If only I'd known the chrysalid was out there I could have brought it inside away from the rain and wind.  I guess my consolation is that I'm now over 100 for the year and two more chrysalids waiting. Not a bad effort.

Dark with orange today.  

xo
Debbi