Margined Calligrapher

In spite of it being a day of occasional showers and high humidity, I had lots of choices of subjects.  I had both cameras out, one with the 300 mm lens and the other with the macro.  Both got equal usage.  But this won the day mostly because I love the colors and the presence of rain drops didn't hurt either.  And, of course, the little hover fly is the perfect color-coordinated touch.  This is one of two species of calligrapher hover flies that can frequently be found in the garden.  

In addition to this, I had a delightful encounter with a very shy jumping spider who you can meet my Extra today.  He's adorable and it was tempting to make him my main, but I decided to add to my yard bugs list with the calligrapher.

I also spotted the first baby downy woodpecker today - he followed his mum to the suet feeder and waited politely and patiently for her to feed him.  Expect photos in the days to come because I can't ever resist them.

There was a pile of feathers under one of our cherry trees yesterday which I believe belonged to a juvenile bluebird - probably one that recently fledged from one of my nest boxes.  Although it is sad, I remind myself that the hawks must eat too.

Nest box drama today when a group of house sparrows tried to muscle their way into the swallow box.  The pair of swallows vigorously defended and the sparrows left.  Thank goodness.  Always makes me nervous when the house sparrows come around this time of year because they are truly bloodthirsty when it comes to taking over boxes.

And speaking of boxes, when I checked House Wren Box #2 a couple of days ago, I found only 4 eggs instead of the 6 I'd seen a few days earlier.  The box has a predator guard and the nest showed no signs of being disturbed.  Yesterday afternoon I checked the box again and was happy to see that 3 of the remaining 4 eggs had hatched.  Not sure what to think about the two missing eggs but hopefully these youngsters will survive.  

I went to a Tatoo shop today and got my ears re-pierced.  Somehow, they'd grown closed and I missed wearing earrings so...problem solved.  It will take 4-8 weeks for the ears to heal and then I can enjoy wearing earrings again.  A friend of mine went with me, so she and I went for lunch afterwards - very enjoyable!

Dark with dried cherries today

xo
Debbi