Magnolia, you sweet thing...

...you're driving me mad...

Great blues/rock song by J.J. Cale from the seventies (lest I date myself...) - you can listen along with me HERE.

Actually, this is an immature Magnolia Warbler (Dendroica magnolia) Prairie Warbler (Dendroica discolor) that has been hanging out here for the last few days, gobbling up the sawfly larvae that have been devouring my hardy hibiscus. In fact, if you look at the image in LARGE you can see a little green larvae hanging from her beak. Can we all say "Yay, Magnolia!" Who needs pesticides when you can have warblers? (correction made to ID - I was, once again, fooled by fall warblers!)

As much as I am sorry to see summer coming to a close, this is also the time of year that I will starting seeing quite a few migrant warblers. Most will be immature, like this one, or in non-breeding plumage, all of which makes them hard to identify.

Anyway, not a particularly good shot owing to low light and unsteady hands so I did sharpen it a bit in post-edit, as well as cropping. Hope you like here as much as I do. While I took this shot from about 15 feet, I was able to get within 5 feet of her - another sure sign she's a juvie.

Great time with our neighbors last night - too much wine so hubs and I slept a bit late today. Had a great talk on the phone with my folks, then we pottered outside most of the day. I'm planning the next addition to the "garden" ... I would convert the entire back yard into gardens if I could!

Tomorrow is Monday - hope you're all ready!

Hope to get caught up with comments/journals tonight - I've been a slackard!

xxoo
Debbi

PS: Two butterflies and one more look at the magnolia warbler on Flick, starting HERE