Winter Resident

In the past few weeks, the White-throated sparrows and Dark-eyed juncos have returned to our area from their northern breeding grounds.  Both will be regulars at our feeders until they disappear again next spring .  I happen to think these birds are among our prettiest sparrows with their pristine white bibs, their jaunty black and white head stripes and their cool yellow eye brows.  Like most new-world sparrows, they prefer to feed on the ground, so it can be challenging at times to get a clean shot.  This one, as you can see, was extremely cooperative, even posing with a hickory tree in the background to give it a soft, bronze  color.  You'll be seeing much more of both of these birds over the long winter months.

The massive hickory branch is now down - the tree guy shimmied up the tree yesterday with his chainsaw and sawed big hunks off of it until it was all down.  I was able to move it all out of the garden today and Hubs will cut int into firewood over the weekend.  That meant I could get back to the garden today!  I planted two buddleias, a couple of rudbeckia and a whole bunch of phlox and bee balm that I dug up from my butterfly garden (both spread vigorously, so I needed to get some of it out of my existing garden).  I've still got six Montauk daisies to plant as well as seeds to sew, but my back started screaming rather loudly at me, so I stopped for the day.  

Really enjoyed the political meet-and-greet last night.  The guy is a moderate Democrat and seems both willing and able to work closely with Republicans to get things done in this congress.  If he is able to pull off a victory over the incumbent (a very conservative Republican who's served 8 terms!) I think it will be very good for our area.  So, it was an hour very well spent.  

The final Presidential Debate last night was slightly better than the two prior debates, although the bar is so low that I'm not sure that's much to sing about.  But, at least we did get to hear a modest amount about actual policy, in between the name-calling and histrionics.  This has been the most divisive, unbelievable election cycle in my lifetime. I hope we never see anything like this again.When I briefed the Tufted Titmice this morning, they were totally aghast.  

Thanks for the kind comments on my duo of moths yesterday.  They were still in the garden today, as well as another monarch, even though the temps are back in the 60's now.  I fully plan to get some more macro shots in before all the creepy-crawlies disappear.

Happy Thursday, people
Debbi