Heading south...

It was another Mach 5, hair on fire day which made seeing a late-season migrant hummer all that much more delightful. I was literally taking a short break from all the last minute moving stuff and was enjoying watching the chippies, chickadees, titmice and jays when I heard that distinctive hum of wings. Sure enough, this juvenile male was having a quick drink at my one remaining feeder. I snapped 6 shots, all but this one total garbage. And, frankly, if you look too closely, you'll see this isn't all that crisply focused. However, it the shot that spoke to me today.

Hubs and I are both feeling a little melancholy right now - the reality that we are two days from leaving NJ has some sadness attached to it. We've spent our entire 14 years as a married couple here, 13 in this house. Lots of memories.

I am happy to report that Rocket is NOT sick. When I was down in the office (where we'd kept him locked last night to keep Phoebe from harrassing him) at 5 this morning (yes - ugh) I got him to come out and eat and as I watched him I realized that every time he moved, he would flatten out and start snarling. And that is when I put it all together - I'd put ID tags on both cats halters on Friday night and apparently something about the noise the tag made clinking against the metal on the harness freaked Rock out. Once I figured it out, I immediately removed Phoebe's tag (so that she wouldn't terrify him) and then I tried to get his off. Since I failed to don the leather gloves, he got in a pretty good bite, accompanied by some truly heart-stopping shrieks. I retreated, put on the heavy leather gloves and got him out of the harness. After about an hour, he was acting perfectly normal. And, just a few minutes ago, I was able to get the harness back on him (no tag this time). So, yay.

Tomorrow morning we are moving the cats into the RV. The movers will be here between 8 and 9, so I want the cats out of the house before they start moving things. Plus it will give the cats a day to get used to the RV before we hit the road. God help us all.

Thanks for sending my Mach 5 Woodpecker to the spotlight page. Wish I could tell you I felt more sane today, but truth is that I may be up to Mach 6...

I hope to bring you one last back yard Bistro critter tomorrow ... and after that, we'll be reporting from the open road.

Salute...

Debbi

And if you are interested, two more shots on Flickr:
Black capped chickadee in the late afternoon light

Tufted titmouse looking like I felt - hair on fire!