Yellow-throated Vireo - # 50

What a nice surprise to glance out this morning and see some warblers foraging near the patio.  Naturally, I crept out with camera in hand and was able to grab some decent shots of one of the two black throated green warblers (HERE on Flick) as they flitted about.  But then, I spotted this little guy in our service berry tree!  It is late in the year for this species of vireo to be passing through, so I was quite happy to be able to add it to my YardBird2018 list as #50.  There are an additional 21 species I've seen this year that I wasn't able to photograph (or the photos were too crummy to post), so my yearly yard total now stands at 71.  

The sun is shining, the temps are in the 70's and the humidity is approaching unpleasant.  Which is great weather for pollinators, and for butterflies.  I released 3 monarchs this morning (all arrived yesterday when it was raining too hard to release them).  One more looks ready for today, which will bring my year total to 199.  The last rescue-caterpillar is still happily eating in his enclosure, looking like he'll pupate in the next few days (hallelujah).  As much as I love my yearly Monarch Project, I always feel a mixed sense of relief and sadness when things are winding down.

Ordered a couple more SD cards and a spare battery for the D850 in anticipation of the upcoming trip to Costa Rica.  Hard to believe that it's coming up in just over a month!  Very excited.  

I'm going to have to deal with the stray cat that has been hanging around for the last 3-4 months.  This morning, it got one of the chipmunks.  I yelled and it dropped the chippy who appeared to be slightly injured.  However, the chipmunk scurried away, so I wasn't able to assess the extent of the injuries.  The cat has also been hunting birds in the yard, so something really needs to be done.  Sigh.

And, now I am off to start looking at all the TinyTuesday entries!  My top picks will be posted tomorrow.  Stay tuned...

xo
Debbi