Redstart

For the last few weeks I've been seeing American redstarts buzzing around the trees and foraging in the garden.  Like most warblers, they move quickly and erratically so my attempts to grab a shot were unsuccessful until today.  That said, I had to crop this at a level I would normally not do because of the distance.  But, it's a good shot for my visual record of yard birds for this year.  I'm not sure if this is an immature male or an adult female.  Adult males are a conspicuous orange and black and quite striking.  

The weather is very pleasant today although we are expecting severe thunderstorms and possible flooding later (the flooding won't affect us as our house sits on a hill on our property.). Jax is at day care so I spent quite a bit of time this morning out in the garden, keeping one eye open for bears since we just saw one passing through the lower part of our yard a few days ago.  I gathered a few more tiny monarch caterpillars and now I think I have well over 20 happily eating milkweed in a net enclosure.  And many more self-feeding in the garden.  There is a part of me that wants to rescue all of them, but that isn't feasible, so I accept that some will be taken by predators (mostly other insects/spiders).

I had an excellent session with my therapist today.  She is very easy to talk to and is able to help me connect some of the dots in terms of how I react to certain things.  

xoxo
Debbi