Sunday, August 14, 2011

So many finches

I'm guessing that there are at least three nest-fulls. I think I've seen three red males. Anyway, they were all over the feeder this morning again. The titmice, chickadees and cardinals could hardly get any breakfast. The male goldfinch was busy with the sunflowers but may have been annoyed by the ruckus overhead. The hummer certainly was - it kept flying over to the finches and (I imagine) giving them a piece of its mind.

The clouds moved off East and looked very painterly for a while as the sky cleared. Then another spell of overcast rolled in and a light rain started. It did not interrupt the birds' squabbling. An osprey cruised overhead.

A short window of sun brought a black swallowtail and a variegated fritillary (Euptoieta claudia). Another tiger swallowtail and a giant swallowtail both showed up. How is fritillary pronounced? FRIT-il-lar-y or fri-TILL-a-ry?

Waves of cloud and sun all afternoon brought the smell of burning peat. There is a new baby bunny about. And at last I saw an adult male hummingbird with a gorgeous ruby gorget. It was very wary, whether of me or of the larger hummers that monitor the feeder, I don't know.


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