Hummingbirds....

I held off as long as I could ...it's been five days since my last hummingbird blip...couldn't wait another day.  I planted a new buddleia in a big pot today while hummers swarmed all over the garden around me.  (The whole time, I was keeping one eye out for the bear - thankfully, she was a no-show.)  I finally succumbed to the moment and got out the D600 and Big Daddy and indulged myself in about an hour of photography - sheer bliss and perfect therapy!  The hummers are loving the red bee balm this summer, as you can see.

I picked this shot because you can kind of see the way the wings rotate - this is what enables them to hover,fly forward, backward, up and down.  As far as I know, they are the only bird that flies this way.  It's really quite amazing to see.

Two more shots on Flickr, starting HERE

Breaking news!  The swallows have babies!  And, based on how well feathered they are, they've been hatched for at least a week, maybe longer.  The way the parents built the nest makes it next to impossible to see what's in it - they have totally surrounded the babies with large curved white feathers.  I stuck my iPhone in the next box today, hoping to see ... something and was quite surprised when I saw the backs of several pretty good sized babies.  Couldn't tell how many - last count I was able to do on eggs was three, but don't know if Mama laid more eggs after that count.  Mama and Papa were both swooping around the yard while I looked in the box, so I quickly stepped away so as not to stress them.  I expect to see little swallow heads peaking out of the box sometime soon and you can be sure that I'll be blipping that!

The house wrens are busy feeding their brood too - whenever Papa Wren takes too much time out for singing, Mama comes out and chatters at him, as if to say "stop that incessant singing, you cad, and help me with these kids!"  Or so I like to imagine...

Speaking of wrens, I had two juvenile Carolina Wrens flitting all over the deck last night, exploring everything.  Cutest little things.  They sampled suet, meal worms, seeds and mulch (the last being a failed experiment) before flitting off into the woods.

Ceaser salad with shrimp for dinner tonight.  I just scampi'd the shrimp ... what's better than the smell of garlic??

Okay, off to do battle with our insurance company... Raising our Long Term Care premium by 56% - that's insane!!

Toodles.