...Meet Curly!

Day three without blipping a hummer - I am showing remarkable restraint! Actually, I don't know how much longer these Painted Lady butterflies will be around either so thought I'd take this opportunity to blip one. There were a bunch in my flower garden today, flitting back and forth between the zinnias and the buddliea with a few stops at the vinca. I liked this shot because I can almost never get them with the tongue curled.

You very nearly got another downy woodpecker today, as Junior showed up and when something startled him, he raised his little woodpecker crest in a zen-like show of alarm. Such cute little things! While hubs and I were having breakfast on the deck, a humongous cicada flew up and landed on one of the potted zinnias on the deck. Crap, those things are HUGE and, boy, do they make a loud racket. They are very nearly as large as the hummingbirds!

...and speaking of hummingbirds ... they were sipping on the salvia and being rambunctious with the rudbeckia, all in between massive high speed chases around the yard and into the woods. They are all trying to guard all the feeders and all the flowers - at once! It is like a 3-ring hummie circus. Hubs still insists that he is going to be impaled one of these days as they zip past his head. We saw one of them chase a poor chickadee into the woods today - I think the hummie was so amped up on sugar water and nectar that he just started chasing anything that moved!

Thanks for all the nice comments on yesterday's spatting downy woodpeckers. So uncharacteristic to see them exhibiting anything other than their normal zen-like behavior!

Well, tomorrow is Monday, whether we are ready or not...