Lovely Lady

What a nice welcome home - a female Scarlet Tanager!  I don't often see this species in my yard, although they do nest in our area.  They are primarily insectivores although they do eat fruit during migration - which may explain the presence of this one since she has been scarfing up oranges all day.  I keep hoping perhaps a male will join her - the males are one of our most spectacular summer birds, a juicy red with black trim.  I put a second shot of the female HERE on Flickr.  She's my 33rd blipped yardbird this year.  

Also in the yard today was one of the foxes.  He/she was scouting around the lower section of the yard (probably hoping to catch one of the chipmunks out of their den) before trotting up towards the house.  I was on the deck, very still, and he came right onto the patio before he saw me. We had a stare down (I exaggerate - it lasted only a few seconds) from about 12  feet before he trotted off to the underbrush still in search of wayward squirrels or chippies.  I love seeing the fox, but not so happy that he's comfortable coming onto the patio since that is Scoobie's domain.  If you'd like to see a close up, click here

I have done an initial edit on my 1500 photos from the trip to St. Augustine.  Deleted a lot, but need to go back and do a second delete and then tag everything.  I am happy to say that I got some good shots (along with some that were utter rubbish, of course). I'll eventually post some links to Flickr.  

Had a nice visit with MIL this morning - I could hear her laughing all the way down the hall when I got there. She and a small group of the other residents were engaged in a competitive game of balloon toss around the table.  MIL and four of the other residents (all ladies) were whacking that balloon for all they were worth - I was laughing so hard.  Today was a good day.

Thanks for keeping my big pink bird on the front page!

xo
Debbi