...Something magical in the zinnia patch!

I bet you thought I was done with hummers for the season, but... Noooooo! There are still a few hummers hanging around - not sure if they are this years juveniles or just migrants passing through. They seem a bit more skittish around me than the summer crowd, but that may just be pre-migratory behavior. I did see some wild chases through the yard and high, high into the trees so feeders are being guarded. A few more hummer shots...

Hovering here

Hummie ballet here

alert for danger here

For those of you concerned about Papa Cardinal - his eye looked a bit better to me today. It is now slightly open, although still very swollen. He is still eating well and occasionally feeding one of the chicks and acting normal in every way. I've been in touch with an avian rescue and have been advised to watch him but not to otherwise interfere right now. It seems that this may be an injury that will heal in time.

Of more concern is that I've spotted a few house finches with eye-disease so I think I may have to take down the feeders for a day and sterilize them. The diseased finches won't survive as they will eventually lose sight in both eyes and either be taken by predators or starve. Horrible, but nothing to be done about it. In the meantime, I have to be concerned about them passing the disease on to the rest of the finch population. Right now, I have large groups of house and gold finches eating at the feeders, as well as a smaller group of Purple Finches (first time I've ever had them at our feeders.) I'll try taking down the primary feeders and sterilizing them again. Tough because I want to make sure Papa C has an easy source of food, but I don't want to have a full scale outbreak of the finch-eye-disease.

In happier news, the goldfinch chicks all seem to be fledging now and there is much begging going on. There was one particularly persistent youngster that was following dad everywhere, fluttering wings and making little peeping noises, begging frantically. Dad was unimpressed. He should probably take a few lessons from Papa C on parenting...

Thanks for all the lovely comments on yesterday's warbler! I was kind of hoping I might see it again today, but no such luck. Probably just on his way through as he heads to the tropics for winter.

Hoping everyone is having a good Monday. Tomorrow is a day of special significance for many of us, the 11th anniversary of 9/11. I don't know anyone in the NY/NJ area who was not directly impacted by the events of that awful day. And, I think that it had profound impact around much of the world. It certainly changed things in our country.