Call me Willow!

This lovely little creature is a Willow Flycatcher (Empidonax traillii) and I believe he is a first for the BlipBigYear. I know he's not nearly as flashy as yesterday's little reprobate, P-Hummie, but he's quite beautiful in his understated way.

Thank you for sending P to the Spotlight Page yesterday. He put on a big show today, all full of himself. He did his rather impressive courtship flight in which his kind can beat their wings upwards of 60 beats per second! Amazing little creatures.

I had a good hike around one of the local lakes today - saw lots of dragons, some butterflies, yellow warblers, red-wing blackbirds, and a bit of this and that. It was so much fun that I then went to a field where there are nesting tree swallows just to watch and photograph them. Yep, more fun! Then back home to get some work done, then out to the farm to pick up some fresh veggies for dinner.

Dinner tonight is a spinach salad with strawberries (both grown at the farm down the road from us) and a tabouleh-style salad with harvest grains, tomatoes, cucumbers, mint and parsley. All locally grown and yummy! I love this time of year when we can get fresh local produce - it tastes amazing and makes me feel as if I'm doing something good for the planet.

I'm hoping to get another early morning hike tomorrow if the weather cooperates. I'm thinking I'll hike the trail where I saw the tiny fawn a few weeks ago.

If you'd like to see an assortment of shots from today, I've posted 10 on Flickr, starting here. Spoiler alert - there is a snake in the bunch, so prepare to skip over it if you're snake-adverse. There is also a dragon eating a moth - cool but also not for the faint of heart. Consider yourself warned...

xxoo
Debbi

PS: And for the 11th straight day, I've got cedar waxwings in the cherry trees! Love to see their little masked heads pop out of the foliage.