Hooray! Our first Monarch Butterfly photo this year! Thanks to Jeewa. Although a few have been spotted at the garden, none have been willing to be photographed. This year has been very slow for Monarchs, with a few reported here and there. This past winter was tremendously challenging for them and many were killed by winter storms including severe hail (you can imagine what huge hail stones will do to a butterfly). Thus, it is miraculous to see even one.

These tiny shiny black bugs arrive in mid-summer, about the same time as we begin to see the two-spotted stink bugs.

I was at the FWG at noon today for just over an hour. However, the heat quickly got to me and so I left. There was not a lot of activity by the time I arrived, as the heat was keeping most critters, especially mammals, hidden away. This robin and another one nearby, were both carrying food and squawking up a storm, not at me, as they were doing it before I arrived. Turns out there was a crow close by. Later, I heard yellow warblers giving distress calls and as I approached, another crow flew up and away, looking, I swear, very guilty!

Jeewa photographed this gray catbird. These birds are also busy ferrying food to their young. I watched two with beaks full of raspberries flying toward a well concealed area where their young awaited. YOu can see the rusty patch under the rump in this photo, not always noticeable, and a splash of colour on this otherwise gray bird.

Jeewa was surprised to find an American redstart feeding such a big baby that looked nothing like the adult. It always comes as a surprise to find that we also have a parasitic bird here, just as there is in Europe (the Cuckoo). It is a common sight to find birds such as redstarts, yellow warblers, song sparrows, and others, feeding a very big baby, much bigger than the "parent" bird. Female cowbirds seek out the cup nests, such as those made by the above species, and typically will turf out the eggs already laid and lay her own. Some birds are better able to cope with this intrusion than others, and will either build another nest layer on top of the egg, or try to shove it over the side and lay their own.

Here is a classic shot! Jeewa took several photos of goldfinches eating thistle seeds, often turning upside down to reach all the seeds. Goldfinches and thistles seem to go together, because the birds time their nesting to coincide with the production of thistle down , which is the seed fluff left when the flowering is over. As you can see here, the production of seed is underway.