Juvenile Cardinal

 How exciting!  Today we have a juvenile cardinal visiting in Bird Alley.  This is the first ever sighting of a juvenile cardinal!  I take this visit to mean that the adult pair of Cardinals we had  seen frequently in Bird Alley over the winter was a breeding pair!

The photo above shows highlighted reds due to photo editing.  The first photo showing more sudued colours is closer to the cokours on the bird that we had actually seen.

Beautiful sunset of last evening

 Red, your colour was vibrant!!!!  spreading your beauty across the evening sky!

 Reflections: above on my car  window and below on the window in my door.

And today we have rain forecast for all day long.!

Mystery insect or bee?

Can anyone identify this insect for me?  I had found two dead ones on my doorstep in early July.
I hope there are no more as anything that has the potential to sting makes me uneasy, not knowing what it is or its source.
I would appreciate any comments from anyone who has experience with this species, what ever it may be.
TRhank you.

Black Swallowtail

This beautiful Black Swallowtail butterfly visited my garden yesterday.  It feasted primarily on a beautiful pink Bee Balm and it also tasted clover. .  It is so beautiful and colourful!  I do hope it returns to my garden today.

We have two Pink Coneflowers in bloom and they has been visited by a medium sized orange fritillary and other than yellow Tiger Swallowtails earlier in the summer that is about the total of butterfly sightings in my garden.  I continue to look daily in a nearby milkweed patch looking for Monarchs, but there does not seem to be any around as yet,
Have a good day everyone
note: I had initially identified this butterfly as a Spicebush Swallowtail, but have since reevaluated my id and now call it a Black Swallowtail: thus my erronerous  naming title .

A young fawn

I saw this young fawn with an adult deer yesterday morning under the apple trees of an orchard. Their presence will not be appreciated there by the owner.

     a spotted beauty

 

This young deer somehow was able to get through the fencing there.

SNAKE

While my husband was rebuilding the bricks around our outdioor fireplace today he found this little snake neatly coiled underneath a brick.
I can't identify it, but it is rather prettily marked I think.

Just a little nudge by my husband's digging tool and it slithered away into the nearby grass.

Feeding Time in Bird Alley

       "FEED ME!!!!!"

   This is the time of year when we often see hungry baby birds appear in Bird Alley. The adult parenting bird often can be seen feeding her hungry young.  Above can be seen a young Purple Finch demanding to be be fed by the adult bird beside it.

   And in this case the adult female Purple Finch has leaned in to share a bit of bird seed with the hungry fledgling.

            Above the young Downy Woodpecker appears to be very insistent with its open beak demanding food.

   And in response to its demands, the adult male Downy Woodpecker deposits some bird seed into the open beak of the young woodpecker.

Common Yellowthroat Warbler

While walking around the perimeter of our back yard a few evenings ago I noticed a little bird that seemed to be following me.  It flew from fence post to fence post and now and then flew onto a tree branch.    It was a favourite little warbler species that I haven't seen much of this summer. You might be wondering from the picture?  " Who ( What) is that masked bird?  that was accompanying me on my walk.

My husband has nicknamed this little masked bird as "The Lone Ranger Bird".  Remember themasked man? the Lone Ranger from those long ago childhood days in the 40's or so."  Hi ho Silver and away!" Silver was the Lone Ranger's faithful stead, his white horse.Since that evening  when I go outdoors in my yard on an early evening I do some pishing" and this little faithful Lone Ranger Bird follows me along on my walk.  This little masked bird is actually  a male Common Yellowthroat Warbler.