It May Be Fall, But The Hummingbirds Were Panting From The Heat.

Had A Friend Shoot Almost the Identical Photo Yesterday at a different Location. Today, It was my turn to shoot the hummingbird telling the bee to back off.

Up and At'Em Early Today

An early morning errand had me out the door and on the move before 2 bells this morning. After the errand, I had the full morning to shoot. By eight bells, I had already stopped at two grocery stores and was minutes from being home. The cold front was slipping into the Metroplex and it will be a hard freeze tomorrow morning plus it will be about 10-12 degrees cooler for the day high, but by the weekend, its forecast to hit 70F.

I've seen the minus 17 degree cold before and hopefully, never again. The Great Lakes haven't been frozen like this in years!! It takes cold to do that. The tap water is ice cold from the lakes and really taste good. I miss Great Lakes Water. We will not get that much of the Arctic push into North Texas. But, being inside and out of the wind as the temperature drops has a great benefit---called warmth!!

My final run before heading to the store, I made the circle of the lake. Much to my surprise as I'm sitting at on the of parking lots looking across the lake, I see Bufflehead ducks. They are here in migration from the boreal forest and aspen park lands of central Canada. They are small, feisty, disappear into the water much like the cormorants and American Coots. The big difference is the colorful displays of feathers.  It was simply being in the right place at the right time.

The male has colors like a wood duck but not identical.

Will be going back to look for them specifically. I want some better shots. These runs for the blog help keep breaches of copyrights down to a minimum, but they also turn up finds that  help to produce income later on.

The Monarchs Are Looking Good....

and the other are showing their stuff, too! I've seen as many as five different flies on a goldenrod plant plus a wasp, honeybees and a hornet. To me, it's more than just amazing that Monarchs every 4th generation (the longest lifespan so they can migrate) is 6 to 9 months while the 1st through (pick up below the last image to continue to read)

Don't forget to click on any image to get them to enlarge. These are best at 100%.
 This golden rod is loaded with butterflies, moths, hornets, wasp, honeybees. The Monarch's have just started to arrive. They came in on the cold front we got Tuesday but the numbers are beginning to show strength now, as well.  There were some that I wanted to shoot but that's for another day.

The bees are amazing, too!

Check out the pelican on the far right. He was so tired from the flight in from the Canadian Border, he has his sleeping head on the back of his fellow pelican. They are so comical. That is what I love about these pelicans.

3rd generation only live up to 6 weeks and they head north from Mexico in the spring producing  both the 2nd and 3rd generations along the way.

But, they can be spotted so easily fluttering along at a pretty good clip. I watched one today for many minutes as it made it's way down the road in almost a straight line. Thinking to myself how this butterfly half the size of my palm would fly 2500 miles to hang in clusters of thousands on trees in the mountains of central Mexico all winter.

There were some awesome shots of tree leaves today. My favorite, the Sycamore, just does not have that lush tan to brown to beautiful leathery brown that they have produced the past several years. But everything is a trade off it seems. When one lets you down, another lifts you up and such is the cycle of nature.

Nature's Flying Stain Glass

Well, every year about this time, give or take a window's week, the Monarch butterfly reaches North Texas from its days of milkweed leaf chomping, it's lush silk-spun chrysalis they encased themselves into in Canada and the Great Lakes before they take flight to winter in Mexico.

I found one spot where there were as many as 7 Monarchs on one plant. The most that I have seen in one place outside of  hundreds in the air overhead.

Plant milkweed in your garden and start watching around Columbus Day for the arrival. First you will see one or two, then a dozen. Look up and you might catch a brief view of one of the waves.
These are the great-great grand children of last years arrivals.