At home, we've had some cooler weather and the light has been amazing.





















Was recently in Palm Springs, CA for work and enjoyed the different quality of light there.







An early morning flight was like visiting an alien planet







At home in the garden, the wildlife is abundant.















Wondering when the goldfinches will arrive this year. We had a couple of sightings of a single goldfinch over the last month or so, but they have not stayed around.

Still a few warblers in the garden:

Black-throated blue female



Northern parula



White-eyed vireo



Lots of buntings







Cardinal and catbird





Hummingbirds still numerous





Was recently in Golden, CO for work. It certainly glows in the morning light.



In contrast, it has been a little cooler here in S. Florida so we are starting to venture out a bit more. Still lots of mosquitoes though!

It has been an exciting few weeks with plenty of birds visiting the garden.

The painted buntings started arriving in numbers on October 4, right on time!





The arrival dates over the years have been fairly consistent:

2019: Oct 4 (one single male showed up for a day on Aug 19)
2018: Oct 2
2017: Oct 2
2016: Oct 4
2015: Sep 26
2014: Oct 4 (one single male showed up for a day on Aug 2)
2013: Oct 14

One of them has a silver band. Interested to know where it was banded. I reported it to USGS so hopefully they can tell me!





Lots of hummingbirds too. Seems like we are having a good year for them.







Other visitors include red-bellied woodpecker and American redstart.





Another fall occurrence is the flowering of the Night-blooming cereus. It put on a nice display recently.





Now all I need is some cooler weather!

Had a week off to explore the pacific northwest and take in some scenery and music! Happy to be home with the hummingbirds now :)

Seattle Ferry to Bainbridge



Banana slug



Scenic Whidbey Island











Metsatoll in Seattle. It was a treat seeing them since they hail from Estonia and don't get to Florida very often!











Ghost in Seattle and Vancouver. Both shows were awesome!

We were fortunate to be spared from Hurricane Dorian last week. The first hummingbird of the season showed up yesterday.



Baby cardinal.



The weekend before last we went to NY to see the Royal Air Force Red Arrows.























The rest of the airshow was pretty cool too. It was so lovely to be outside in civilized temperatures!

Blue Angels















We also went for some nature walks and got to see some nice New England wildlife.



Painted turtles





Least Flycatcher

Its been a busy few weeks traveling for work and concerts!

At home, we had an early painted bunting show up last week. I've had them visit in August before but it is pretty unusual.



The owl box is currently occupied by a family of gray squirrels.





Found a glass lizard while weeding the garden:



Visited Chicago a few weeks ago for work.









Then we visited Nashville, TN to see The Aristocrats.



Travis Larson Band



The Aristocrats



Nashville was pretty cool, better than I expected. The Aristocrats were awesome. We saw them two more times, in Orlando and Boca Raton :)

Summer is usually quiet in the garden for wildlife. Things have been pretty busy with work travel and concerts!

We had a box turtle wander through last week.



Mourning doves



Leopard Frog



Blooms







Last week we saw Iron Maiden in Sunrise, FL and Atlanta, GA. The show in Sunrise was good but the show in Atlanta was mind-blowing! We were on the floor close to the stage in Atlanta, while we had seats in Sunrise. It was cool to have both vantage points.

We had two families of cardinals this year with fledglings.







Dad keeping watch.



Mom getting pestered.



The blue jays also had babies.



The wrens are nest building in one of our pitcher plants. Even though we installed a nest box literally 2 feet away.



Earlier this month, we saw Paul Gilbert in Atlanta. Really nice and down to earth kind of person.







Earlier this month, we caught the last two shows of the Yngwie Malmsteen tour, in Clearwater and Orlando. Mr. Malmsteen does not disappoint! The band was awesome as well.













Looking forward to some more awesome tours this summer!