Windy day blows for the Eagles

Today was a clear sky, but with a very gusty south-westerly wind. The rear of my house (and the back deck) looks south-west, over a long sloping gully. So, when the wind blows up the valley it is perfect for Eagles to be able to soar and circle, rise up then stall and dive. Good fun acrobatic stuff of which Wedge-tailed Eagles are the masters.

A pair of Wedges soared and circled around the valley below my house for more than 35 minutes today. This was the best display I have seen at my house.

Here, the bird spotted something of interest
and immediately opened its great talons,
preparing itself for an attack, which did not eventuate.
Note how the right wing tip is raised,
whereas the left wing is "feathered" allowing air to pass through
- all part of the art of maintaining perfect control.

Interestingly, at no stage were they challenged by the resident Magpie clan. Whether this is because even the Maggies are wary of taking on two Eagles together, or whether it was simply that the strong wind upsets the Magpies (which were quiet all day long) I cannot say for sure. But the observation is there - no challenge to these great birds from the Magpies. Normally one can usually expect 3 to 6 Magpies to sound the alarm when any Bird of Prey enters their territory.

Probably my favourite shot,
as it shows how low the bird was (albeit briefly).

Today we saw a Grey Goshawk (briefly) then these Eagles, and finally, at the end of the day, a lone male Peregrine Falcon came and gave a brief display flight around the valley, culminating in a flight up the valley with the wind, then he turned into the wind, went into a perfect "stall", and hung there, totally still, before zooming back down the valley and out of sight. Again, not one of these birds was challenged by Magpies.

Spring Babies

I mentioned the other day that the Spring season has transitioned to a stage where birds are busy feeding their babies. Here is a family of Wood Ducks, with 6 ducklings going for a walk, a bit close to a main road, but the parents seem to know what they are doing.
I now know a bit more about the responsibilities of parenthood. I have adopted a baby Magpie.
I was aware of the nesting pair of Magpies at the back of the CTC building. Indeed I mentioned the presence of this Magpie's nest in the minutes of the CTC Management Committee, in case the parents got a bit "protective", and started swooping passers by. They didn't, as it turned out.

However, on Saturday, when we had huge winds here in Robertson, one of the chicks fell out of the nest. It was fully feathered, but not yet able to fly. Close, but not yet ready.

Anyway, I found this little chick on the ground, under the Pine Tree where the nest was located. The branch was a long, nearly horizontal branch, and the nest was flung around in the wind, and one of the chicks fell out. I found it, and tried to let the adult birds know the baby was "down". No success. I decided to throw it up and over a low flat branch of the Pine Tree - hoping the youngster could land on a platform of pine branches. That worked, eventually.

However, the next morning the chick was down on the ground again. As this area is popular with people walking their dogs, I figured the chick had no chance of survival, without intervention. So, I brought it home, and stuck it in foam box. As it is quite well feathered, it can self-regulate its temperature, and so has a pretty good chance of survival.

I have since added an old lamb's wool slipper, for it to sit on.
Feeding this bird has also been a learning experience for me. For some silly reason, I expected the bird to peck at the food in my hand. That's didn't work. Then I realised I needed to think like a Magpie chick. It is used to having food presented to it, from above. So I put some mince on my finger, and brought it down from above. Bingo! It opened its beak wide to receive the food. Not exactly a passive action, but it cannot "hunt" or even "peck" at food. But when food is presented from above (the position where Mum and Dad arrive and present it food) then it knows full well what to do.

So that's the arrangement we have at present. I provide food. It opens up, squawks a bit (which Lena the Schnauzer thinks is very interesting) and then it swallows the food.

In this next image, you can clearly see the tongue structure of a typical "perching bird", with the tongue being relatively hard (almost plastic-like), and triangular in shape, with two strong points pointing backwards. This helps the bird to swallow food. As much of the food which birds eat is "live", it helps ensure the prey does not escape. This linked article explains this, and mentions that some other birds have different specialised tongue shapes. I know that Cockatoos have a thick, rounded, blunt tongue, which allows them to position a seed against the tips of their bills, to "shell" the hard coatings.

It is worth watching a Cockatoo eating, if you get the chance. However, if you have a friend with a pet Corella, watch out. It will try to eat your fingers. My friend George has a Long-billed Corella, "Pierre", who is very keen on biting my fingers. But it means you can see his thick, blunt, grey tongue. It is very flexible. Quite unlike the Magpie's tongue.After every feeding session, the baby Magpie lifts its tail feathers, and delivers a "fecal sac". This is its "poo", but perching birds have evolved a system of packaging the excrement in a coating, which allows the parent birds to remove the sac without it fouling the nest. My baby Magpie is doing this for me, and it means there is less "mess", provided I get there quickly enough before the skin of the sac breaks down. If I am too slow, then I have to clean up the mess.
Interestingly, the Magpie also regurgitated a "pellet" which is made up of insect shells. I did not examined it in great detail, but I was surprised. It is well known that Currawongs and Owls both "throw up" indigestible material in this way. But I had not heard of Magpies doing this - but it makes sense. This is regurgitated through the mouth (beak), and is quite dry, and "clean".

I am not sure what thrills lie ahead for me with this baby Magpie. Can I teach it to fly? I hope I do not have to jump off the back deck to show it how to fly!

Hot Spring winds (not waters)

The last two days have been nasty hot windy days.

The weather has been knocking my Peonies around. This seems to happen each year, in mid Spring. We get a burst of hot north-westerlies. It is the wind, more than the absolute temperature which does the damage. The early-flowering hybrid herbaceous Peonies are approaching their full height (the tallest plants are at pocket height (about 80 cm or 30 inches high), and have large buds. But they have been growing fast, for the last 4 weeks and are really fresh and soft and susceptible to wilting. Plant tissue, when it is so fresh, is mostly moisture, with relatively little hardened cellulose tissue. So when the wind saps moisture out of the leaves, the entire stem can simply weaken and collapse. It is transpiration/evaporation which causes the plants problems. Water is literally sucked from the leaves and stems of such fresh growth.

Why is it that spells of hot weather occur when one can deal with it least? Yesterday, I had to go to Canberra hospital for a routine top up on my Chemo treatment. So I rushed off early in the morning of Thursday. While I was in Canberra - all day yesterday - the temperature in Bowral (the closest official weather station to me) reached 27.7 C, with winds of 22 Kmh. Today was just slightly less hot, but even windier (30 Kmh). I stayed over in Bowral last night, and this morning I had to go straight to the CTC to open the "shop" at 10:00am this morning. Consequently, when I did manage to sneak home, about 12:00 noon, the plants were into their second day of hot dry winds.

I quickly threw some water around (despite knowing that I risked the leaves being scorched by the sun). Fortunately, I think the Peonies will be OK.

Interestingly, there is another perennial which is even more abrupt in its growth pattern. This plant needs shelter, and I grow it where it receives only morning sun, against the corner of the house (protected from the winds). This plant has only just broken through the ground in the last week. I took this photo at just after noon on Wednesday. The blade of a spade in the photograph is 10 inches (25.5 cm) high.I took this second photo about 3 hours ago, (10:30 pm on Friday) - two and a half days later - when its shoots were well above 18 inches (46 cm) high. It is called Solomon's Seal, (Polygonatum multiflorum). The normally reliable Wikipedia does not explain the mysterious (obviously biblical) name of this plant. Interestingly, this plant is closely related to Asparagus (which I had not realised until I looked it up) - but I swear as I was composing this little item about how fast the shoots grow, I was going to compare its sudden growth to - Asparagus!

That just shows how little I knew - and how how much I had intuited. I cannot see the relationship in leaf, or flower structure, but the botanists obviously know something I don't know.

Another plant which loves the warm weather is the single-flowering Crab Apple - Malus floribunda. While the flowers start with red buds, they quickly open to palest pink, and then almost white. The overall effect is a silvery white (interspersed with pink). This is a young tree, about 4 years old. There is a covered trailer in the background. This is a natural light image, showing buds and some of the older flowers (on the right) showing their true (mature) colour. The flowers have a light sweet perfume. The bees were going crazy around this plant at mid-day on Wednesday, in bright sun. Here is a photo of the flowers showing the rich pinkish red colour of the buds (for which I grow this plant). Finally, a reminder that in the south-eastern states of Australia (and West Australia) Daylight Saving starts on Sunday morning. Put your clocks forward one hour when you go to bed on Saturday night.

In Queensland, some people are proposing to petition the Governor to introduce Daylight Saving. But a very active anti-Daylight Saving lobby exists. In typical Queensland fashion, they blame southerners for the push to introduce it to Queensland.

Red Mud falling from the sky.

On Tuesday morning, 16 September 2008, the cars of Robertson were covered in a smattering of fine red mud. Over night winds had brought red dust from somewhere to the south and west (it was not Robertson dust). I had seen this storm coming in as a black line of cloud, just on sunset, as I was going in to Bowral on Monday evening. Then, overnight, there was a brief shower of rain (as often happens in Robertson). It rained mud.
Here are some images of the bonnet of my car, spattered with the now dry dust blobs, which clearly fell as muddy rain drops over night.
The grains of mud or dust, were not very fine, and felt like red sand to me - such as one might expect to find in Mildura, or the Victorian mallee. Robertson's red basalt soil creates much finer dust. The windy weather we experienced had been blowing in Victoria and southern NSW for two days before our little mud storm arrived.

Spring Pruning - preparing for a hot windy summer

Integral Energy, our local electricity supplier, and one which the last NSW Premier and Treasurer wanted to sell off, has come through and pruned trees along Missingham Parade. And then, yesterday morning, shortly after 7:00am, they were knocking on my front door, to advise me that they were going to prune some trees on my block. This is part of their planning for a forthcoming hot and windy season. Sounds fair enough to me. I know that the line across my paddock feeds down to rural property along Belmore Falls Road, down in the valley below my place.

I have shown photos of these plants when they were first planted by Zoe and myself on 17 May 2004 (Click here to see Zoe celebrating having planted plants in the otherwise bare paddock). These plants have been pruned 3 times since they were first planted. Once to "top them" to reduce their direct vertical leaders, and make them bush out (when they were young saplings). Then in July 2007, my friend Peter came with his chain saw to knock them back - because I could see they were growing too tall, under the powerlines (when just 3 years old). Now, a year later, the Integral Energy guys gave them a real "Boy Prune", as the phrase is.
I last wrote about these trees under the heading Green and Gold, back on 11 August, as they were just coming into flower.

I originally anticipated that these plants would grow quickly (not as quickly as they have done) - and act as a temporary screen and wind break, while other plants established themselves, down in the paddock below the house. Wind is the issue down there - it is very exposed to southerly winds.The reality is that the Wattles have jumped out of the ground, but other plants have been less successful. So I will keep on cutting their heads off, and hope that other self-sown seedlings of plants like Pittosporum and Sassafras do establish themselves under the shelter of these trees.

One Wattle which has grown reasonably well is this small shrub of Acacia fimbriata "compact form". The true species grows in a much more open manner. This one will never pose a problem for the power lines. Nor will the few Camellias which are growing down there.I mentioned recently, when writing about the leaves and phyllodes of Blackwood Wattles, that mature Blackwood Wattles eventually form an open crown. This is what I meant. Most of the Blackwoods on my place are young plants (regrowth) and have not reached that stage - and still have dense crowns.

And, here is a surprise visitor - a Willy Wagtail - which was on the fence while I was taking the other photos, late in the afternoon. Lousy light, but it is the first time I have ever seen a Willy Wagtail at my place (it is definitely not a rainforest bird) - so I was not going to miss the chance to try and get a photo. Sorry, but it was the best I could manage - the bird was a bit nervous of my presence.

Wind, wind, wind - and more to come.

The wind outside my window has been howling, like a train going past, for days. I am sick of the noise, and the bad psychological effects which wind has on me. I get edgy, irritable, and a little bit scared. Fortunately I have had tree branches trimmed away from the house. Given our high rainfall and rich soil, even sapling Wattle trees reach my roof height in 3 years. I do not have large trees planted close to the house which are likely to cause problems, but it is the noise of the branches scratching against the windows and the gutters which I do not like.

Here is the Bureau of Meteorology's official weather warning for coastal NSW for this afternoon and this evening. You will recall that Robertson is sitting directly on top of the Illawarra Escarpment, at approx 750 metres above sea level, so we cop all these supposedly "coastal" winds. This photo is taken overlooking Macquarie Pass - from just 5 Km east of Robertson. It shows Lake Illawarra and the Pacific Ocean beyond. Although taken late one peaceful afternoon, the point is to show our proximity to the coast, and our exposure to "coastal" weather when warnings are relevant, as is the case tonight.
Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology
New South Wales

Coastal Waters Wind Warning
For NSW Waters South of Port Macquarie
Issued at 4:10 pm EST on Thursday 14 August 2008

Synoptic situation
Vigorous southwesterly airflow over southwestern Tasman Sea with embedded cold fronts is expected to persist until Sunday.

Gale Warning
For the South Coast, from Gabo Island to Montague Island

W/SW wind 25/33 knots, reaching 34/40 knots chiefly offshore. Sea around 3 metres, reaching 4 metres offshore. S'ly swell increasing to about 3 metres.

Strong Wind Warning
For the Mid North Coast, Hunter Coast, Sydney Coast, Illawarra Coast, South Coast, from Port Macquarie to Montague Island

W/SW wind reaching 25/33 knots Sea rising 2 to 3 metres. S'ly Swell to 3.5 metres.

The next warning will be issued by 11 pm EST Thursday.

Please be aware
Wind gusts can be a further 40 percent stronger than the averages given here, and maximum waves may be up to twice the height.

Here is the Weather Chart for Thursday evening 14.8.08 at 4:00pm Eastern Standard Time. It clearly shows closely aligned barometric readings in the form of closely set parallel lines. With a low to the east of us (with winds circulating in a clockwise pattern), and a high to the west (with winds circulating in a anti-clockwise pattern), those two systems combine to push a huge volume of air, in a north-westerly direction, from the Antarctic region, well to the south of Australia, right up the length of the NSW coast, bringing about cold winds right up into Queensland.

And this is the four day prognosis - in chart form.
The winds should start to ease on Sunday night. If these are the famous "August winds" then I am sick of them. We all know that, in Robertson, they blow from May to December, but that's another story.

Bright Moment in a freezing cold day

The wind was blowing ice crystals across the garden this afternoon. Some of them landed on the deck, for a few minutes. Not real snow, but close enough for my liking.
I went outside to capture the image of the large particles of ice making diagonal lines across the garden (unsuccessfully). But Lena came with me, and she stood there wondering why she had been enticed outside. Actually, she always accompanies me when I go outside, in case we are going somewhere, but alas, not, today. But she stood there, leaning into the freezing wind. At least she is adequately rugged up for it.She decided to pose for this image, wagging her tail, optimistically, while waiting for me to tell her if we were going in the car. (Another of life's disappointments for Lena.)
Then I went to check to the view to the south of the house, and noticed this male Golden Whistler, looking beautiful in the afternoon light.
He did not stay there very long, as he and his female companion were busy searching for insects amongst the open, deciduous trees and shrubs. You can see his wings beating, just as he starts to fly off - but his head and feet are stationary.
One bright moment on a freezing day.

The mighty August Winds are on schedule.

Robertson nearly blew away last night.

Regular readers will realise that the occasional references to the "August Winds" are something of an on-going Robertson joke. The "August Winds" can blow any time from May to December. Last night, they blew on schedule. That's pretty unusual - really!

Our winds were classed officially as "gale force" which is pretty exciting. It is a relatively rare event, to be officially described as such. It equates to Force 8 on the Beaufort Scale, with wind speeds between 63 - 75 Km/h or between 34 - 40 Knots.

Fortunately, we survived this, without any power outages.

Macquarie Pass was blocked by a fallen tree overnight, but that's not surprising, given the huge trees which line that famous mountain pass, down the Illawarra Escarpment. The Illawarra suffered considerable power outages, but they are not as used to wind as we are, and so perhaps their trees are less adapted to excessive wind.

Anyway, this afternoon, the weather broke enough to allow Dorothy and Jasmine to take a few minutes off to test out the wonderful new park bench which has been installed by the local community group, beside the Big Potato. Allan Hollis and Paul, our Village Postmaster, had fixed the new table and bench seats into position yesterday. They assured me they are fixed onto several reinforced slabs of concrete which are deeply buried. And anyway, the table itself required the use of Nat Waters's backhoe to move it - it is that heavy. Lets hope it survives the attention of vandals.Talking of which, persons who know me may be shocked to learn that I used the "F... Word" to day, in public, and at full volume. Something like "Hey You ... Get the F... out of there!" was heard to echo up and down Hoddle Street. I did it with deliberate intent, for I was ordering off a car load of what were once known as "callow youths". They had got out of their car, and run around to the back of the "Big Spud", and were proceeding to try to kick in the walls which Allan had put up, just a few weeks ago, to close off the original doorways - which had long since been vandalised.

When the doors at the back of the Big Spud were open, it allowed all sorts of vandalism to occur, and other illegal and illicit activities to occur inside. That was why the whole thing was a concern to the Chamber of Commerce, and many other local residents. That's precisely why the refurbishment of the Big Spud has been undertaken.

But even I (who am not easily shocked) was stunned to see these little idiots trying to kick in the new panels - in full daylight, and in full view of a group of other people. Fortunately Allan appears to have done a good job of reinforcing the concrete and mesh which he used to close off the original doorways.Allan Hollis closing over the original doorways in the Big Potato on 14 July 2008. Fortunately he has applied a number of very thick layers of render, over a solid and reinforced base structure. This wall panel withstood its first attack, today (with a little help from the "F... Word").

Winds tearing the Southern Highlands apart

We have had strong winds in the Southern Highlands. They started yesterday - during the day. Then we had a short, sharp and violent thunderstorm last night. And this morning even more winds. Strong violent winds.

I took some photos of "wind" at home this morning. Firstly, just below the house, the Blackwood Wattles were swirling around. With their pale yellow-green straight leaves (phyllodes), they look like a plate of Spinach-flavoured Tagliatelli.
Across the road, a row of young Eucalypts (Brown Barrells), being taller, and thinner, were whipping around.I drove to Bowral, and took these photos. Before I got there, a tree had come down, across the Sheepwash Road. Workers were clearing the road, and as there was a traffic hazard, I did not take any photos, for risk of making the hazard worse. However, on the way back I was able to take this photo of the trunk of the large tree, completely snapped in half. It is a smooth-barked Eucalypt, probably one known (appropriately) as "Brittle Gum". It is noteworthy that right beside it is another old tree trunk, also one which snapped in half. That suggests a problem with many of the trees in this location.
In Bowral, I took more photos of wind blowing trees around. This first is a blue-grey Eucalypt, perhaps an "Argyle Apple" (Eucalyptus cinerea). Its thin branches were whipping and swirling to make this picture.
In East Bowral, there was a Council Worker cutting a tree which had clearly fallen from Council lands, across a fence, and had damaged the roof of the house. As there had been some temporary repairs to the roof (black plastic sheeting nicely weighted with sandbags and lashed down) I assume this was an SES repair conducted after the violent thunderstorm last night.
Here is the tree trunk, snapped in half. Clearly it is growing outside the fence, which has been damaged. The tree is obviously diseased, almost certainly damaged by termites. Oh dear, another bill for Council?On the drive back to Robertson, I took photos of snapped and broken trees. This one is a medium-sized Cootamundra Wattle (Acacia baileyana), simply snapped off at mid-trunk level.
Back at Sheepwash Road, there was a second tree across the road. At first I thought that the workers had left the first tree halfway across the road. Surely not! Perhaps it was a safety issue, that there was a risk of further branches coming down. No. In fact, I was able to check and the first tree had been cleaned up very nicely indeed by the emergency workers. However, a second tree had snapped off a large branch, about 200 yards further down the road form the first tree.This wider shot shows both the trunk of the first tree (high on the right) and the second tree across the road, in the distance.And this mature Gum Tree in the middle of a paddock simply fell over - snapped at the roots.
All in all, it has been a wild 36 hours in the Southern Highlands.

The Moss Vale weather station records the maximum wind gust as 56 km/h. That of course, is for the 24 hours till 6:00 a.m. this morning, so it covers last night's storm, but not the winds today.

Little Eagle circling on the breeze

In the mild south-westerlies of Sunday afternoon, a Little Eagle (Hieraaetus morphnoides) came up from the forests around Belmore Falls. This happens occasionally, and I am grateful to the ever vigilant Magpie population for letting me know that an Eagle is on the wing. Their calls take on a distinctive tone and urgency, even if they are not "ganging up" on the Eagle. Then the frequency of their calls gains greatly in intensity.

It is two years and two weeks since I wrote about such a visit - it hardly seems so long. That bird appears to be a lighter form ("light morph"). Both sets of photos were taken from my back deck - same place, two years apart, with the same weather conditions (mild south-westerly winds).

The ratio of wing length to tail length is distinctive of the Little Eagle. The tail is relatively short, compared to the Whistling Eagle, and much shorter than the Wedge-tailed Eagle. The Birds in Backyards page (linked above) states that Little Eagles turning in tight circles, on straight wings, is also distinctive behaviour. Both of my reports reveal just exactly that behaviour.

Yesterday's bird is somewhat different in markings (than the previous bird) - much more clearly marked, spotted. This bird is showing a shiny spot under the wing - this is a patch where there are very few feathers, so it is a patch of skin reflecting the sun. The wings are on full extension (for full lift) and the tail is slightly fanned, as the bird is circling.In this shot, which I have marked as "perfect wing form" the wing-tips are closed, as the bird is gathering speed, turning with the wind. Tail is still fanned, for stabilisation of position.In this photo, the bird is circling back into the wind, and is nearing a stall. Wing tips are just spread, and the tail is fully spread, for maximum lift and control.
This photo shows the clearest colour underneath, as the bird turns away from the sun. This bird is clearly a "dark morph", and from the heavy body, almost certainly a female. As ever, when watching these displays of flight control, I am always in awe of the way these birds can circle, gain height, turn and then reverse their "circling" direction, without flapping their wings even once.

This bird was flying high enough that the local Magpies did not feel it necessary to chase it off. So, it circled up and down the valley over a period of about 10 minutes, while I took these photos.

A summer morning (that's all we got)

Yesterday, summer came and went - it seems to be all over. Today was grey, windy, wet and cold (as the previous 3 weeks have been).

When the sun shone, and a warm southerly breeze blew (yes, warm and southerly - seems incredible) everything seemed to stir.

The first I knew of this was looking out my bathroom window in the morning, and seeing a female Grey Goshawk circling above the house. Of course, by the time I grabbed the camera, and rushed outside, she had gone. But I noticed the warm breeze (unfamiliar in cold old Robbo). I also noticed the Butterflies on the breeze. They were flitting everywhere. Then I looked towards a large Buddleja bush growing beside my driveway. There were butterflies galore, flitting from flower to flower. These plants lived up to their name of "Butterfly Bush".

The fat-bodied Macleay's Swallow-tailed Butterflies were all over this bush. This species of Butterfly seems to be hyperactive. They rest, just for a moment on a flower, and head off to the next one. Worse, while on the flower, they flutter their wings (while held high, and nearly closed). This makes them almost impossible to photograph (with autofocus engaged on your camera). Apologies for the relatively poor quality of these photos, but when will I get another Butterfly event like this - again? Certainly it did not happen today. So, it is a case of publish what I have - for educational purposes - and hope to improve on these photos later in the season. Maybe.The poor quality image below is shown just to demonstrate the upperwing wing patterns of the Macleay's Swallowtail (centre) (mostly white, with black marks concentrated towards the tip of the wings).
This photo also shows the intensity of Butterfly activity - for just this brief few moments of summer in Robertson. Three butterflies of two species on the one flower head.

This is the the Australian Admiral (or Yellow Admiral) (Vanessa itea) This image shows both the dull under-wing patterns (right) and on the left, the brighter upper wings (visible when the wings are open). That reverses the patterns if colouration visible on the Macleay's Swallowtail, which is brighter on its underside (visible when wings are closed - when held upright).
I am grateful to the work of Don Herbison-Evans and the Macleay Museum for their very authoritative website - on Australian Caterpillars - the larvae of both Moths and Butterflies.
The Butterflies and Moths of Sydney page from the Museum of Australia is also useful - but much less extensive.

This next Butterfly is the so called "Common Jezabel" (Delias negrina). There is a dark bee feeding on the same flowerhead of the Buddleja.This colourful butterfly is apparently linked to various Mistletoe plants for the food of its caterpillars. But obviously the adults are happy to stray to other plants for their sources of nectar. If you look back to the second photo in this post, you will see on the right, another member of this species, and you can see both the colourful lower (outer) wing side, and the nearly pure white upper wing (inside the wings when nearly closed).

And now for this poor specimen of a brown Butterfly.I can only hazard a guess that it might be a Meadow Argus (Nymph) Butterfly. But it might also be a "Common Brown Butterfly" - another of the Nymph group of Butterflies.

With such badly worn wings, it is presumably nearing the end of its short life. If so, it was at least enjoying this brief moment of summery warmth, feasting on the prolific nectar apparently produced by the Buddleja davidii. Go well, little friend.