Photos below are of the same hummingbird moth on my David Phlox. Tried to grab picture of actual hummingbirds that were sitting on my fence but when I went outside the dogs started barking like the alarmist hooligans that they are and off flew the hummingbirds. I haven’t seen my bluebirds in weeks but I’m hoping they are still around. I checked the nest box and it was empty but not infested or otherwise worrisome. The phoebe nest under our deck had a bad result – mite infestation killed the two hatchlings. We realized it too late, and though I rushed them to rehab one died en route and the other likely died shortly thereafter. We’ve only had a mite infestation one other time since we’ve lived here (about ten years now).
Saw two fox kits while driving home from a late meeting a few nights ago. Super cute. Also saw a snapper trying to cross one of the busiest 2-95 off-ramps around – there wasn’t anywhere safe for me to pull over and move it so I carried on with my day and wished it the best.
The worst of the heat and humidity is gone so I can open the windows at night. I’m hearing a great deal of loon and goose activity. I’m already dreading the quiet of winter.
Let me leave you with a poem by my favorite poet, the late Mary Oliver.
Patience
What is the good life now? Why,
look here, consider
the moon’s white crescent
rounding, slowly, over
the half month to still another
perfect circle–
the shining eye
that lightens the hills,
that lays down the shadows
of the branches of the trees,
that summons the flowers
to open their sleepy faces and look up
into the heavens.
I used to hurry everywhere,
and leaped over the running creeks.
There wasn’t
time enough for all the wonderful things
I could think of to do
in a single day. Patience
comes to the bones
before it takes root in the heart
as another good idea.
I say this
as I stand in the woods
and study the patterns
of the moon shadows,
or stroll down into the waters
that now, late summer, have also
caught the fever, and hardly move
from one eternity to another.
The Nature of Maine 