This is my final blog before I go in tomorrow at 7:00 AM for a hip replacement. The protheses from 1989 has done very well by me for 23 years (average back then was 15) so I have no reason to complain.  Once the new one is in place, I hope I can secure the old one from Dr. Dabuzhsky, so that I can frame it and list all the places it has been!.
This morning I went to Duxbury Beach and Daniel Webster Farm, both old favorites, and actually did pretty well, especially with some photos of a Cedar Waxwing.  So enjoy, and wish me luck tomorrow.  I expect it will be some weeks (hopefully not months) before I walk with David Ludlow and the Friday AM Group, or any other place for that matter. 
(Estimated schedule, 3 days at Quincy Medical Center, and then 5-8 days at Royal Rehab, Braintree).
Here are this morning's photos.

Cedar Waxwing, Duxbury Beach

Young Piping Plover, Duxbury Beach

Female Wood Duck, Daniel Webster Farm

Immature Wood Duck, Daniel Webster Farm

Whitetail Deer, Daniel Webster Farm

Some photos from Don and Mary's  family gathering in Sarasota.

Why would anyone go to Fla. in July?  For me, mostly to join my twin in Sarasota for a family reunion of all of his and Mary's children.  But. I admit, I had hopes of seeing a Swallow-tailed Kite, and a Florida Scrub-Jay; I was very successful in the former, but I didn't see the Jay.  I saw (for my life list!!) the Kite, a Red-shouldered Hawk, a Barred Owl (yes, yes I know, but I have never seen one in the wild), a  Common Ground Dove (how tiny!), and finally, a flock of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks.
Here are the photos.

First morning, in the driveway --a Wood Stork!

Queen Milkweed (Florida variety)

Ruddy Daggerwing

Ruddy Daggerwing larva

Barred Owl (my first in the wild)

Zebra Heliconian

Red-shouldered Hawk, the most common hawk in Fla



American Swallow-tailed Kite

Swamp Lily

American Swallow-tailed Kite

A Lubber Grasshopper, about 3" long

The only alligator sighting.  Fla. was experiencing some of the heaviest rains in years. This one was about 2'.

I'm in the mood for love....

I'm in the mood, etc. White Ibis were everywhere.

Black Vulture

Loggerhead Shrike, rather infamous for impaling its
prey on needles and barbed wire, for curing

The Osprey at Simmons Park, near Ruskin.  This is the best place I have ever been to get close to them.

Cattle Egret

And here he is, the Black-bellied Whistling-Duck.  The maps show him in the west and the guide says he is a casual to Louisiana, so to see him in Fla. was quite a treat.  And, for me, a Life List bird.

This unique sighting is a "gift" from Don Zalusky who pointed them out to me in his neighbor's backyard in Sun City Center! She had been feeding them for several days.

Common Ground Dove, pretty much strictly a gulf coast bird, straggling as far north as New York; small, about 6-7 inches.