Busy morning

A bluebird had a look around.  It checked out the birdhouse but didn't like how it wobbled, I think.  The towhee pair spent time under the feeder.  A male cardinal chased them off a couple of times, which was just mean-spirited as they never land on the feeder.  The female hummer returned and had a good long breakfast.  And the usual finches and chickadees came for seeds. It's cooler and partly sunny. 

Apparently the new proper name is Eastern Towhee.  Humpf.  It is very gusty today.  We have red raspberry slime mold growing on the soil that used to be the woodpile.  Each blob is the size of a dogwood berry.  The red hot poker is blooming and the butterfly milkweed is budding.  Most bugs were hunkered down avoiding the wind, but I did see an orange butterfly.  The hummer came back in the afternoon and after a snack, sat on the dogwood to preen.

The towhee was back for supper as was the hummingbird.  A second hummer appeared and tried to drive the first off the feeder.  She was not budging.  Then on second thought, she took out after the other one.  Sunset had a bruised look with smoky, smeary clouds in the West.