More squirrel nonsense

Four squirrels have been busy eating, poking into things, chasing each other, and eyeballing me.  The  geese have tried to visit several times, as have the mallards.  They got hosed.  Carolina wrens seem frantic as they hunt for seeds to feed their young. The usual suspects have also been to the feeder.  I think my drier lint has kept the ants out of the hummer feeder, but where are the hummingbirds?  It is hazier today.  At one point the contrails looked like tic-tac-toe.

It is beginning to cloud over.  The male house finches who usually get along, rose up battling in the air when both came to the feeder.   With the sun on their red feathers they were amazing.  The winner returned to find a Carolina wren had moved in.  He tried to evict the wren, but it stood its ground and poked its longer beak right back.  A wren sang for us from the dead oak limb.

A saddlebags dragonfly buzzed overhead.  Wasps are delighting in the rue nectar.  A skink used a shadow for camouflage I found a ladybug on the window and took it outside. It had too many spots -turns out to be an Asian harlequin ladybug imported as a pest predator.

A Carolina wren got in the garage and could not figure out how to leave.  Apparently its instinct is to fly up even when the way out is clearly visible lower down.   This has happened before with wrens. We left it alone and it went away. The towhee pair visited the mulch briefly toward evening.