Sunday, August 4, 2013

A cloud of birds

Everybody woke up hungry!  In addition to the cardinals, house finches, and chickadees, titmice mobbed the feeder.  The poor wrens are still feeding their monster fledgling.  A brown thrasher poked through the mulch.  Both the wren and a titmouse sampled the parsley seeds.  One or more female hummers has been at the juice nearly constantly this morning.  The windows were fogged again, but the clouds are broken.  An osprey soared over the lake. 

There are two male cardinals, one glowing with health, the other molting, I think.  They chased each other around.  Two female hummers also spent a lot of energy chasing each other.  One fed on the rosemary flowers.  A brief moment of sun brought a pair of goldfinches to the parsley. And, for the first time since we got home, there is action at the birdhouse - is the wren thinking about a second brood? 

After a gray morning, the afternoon became glorious - intense blue sky (almost violet), warm and not at all sticky.  I rescued a very young skink from the pool, also an iridescent green tiger beetle.  Black swallowtails showed up to lay eggs in the late afternoon.  The only dragonfly I saw was an amberwing on the rosemary.  Hummers keep coming, but one seemed to have trouble with the feeder.  A youngster? 


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