Clouds out of the South

The windows were fogged when we got up.  As they cleared, a damsel fly tried to come through the glass.  When the sun caught it, it was like a blazing emerald with wings.  But the camera would not focus on it.  Fat cumulus have been streaming North, and when they block the sun, the wind springs up.  So it flicks from bright, hot, and still to breezy shade - not bad.

A goldfinch checked out the birdhouse.  I thought I'd glimpsed some of them around.  A female towhee and a female cardinal each came and poked through the mulch just a few feet from me.  The towhee didn't look well.  Other birds were more wary.  The chickadees visit the feeder without a qualm, the finches visit but startle easily, and the cardinals refuse to come when I'm outside.  Birdsong this morning had to compete with geese and crows.  A few swifts flew high.

A hummer visited - I heard her fussing - but she didn't stay long.  A blue tailed skink ran across the patio after lunch.  Meanwhile it got very windy while the clouds grew thinner and less puffy.  They still rushed North.  The wrens sang under cover. 

The sky became overcast and the wind continued strong.  At supper a cardinal could barely stay on the feeder.