Rain clouds

Not much rain fell - enough to wet surfaces but not enough to make a puddle in the birdbath.  The titmice were at the feeder early along with the regulars.  A hummer came but didn't drink.  Later the fledgling male cardinals got into a dispute.

At lunch, a flock of robins, starlings, and blue jays flew from tree to tree.  A juvenile starling is quite attractive.  But I don't know what it found to eat in the cedar.  A skink that had recently lost its tail ran across the step.  A blue dasher clung to its perch in the face of wind gusts.  Clouds were still flowing to the Northwest. 

There has been kiss-and-hide sunshine in between dark clouds.  I happened to glance out the bedroom window and saw a yellow crowned night heron stalking in the grass.  It got what it was after, as did I, despite the window screen in the way. 

The clouds built up into towers in the late afternoon.  Then at dusk, cloud to cloud lightning made huge flares in the sky.  I only saw a couple of actual lightning bolts but lots of flashes that lit up the sky.  I couldn't take a photo fast enough so I just started clicking randomly and caught some. I also took a bit of movie - now I need to find the software to view it.  Tonight was the last of the Perseid meteor shower, but at least the cloud cover gave us a light show. This was looking North.