July begins

I got home after sunset last evening and saw a round moon in a misty sky.  Today the sun was bright in a white sky.  Sunflowers and red gladiolus and hibiscus  made a riot of color.  Cardinals were fighting over the feeder when I got up.  A few titmice visited and a hummer appeared.  A Carolina wren landed on the back of the feeder then left.

At lunch the hummer was back.  I saw a house wren headed to the birdhouse.  A black and a tiger swallowtail flitted around. A morning dove walked across the step. I saw an egret landing by the creek. 

I went outside in the middle of the afternoon and stayed till dusk.  A couple of widow skimmers were glittering in the sun when I first went out.  I found another pink caterpillar floating in the water, along with beetles and bees.  The brown variety of May beetle was everywhere.  I could hear the twanging zinging of some insect as well as the cicadas' song. 

As I was getting out, a chickadee made several attempts to get into the wren house and was chased off by the furious wren.  The hummer returned frequently all day.  Ants were farming aphids on a sunflower leaf.  More of the big brown ants were all over the sunflowers.  A heron landed in the oak where it was hidden by leaves.  A robin flew out.  A mystery bird, possibly a fledgling towhee, rustled under the oak.  A different kind of dragonfly zoomed over the pool after the sun was gone.  It didn't perch often and all I could see was that the wings were clear and the abdomen a gray-brown.