Still cool and sunny

Chickadees were thick while a female cardinal fed her fledgling.  Cardinals and a brown thrasher went for beauty berries.  Doves hunted fallen sunflower seeds.  Squirrels and blue jays dropped acorn shrapnel into the pool.  A hummer dropped by but apparently didn't like the feeder. 

A palamedes swallowtail passed by at lunch.  The azalea bushes out front that were denuded by caterpillars had clusters of insect eggs on some leaves.  And I found a praying mantis case there too.

I missed too much of the day and the sky got that murky look that veiled the sun. Cirrostratus clouds covered the West and produced some brilliant sundogs and a streaky orange sunset.  But I was driving on the freeway.