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March 16 - I got distracted and never started a post yesterday.  I usually start early and then I can fill in the following day if I have to.  Therefore this part is about March 16 which was HOT!  The red belly and downy woodpeckers visited to see if the suet was back.  Alas, no.  Two titmice finally got to the seed feeder unmolested. Juncos foraged in the mulch. 

During lunch, I saw some kind of hairstreak around the rosemary. I sat outside after lunch and saw a palamedes swallowtail in addition to cabbage whites.  A mature skink scampered across the patio and under my legs to disappear in the mulch.  As I was pulling up leucojum, I found a strange worm, or possibly millipede under a piece of roofing waste.  A tiny beetle like a ladybug, but black with red spots, was floating in a dish of water. I rescued it and learned it is called the twice-stabbed ladybird beetle.

As I came home after dark, drops of rain fell on the windshield, but when I went outside, I could see clear sky with stars and a half moon.

March 17 - Juncos, a yellow rumped warbler, and white throated sparrows scurried around below the feeder where cardinals and titmice feasted. 

Around noon, a couple of ospreys circled high over the water.  A crow teetered on the topmost twig of pine across the creek.  A tiger swallowtail crossed the yard.  The sun was hot but the breeze kept it cool. The temperature only got up to 70 or so.

In the late afternoon, the butterbutt discovered the suet K hung before lunch.  And a squirrel found the dish of mealworms I hung.  It leaped up in the wire and dangled by one forepaw and one hind foot to get its nose into the dish.  Humpf. In the front yard I discovered a rosette of bracket fungi grown into the azalea beside the spot where the oak died.  The bumblebees were busy around the blueberry flowers, some of which were already open for business. 

The geese appeared to be working out partners, and not amicably.  A few clouds to the NE reflected the sunset light.