Hot wind

A strong wind from the Southwest stripped the flowers off the azaleas.  I was away most of the morning, but during the brief time home in between, I discovered that wrens were building a nest in the old plastic birdhouse I stuck in the camellia outside the kitchen window.  As I was getting ready to leave around 9:30am, I saw an adult bald eagle pursued by a flock of screaming crows.  The eagle was headed ESE toward the Western Branch of the Lynnhaven.  I was too surprised to think of the camera.

By afternoon the temperature had climbed to the 80s and the wind had gotten fierce.  A few butterflies stayed low but the dragonflies were everywhere.  A male Eastern pondhawk perched where I could photograph it.  Big carpenter bees and wasps were too.  Overhead, swallows chased more bugs.  A blue jay perched on a dead oak limb.  Several skinks scurried around the patio.

 In the late afternoon, a little green heron flew under the dock.  By the time my brain realized it was not a crow it was out of sight.  I suppose the support crossbeams make a good fishing perch.  The wind drove the tide low so there was plenty of clearance.  Things kept knocking on the new windows but they've all been bugs that I have seen.  At sunset as the light began to fade, dark fliers went zipping past the window.  They seemed to large for bugs and too small for birds - bats?