Wind & sun

First up was a goldfinch that drank from the hummer feeder.  Then a pair of house finches were billing, if not cooing, on the seed feeder.  He offered her a hulled seed and she fluttered like a fledgling. 

Later, in the front yard, a couple of mockingbirds seemed to be thinking along the same lines.  But while they were perched close together, they were ignoring each other.

Despite the wind, a tiger swallowtail was flying at lunch.  It seemed slow, but not slow enough for me to photograph.  Money plants are blooming. 

In the middle of the afternoon, a pair of doves started necking, literally.  Unfortunately they were behind a window screen.  Eventually a squirrel scattered them.  Then it was the squirrel's turn to be pursued.  Meanwhile, a Carolina wren inspected the patio and flew on.  A titmouse hammered seeds open.  A kingfisher was scared off by a boat. 

The female downy woodpecker has taken to the seed feeder.  But then she took each seed over to the post and hammered it there, just as though she were going after a grub under bark.  I saw this just as I was leaving for a meeting.  When I came home a half moon was headed West with a bright planet overhead following..