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This morning the female goldfinch came along with the male.  Three male house finches and several females followed at the feeder.  A female cardinal was beginning to lose head feathers like the male I saw a few days ago.  A yellow crowned night heron preened on the dock bench.  A lady butterfly with missing eye spots feasted on a dandelion while a cabbage white flitted past without landing.  Bees worked on the Mexican sage.  The hibiscus sprouts were nearly tall enough to tie to supports.

The sky was hazy around noon and distances were not sharp.  Lots of wasps were out including a delicate black and yellow mud dauber, but only cabbage butterflies.  I rescued a ladybug and many other beetles, a honeybee and many smaller wasps from the water.  A rather scary spider with a pale abdomen seemed thoroughly drowned.  There were muddy scrapes on the coping that I blamed on raccoons. 

My car's thermometer registered 99° by mid afternoon.  When I got home, a great crested flycatcher landed in the dogwood.  Large ants trundled around the patio and up the windows.  An egret fished below the dam.  The haze had turned to large clouds which colored at sunset.