Sunny

At breakfast, a pileated woodpecker came to see if the suet had reappeared.  It was gone too quickly for me to capture.  A couple of doves prowled around the patio.  Titmice and downy woodpeckers came for seeds.  The woodpeckers have hammered so many seeds on the post that the wood is splitting.

A tiny syrphid fly hovered around the rosemary blossoms.  A ground beetle refused to be rescued from the water.  I couldn't reach a camel cricket.  A cabbage white and a tiger swallowtail crossed the yard.  A couple of skinks ran across the step.  We planted the three pots of vines that are supposed to give us privacy in front of the house.

A pair of towhees showed up at lunch.  Geese with one gosling tried to sneak past twice.  After I chased them off, I stayed outside and saw many orange butterflies and a painted/American lady.  Big dragonflies with unmarked wings were zooming through but not perching.  A mammoth carpenter bee was working on the rue and there were wasps gathering wood pulp from the bench.  The house wrens sang. Three mallard drakes paddled around, then a female towed nine ducklings downstream.