Cloudy

The sun got through at times but the sky was mostly overcast.  Gusts of wind brought down leaves yellowed from the heat and lack of rain.  Not much went on at breakfast.  A wren looked for mealworms so I refilled the dish.

When I came home a buckeye butterfly was feeding on the lantana.  It was the summer "linea" morph.  I learned a new term seasonal polyphenism for changes in appearance depending on season.  I fished out another dead caterpillar and rescued some crickets and beetles.  At lunch time, a tiger swallowtail once again evaded the camera.  A skimmer perched and other dragonflies including a saddlebags flew high.  I saw a tiny skink behind the rose, and later a large one put its head in the birdbath. A cicada killer buzzed by. 

Cardinals were feeding a youngster.  Titmice joined the feeder birds.  A very aggressive hummer perched in the cherry to keep an eye on feeder and flowers.  She descended in wrath on another hummer that tried to feed on the cannas.

By mid afternoon the sky was quite dark and thunder rumbled.  The seed eaters gathered for a emergency supplies.  Finally, around 3pm rain began. It lasted the rest of the day, and came just in time for a lot of heat-stressed plants.  The rain began to slack off at supper. Four titmice crowded the feeder.  A hummer kept trying to get time on her feeder.