First hibiscus flowers

Three flowers on the hibiscus greeted us.  A titmouse and the pair of goldfinches joined the seed feeder trio.  The goldfinches checked the progress of their sunflowers.  A dove preened on the birdbath.  A hummer visited briefly.  I made fresh juice and restocked the front yard feeder.

The hummer returned and checked out each of the sunflowers and a rosebud.  After I picked blueberries, as I was cleaning them, an ant blundered into a web under the table.  It was three times the size of the spider that was trying to subdue it.  A couple of butterflies danced together over the pool.  I don't know if that's courtship or turf defense.  The widow skimmer was back at her post.

A monarch butterfly found the milkweed and the zinnia.  I thought a cardinal was going to catch it, but then the bird veered away.  It must have remembered a previous experience.  A robber fly whooshed around me, making me nervous till I saw what it was.  The basilica spider in the hibiscus caught something.

Piles of cumulus drifted East under a high haze.  While swimming, I saw a wren and a little green heron.  A hummer poked at a hibiscus bud, then flew off to try a pine candle.  There was a flurry of birds at supper: a Carolina wren, two male cardinals glaring, three doves, and uncounted house finches. Afterward, an egret stalked upstream along the bank.