Butterfly season

The sky was mostly cloudy when I got up but mostly clear by the middle of the morning.  House finches, cardinals, and a goldfinch showed up at breakfast.  A couple of titmice hammered unripe acorns up in the oak.  Hummers made war on each other. 

It seemed like dragonflies were more common in July and butterflies in August.  The butterfly milkweed helped too.  A slaty skimmer and a blue dasher hunted while a pair of mating saddlebags flew overhead.  A monarch delighted in the milkweed despite the bees and a cloudless sulphur also paid a brief visit.  I saw three kinds of swallowtail but only captured the black.  A cabbage white preferred the rosemary.  A snout butterfly fell in love with my toes, then with the camera itself.  I fished a large dead stinkbug out of the water and later saw a tiny ant dragging it away.

After lunch, I saw a hummer visiting the Mexican sage. A chickadee got into the cannas for some reason and somehow aquired a yellow tummy.  Grackles and a cardinal poked through the grass under the redwood.  Then I had to go to a meeting.  Despite the clouds piled up from Northwest to Southeast, there was no rain or thunder.