Hazy

I was up before dawn to go to a meeting and it wasn't till 3pm that I picked up the camera.  The sky was clear at sunrise except for some ruby streaks low in the East.  By the time I looked again, it was hazy with high cirrus and lower cumulus.  The sun had no trouble getting through to heat us up.

A black swallowtail, a cloudless sulphur, and a little blue butterfly were energized by the heat.  A blue dasher perched in wait.  Also lurking in ambush was a hummer.  A tiny skink with only part of its blue tail scuttled around the patio. 

One of the juvenile cardinals was getting an orange beak. An egret fished under the bulkhead. 

And I was astounded to see a monarch caterpillar by the bird feeder, yards from the milkweed.  I don't know if it was hunting more milkweed or a place to metamorphose.