Warm and windy

There was a downy woodpecker at breakfast, then I missed the rest of the morning.  As I was returning a large flock of crows circled and landed in a tree just down the street.  The temperature got up to 76 today, not quite a record. 

At lunch, I was amazed to see a monarch butterfly battling the wind. I don't know if the butterfly came migrating from further North or hatched out here from the warmth. And oddly, it seemed more interested in red leaves than milkweed flowers directly beneath.  A cabbage white crossed the yard without pausing.

Trees gained a lot of color in the last couple of days.  A female downy came back for more suet in the late afternoon.  The sky was cloudless till sunset when a  few small fluffs caught the glow.  Then, as a female cardinal got her bedtime snack, thick dark clouds raced in from the West.  A dove landed only to be scared off by K gong to "brick the feeder."  And then it was pitch dark.