More clouds

Morning was gloomy and not particularly warm.  By afternoon, the overcast had broken into individual cumulus that looked stormy, but nothing happened except the sun got through and heated the day. 

Titmice were hungry at breakfast.  When I went out to swim, a night heron stalked the tide-exposed mud.  A great blue heron did the same only under the bulkhead on the other side of the creek. Later an egret followed the same routine.  Something upset the crows, but I never saw what.  Their cries attracted a blue jay. 

I had thought the black widow was gone, but I saw a couple of spidery feet up near the top of its hideout.  The wolf with the egg ball was still hiding close by.  I rescued a lot of beetles including a small, brown click beetle.  Sidewalk tiger beetles dashed after invisible prey.  So did a few dragonflies, blue dashers.and great blue skimmers. A tiger bee fly rested on the windowsill.

A fiery skipper fed on the mint alongside wasps and flies.  Later a cabbage white did the same while the mint dripped with spittlebugs. Still later a hairstreak arrived on the mint.  A black swallowtail spent time with the rue.  A variegated fritillary preferred violet leaves. 

I saw a skink in the mulch, then another.  The first had a blue tail, but the second had a brown, regrown tail.  Brown tail pounced on the other and they wrestled and thrashed, ignoring me though I was close enough to touch.  Eventually they separated and the blue tail disappeared into the mulch while the brown tail went to bask on the retaining wall.