Rain

The morning was hazy but there was sunlight.  A titmouse made a couple of forays to the feeder, but did not return once I was ready to take a photo.  Instead, I got a blue jay.  Chickadees and cardinals also came for breakfast. 

At lunch time, clouds covered the sky. I saw a small skink cross the steps.  A black swallowtail butterfly discovered the parsley and the rue. There were dragonflies and wasps, but not in yesterday's profusion.

The sky grew dark just as we began to eat.  Rain began and soon was pounding down.  It slacked off and a great crested flycatcher went after insects.  Chickadees and cardinals, and a squirrel, looked wet and bedraggled.  The rain came in pulses of heavy and light but never quite stopped. 

Since I did not see a hummingbird yesterday, I thought the feeder might be empty or dried out.  But one appeared in the rain after lunch, so perhaps the rain reconstituted sugar syrup into an acceptable fluid?  Another arrived later and tried all three holes to no avail. K brought the feeder in and found it was empty. 

A small object on the floor that I thought was an escaping pea turned out to be a snail.  We've no idea how that got inside but back out it was tossed.