Curious young birds

I was up early for a meeting and sunrise looked like a nice day was coming.  But when I got out of the meeting there was a thick overcast, dark around the rim of horizon like an inverted bowl.  A few scattered raindrops fell, but the wind helped dry everything, and patches of blue sky even included sunshine.  An egret was preening on the dock bench again.

A hummer hovered just outside the window.  I wonder if she saw her reflection or me.It was very hard to convince the camera that I did not want to photograph the trees in the background.  Another tangled with a black swallowtail. 

The young brown thrasher was back.  Blue jays kept an eye on the yard.  A flicker flew down from the oak and hopped up the steps.  I think it too may have been hatched this year.  A titmouse visited the seeds and a mockingbird perched on the roof peak facing the front yard. 

A wild indigo duskywing enjoyed the portulaca flowers.  The a carpenter bee tore into the yellow ones.  A great golden digger wasp competed with little bees for milkweed flowers. Several dragonflies consumed tiny flying pests.  I saw a blue dasher, a great blue skimmer, and a slaty skimmer. 

A skink so tiny it must have been fresh from the egg dashed across the concrete.  A full grown one basked by the birdbath.  And with that, July passed into history.