Chill wind

It was cloudy and gusty when I got up.  Cormorants flew over from their roost North of the house somewhere.  A couple of hours later, menacingly dark clouds blew out of the West.  An hour after that. the wind was coming from the North, the sky was clear, and the temperature had dropped.  Many trees were brightly colored against the blue sky.  I saw a mockingbird down the street. 

A monarch flew around the back yard during lunch, then rested on the redwood.  Yellow jackets and other Hymenoptera were still at work.  Chickadees came for seeds but the wind discouraged other birds. Thanks to the wind, the tide was very low as well.  And the salt bush released its seed fluff to ride on the wind. 

I went to an event in the new environmental sciences building at Virginia Wesleyan. The event had nothing to do with the environment but the landscaping around the building was lovely.  Retention ponds were being used as living laboratories with one ringed by bald cypress. I may have startled a frog. The sun was setting by then and the sky glowed gold in the West, pink in the East.