Frog-strangler

A male towhee had breakfast on the sunflower feeder.  I saw some hummers on their feeder.  Skinks scampered around the steps. 

Blue sky and hot sun brought out butterflies.  Unfortunately it also energized them.  Only the hairstreak stayed put on the mountain mint.  A black swallowtail, and (I think) a palamedes swallowtail, a sulphur of some sort, a little black butterfly that was probably a duskywing, and an orange butterfly that was probably a fritillary all lured me into snapping photos without looking.

I used the pool in the morning because meteorologists predicted a stormy cold front would arrive in the afternoon or evening.  The skimmer held a dead frog, probably the fool from yesterday.  A spider was tucked up into the crevice where the pool steps attached.  They like that spot.  While in the deep end, I glimpsed the tailless brown thrasher hopping through the grass. A green June bug clung to a floating leaf, so I hauled it out.  A skink ignored the beetle as it hustled across the patio. 

The storm got here a little after 3pm and the torrent of rain prompted flash flood warnings.  Visible lightning bolts struck North and West under lurid clouds.  As the storm moved overhead, the clouds became featureless gray and the lightning turned into directionless flashes.  Our street flooded where it joins the main road, as usual.  Our trash can tried to escape downstream in the gutter.  Altogether, it fit Nellie's favorite name for a downpour. 

Chickadees, titmice, and house finches braved the rain to visit the feeder.  The ant moat was full to the brim so I suspect the hummer juice was diluted.  And the bark butter had barely dried out from the last rain.