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A flock of birds bounced around the cherry but never let me get a good look.  The towhee's child was back at breakfast.  Today the cloudless sulphur had the butterfly milkweed to itself. 

A bluetailed skink crossed the patio.  Hummers were active at lunchtime.  A tiger swallowtail fluttered around the cherry.  A Carolina wren gorged on the bark butter mush.  The Carolina mantis continued to hang upside down imitating a rose twig.

There were two skinks aswimming, one a blue tail, the other all  grown up and bronze with dark  lines running its length.  A lot of debris had blown into the water, but not too many insects.  I rescued a honeybee that hustled away across the concrete, but when I next looked, it had expired. 

The pattern continued. In the late afternoon, a bigger cloud than the ones that had already passed loosed a few fat drops from its trailing edge. Another cloud was on its heels and did the same. The third cloud came with mutters of thunder.  A Carolina wren grumbled to itself because by then I was sitting next to the door and too close to its food.  Chickadees and cardinals rushed to get seeds, upsetting the hummers.  A saddlebags cruised over the pool and I think some swallows did so higher up.  The bird I suspect of being a kite was back.  The thunder got louder and closer and lightning reflected off the clouds so I came in.  By 5:30 it was raining hard and booming.  That kept up till after dark.