Battling hummingbird

Usually one hummer quickly intimidates the other, but not today. One of the two appeared to have a male's red throat, but it might have been a reflection of the red feeder.  A female won the contest. In the late afternoon a hummingbird investigated the zinnias. 

Again, titmice were being coy.  Wrens were a bit wary as well.  But the regulars, chickadees, cardinals, and house finches, just ignored me.  A bluebird fed its child up in the oak.  I got a quick glimpse of a red bellied woodpecker. 

A few dragonflies took advantage of the high humidity that attracted the small flies that bite.  A slaty skimmer used one of the perches.  A yellowish dragonfly flew a pattern over the pool at lunch time, and in the late afternoon a Carolina saddlebags patrolled higher in the air.  A bumblebee enjoyed the lavender

The black swallowtail caterpillars on the rue were doing fine.  It was too early to say  much about the ones on the parsley.  An adult visited the rue to add more eggs.I counted ten monarch caterpillars today.  And an adult monarch laid more eggs.One monarch caterpillar left the milkweed and wandered about.   My guess was that it was looking for a place for its chrysalis, but I lost track of it.  I also saw a cloudless sulphur. 

All the squirrels suddenly had stained mouths, probably from pecan hulls.  One squirrel buried a nut in the flower bed.