Scorcher!

A stiff Southwest wind pushed the temperature to at least 97° and drove the water out of the creek.  Low tide was as low as I can remember, though the full moon was partly responsible.  considering the heat, I was grateful for the breeze.  The two-gosling goose family came to graze but I told them they were unwelcome.  I rescued a honeybee, a bumblebee, a tiny green bee, several spiders, innumerable black ground beetles, and a ladybird beetle, but they all left before I got the camera.  Cumulus clouds occasionally passed in front of the sun, casting shadows on the sky.  

A great blue skimmer hunted tiny biting insects.  A dark butterfly flew away under the trees.  A rusty-backed carpenter bee fed on the rue.  A female hummer rejected the sugar water and no wonder - when K took the feeder down we discovered nasty, black guano splattered over it.  When I tried to disassemble if for washing, it broke.  I have more feeders but I need enough to keep rotating them.  

A Carolina wren peeked at me from behind vegetation.  Then a bluebird landed on the top of the maple tree.  The wren went for the empty barkbutter dish.  So did the bluebird.  K walked outside and interrupted their confrontation.  

Amazingly, 97° was not a record.  The thermometer hit 98° on this date in 1880.