Still hot

The male red bellied woodpecker got up for a suet breakfast.  Much later, I heard one fussing in the trees because I was too close to the suet. 

The painted skimmer was back briefly at lunchtime.  I saw a tiger swallowtail fluttering around the wild cherry and a dark swallowtail that just kept going.  The brown thrasher pair foraged for suet crumbs while bluebirds went to the source.  Blue jays pecked at the remains of barkbutter balls. 

Since the temperature was predicted to drop back to normal after today, I made sure to get another afternoon in the pool.  This time I only rescued a few small black beetles.  Dragonflies zoomed past but didn't pause to be identified, much less photographed.  The sky was quite blue with lots of cottony cumulus.  And it was still windy.  When I came in, the pileated woodpecker landed on the post right behind me. I tried to ignore her but she spooked anyway.  

In the late afternoon, I heard a mockingbird again.  A bluebird perched on a vent pipe looked over his shoulder to where crows set up a racket.  If there was a predator, it didn't come our way.  Wasps and syrphid flies were attracted to the rue flowers.  A silver spotted skipper hid behind a rose leaf.  Cabbage whites flitted around like nothing was good enough for them.  A buzzard circled overhead. 

By evening menacing clouds covered the sky.  Dragonflies zipped across my field of view without the directional changes they make when hunting.  A crane fly brushed past me.  In between the low dark clouds I could see higher clouds turning sunset colors.  The stormy-looking clouds just kept moving past without a drop of rain falling.  But I think the temperature was falling because the wind began to feel chilly so I came inside.