Drama

When I got up, the sky was gray and threatening, but little rain fell overnight and the clouds began to break up shortly after breakfast. The usual domestic squabble between pileated woodpeckers entertained me as I ate. Afterward, a bluebird and a house finch complained that the second suet cage was empty.  By mid morning turtles had climbed up onto their log.  

Then I noticed a crow climbing about in the saltbush  The reason for this puzzling behavior revealed itself to be  a black rat snake.It too was climbing the bush and slowly made its way, bush by bush, to the dock where it dropped out of sight.  A male towhee supervised from the grass.  A muskrat or nutria swam past the commotion.  

Black swallowtails flitted around the yard looking for nectar or mates.  A mockingbird mostly contented itself with suet crumbs.  A female red bellied woodpecker arrived to make more crumbs.  That attracted a second mockingbird.  Two brown headed nuthatches shared the seed feeder perch. 

In the afternoon I spotted a pied bill grebe on the creek.  It raised its wings repeatedly or flapped them and seemed to be preening.  There were enough clouds to catch sunset colors and turn orange.