Solstice

As I ate a late breakfast, so did a hummer.   The aster began blooming.  An odd-looking bee, black with a pale abdomen, preferred the mountain mint.  I saved many beetles including several scarabs with copper-colored legs and undersides and lined wing covers.  My best guess is that the were shining leaf chafers Anomala binotata.  There was also a Japanese beetle which I did not rescue.  A few wasps and a bumblebee also got lucky.  

Birds began to be interested in the cherries, or were they after bugs?   The photo I got looks like the tail of a great crested flycatcher.  After I got out of the water, a mockingbird landed on the mealworm feeder.  I didn't have my camera with me when we came out of the temple, but there was a beautiful sunset of orange cloud shreds and swallows were flying and calling.