Baby bluebird

The air was still smoky, though either the smell had diminished or we got used to it.   Bluebirds looked ragged, maybe molting or maybe parenting wore them out.  Even though I staked it, the sunflower got in my line of sight of the seed feeder perch.  So instead of the brown headed nuthatch, the back of the sunflower was in focus.  The LRN volunteers were back to mark planting areas on the sand and rig goose deterrents.  

Either birds were eating green cherries or they were finding bugs among the cherries, but the wild cherry tree was busy.  One was a juvenile bluebird.  A mockingbird stood on the side wall of the steps and flashed.  Then it went to the birdbath for a drink.  

A snout butterfly was attracted to the cinquefoil or violets, I couldn't tell which.  BugGuide says their food is hackberry.  A cabbage white was more interested in the mountain mint.  But I didn't see any butterflies on the butterfly milkweed, just a little wasp and a minuscule ant.  Bumblebees feasted on the rue and I thought I saw a honeybee too.  Some potter wasps and quite a few flies were feeding on the rue as well. Leatherwing beetles preferred the parsley.  Wasps and flies joined them. 

Crows checked in case I had left them any food.  I hadn't.  A red bellied woodpecker wanted suet but was too wary.  When a white breasted nuthatch showed up, I was frustrated by the sunflower so I went outside.  Two white breasted nuthatches took turns at the feeder despite my presence.  A juvenile bluebird foraged under the red cedar.  A pine warbler got some suet.  A mockingbird decided I was too close.  Chickadees and titmice weren't as easily deterred from eating.  

Crows were busy harassing something.  Clouds moved in and we had a brief shower around 6pm.  The two male cardinals whose territories overlap at the feeder got into a squabble and one chased the other away.  I could tell them apart because one had begun to molt.