Fritillary

A pine warbler started the day.  Then the male red bellied woodpecker returned.  Then bluebirds and a mockingbird arrived.  I went swimming in the morning and cleared to pool of the usual collection of beetles, but one was new.  The first six-spotted tiger beetle, Cicindela sexguttata, of the season scuttled away after I fished it out twice.   

As I dripped, a Carolina wren looked for fallen food.  The pine warbler lurked in the dogwood.  A blue tailed skink took a look at the birdbath.  By noon, clouds had gotten menacing and the rain started soon after I went inside.  The goldfinches ignored the light rain, as did bluebirds.  Even the pine warbler joined the queue. 

There turn out to be more species of fritillary in Virginia than I had realized.  Today's visitor, a variegated fritillary (Euptoieta claudia), showed up between rains and fell in love with mountain mint.  Really fierce wind gusts hammered trees and shoved cumulus clouds across the sky to the Northeast.  Higher cirrus clouds were unaffected.  The first belt of rain came through around 1pm and the second after 3:30pm.  Neither lasted long. The morning's South wind had become a West wind by sunset.  

A male goldfinch perched upside down to reach the remaining seeds in the sunflower.  The female was more wary.  A bluebird stayed up in the trees while I was outside.  But a white breasted nuthatch was much braver.  A very high soaring bird caught my eye and made me think Mississippi kite,  but I'm unsure what it was.  The male hummer was still satisfied with the sugar-water but I plan to change it tomorrow.