Chipping sparrow

Brown headed nuthatches were waiting for breakfast.  A molting Carolina wren was next.  Goldfinches were thirsty and hungry.  Mockingbirds and blue jays went for barkbutter balls but then a brown thrasher took over.  The mockingbird got a drink instead.  Hummers got their own drink.  Late in the afternoon, a white breasted nuthatch visited among house finches and a brown headed cousin.  A downy woodpecker arrived around the same time. 

After checking with All About Birds, I think the chipping sparrow might have been a juvenile bird.  In fact, I may have been seeing two birds, a juvenile and a molting adult.  The one without streaks visited the feeder while the streaky one foraged underneath.  I got curious and learned that Chipping in a place name means market.  There was no indication whether that applied to the sparrow.  Perhaps it originated as "cheeping" instead?  

There were two frogs in the pool and a black swallowtail caterpillar in the skimmer.  I put the caterpillar in the sun to see if it would revive and it did.  Thinking that it had left the rue to look for a place to pupate, I put it in the mountain mint but it was not happy and crawled away.  A red wasp was buzzing around the mountain mint so maybe it was wary.  I saw a black and a tiger swallowtail, a cloudless sulphur, a red spotted purple, and some small fliers I couldn't identify. 

The Argiope seemed healthy though deflated.   A dead shrew was lying on the patio.  I wonder what brought us that gift?  I picked it up with a leaf and hurled it down the hill. A very small skink oozed between the retaining wall logs.  The sky was hazy with wisps that might have come from contrails.  I think I finally identified the fungus that comes up every year under the oak as Berkeley's Polypore  Bondarzewia berkeleyi. 

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