Raccoon

An early hummer was very hungry.  She tracked an incoming bumblebee and chased away another hummer.  She puffed up her feathers and even raised a little crest.  Brown headed nuthatches were determined to get seeds.  Cumulus clouds blew in from the East but higher cirrus clouds flowed from West to East.  A red rose bloomed.  

I was able to locate the two monarch caterpillars again.  I do not understand why they bite part way through a stem and cause the leaves to droop and dry, but they keep doing it.   Frogs hung out on the escape stick.  They did not notice they'd been joined by a field cricket.  I rescued two crickets and one small skink. 

Just as I was getting ready to catch the frogs, a raccoon walked up to the pool and tried to get a drink.  The frogs made themselves very scarce.  At first I thought the raccoon was young and foolish but the longer I watched the more it seemed to me to be sick.  It was very awkward and almost fell in a couple of times.  That persuaded me to get out at the other end.  It wandered over to the polypore and nosed around but then it came back to the pool.  The frogs popped up for a breath and disappeared again.  The raccoon appeared to fall asleep.  K called Animal Control and they caught it and said it was fatally ill, though not rabid.  

At supper. the persistent nuthatch was back.  Clouds were softly tinted as the cormorants commuted back to their roost.