Lovely day

Today was very pleasant, more like June than June was.  The sky was hazy and plenty of clouds kept the temperature from rising past 90.  The air was not sticky and the breeze felt cooling.  The morning sun caught the orb of the Argiope's web, not just the hackled threads in the center.  A squirrel sunbathed on a oak branch.  A red headed skink crossed the patio. 

On my way to the water I saw a feather-legged scoliid wasp but it was gone when I came back.  Lots of honeybees and many other bees and wasps were busy in the mountain mint.  I thought I saw a silver spotted skipper in addition to the duskywings.  While I was swimming, a tiger swallowtail spent considerable time in the wild cherry, but disappeared before I got to the camera. The tiger swallowtail returned in the afternoon and I got lucky.  A red spotted purple butterfly flitted around the cherry in the afternoon. 

Mid day, a dragonfly perched on a dead twig at the top of the cherry.  A widow skimmer settled onto the short perch near where I was sitting.  A bigger dragonfly that I couldn't identify got into a fight with the widow skimmer, I've no idea why.  They disappeared over the roof but she soon returned.  A prince baskettail was on patrol overhead.  A dark dragonfly took over the dead cherry trig, maybe a slaty skimmer?  It was evicted by a house finch.

A Carolina wren was very serious about pecking apart a barkbutter ball.  It seemed displeased and moved to the seed feeder.  A house finch fledgling up in the oak demanded food, keeping both parents busy.  Brown headed nuthatches streamed in to the seed feeder.  Bluebirds were wary of my presence outdoors.  I heard blue jays all day but only caught one in the oak.  Late in the day, a downy supped on suet.