Bluebirds got away before I was ready but a Carolina wren, a blue jay, and a mockingbird were more cooperative. The male cardinals continued their routine of stealing seeds and hot pursuit. The afternoon temperature was in the upper 90s and, despite haze, the sun felt like a furnace. I waited for shade before getting in the water. A spider with a load of babies was willing to be rescued but a male was suspicious. I didn't see much else in the water. After sunset I saw fireflies.
A Carolina wren greeted sunshine under a hazy sky. A nervous cardinal grabbed a seed but son the dominant male chased him off. The dominant pair then kissed beaks. A house finch landed on the hummer feeder for no good reason. Another squirrel misjudged its jump and fell, this time out of the redwood so at least thirty feet, but I didn't see a corpse. A crow felt the need of another bath.
I saw a tiger swallowtail and the little butterfly I guessed was an azure. Four spiders needed to be evicted from the skimmer. I also removed a couple of scarabs from the water. A mosquito (or something with an interest in my blood) was annoying till I managed to splash it. As I dripped afterward, a female squirrel - the one with the odd patch of pale fur - came close in order to forage under the feeder. A brown thrasher was more cautious.
Two apparently female pileated woodpeckers landed. One ate suet while the other sat on the roof and watched. I guessed the one of the roof was a fledgling, no longer being fed by mama. Sunset turned rose and purple but I didn't bestir myself for any pictures.
The morning creek was flat and shiny. Squirrels were play-chasing and one fell. It disappeared behind dogwood foliage and there was some thrashing so I guess that broke its fall. But I never saw it emerge. Another squirrel began eating barkbutter balls. So much for "hot pepper!" A gladiolus stalk in the front yard bloomed, as did two different daylily plants along the pool.
Bluebirds appeared at lunchtime. A mockingbird followed on the barkbutter dish. And then a male towhee popped up in the mulch! It was excessively camera-shy. Because of meetings scheduled later, I went swimming in the early afternoon with no shade from the sun. There was nothing but beetles, spiders, a mosquito, and little wasps in the water. I glimpsed a tiger swallowtail.
A bluebird appeared before lunch. I hadn't seen any for a while. He had some trouble with the perch rolling over. A Carolina wren persisted despite a cranky cardinal. Something landed on the hummer feeder but it wasn't a hummingbird. Maybe that wren? The crow had its beak open but it was sitting in the sun. I saw a tiger swallowtail, a smaller yellow butterfly, and a little pale butterfly. None of them posed. The coral honeysuckle continued to flower as a backup for the feeder. I went swimming and pool cleaning but only found one scarab beetle.
I didn't even try to get wet today. The temperature barely rose into the 70s and the wind was harsh. A Carolina wren made several visits. The wind blew up its skirts like Marilyn Monroe. A squirrel sat on the feeder keeping the birds away. Then it ate more "hot pepper" suet. Later a downy had some suet too.
The mockingbird pair came for barkbutter balls. The cardinals courted. An osprey plunged into the creek but I couldn't tell if it caught anything.
The brown thrasher pair nibbled at the barkbutter balls K put out for the crow. The crow did get some to. Mockingbirds and blue jays preferred to eat from the hanging dishes but the mockingbird also ate some on the ground. When the food on the ground was gone a brown thrasher protested. When I got in the water, the sky had become clouded and the wind had grown stronger. I rescued an assassin bug, a crane fly, a robber fly, a scarab beetle, a spider, and something that looked like a sawfly. None of them hung around for a portrait.
