Cloudy

Even though there was a risk of rain, I put off swimming till afternoon.  I thought I saw a greenhead fly so I got out of the water.  Robber flies began to appear.  A crane fly cllung to the door screen. 

Blue dashers occupied every reasonable perch.  A Carolina saddlebags made a dead twig at the top of the hackberry tree its base of operations.  That led me to notice that the wild cherries were about half way to ripe.

Since the rue was going to seed, wasps switched to the mountain mint and the lavender.  A great golden digger wasp reappeared.  The sakaki flowers attracted bees.  A half dozen bumblebees had fallen into the pool and some actually revived. 

Toward evening, dragonflies of some sort zipped around at treetop height.  Then a yellow crowned night heron landed in the oak.  At lunch, K had spotted a juvenile night heron up in a pine tree but the one in the oak was an adult.

The clouds took on strange appearances during the day but only a handful of raindrops ever landed.  A fragment of rainbow floated overhead for a while. I saw but failed to photograph blue jays and hummingbirds

Wet day

There was fog in the early morning but that lifted and we had sunshine.  White throats didn't wait for breakfast.  Nor did the male red bellied woodpecker.  All the many shades of spring green glowed in the sunlight, washed clean of pollen.  The creek was placid but clouded with silt. 

In the afternoon, threatening clouds built up.  Geese brought their goslings to help fertilize the lawn.  Lightning cracked and soon rain fell - blindingly for a short time, then very lightly till sunset.  The sinking sun made a rainbow.  Later, the moon had a ring.

Summery

A great blue heron, a cloudless sulphur and a dragonfly got away without a photo. Crickets and beetles rafted on the water.  I hauled spiders out, including a mama wolf and a bold jumper.  Also there were sliverfish or firebrats,order Zygentoma, in the water.  Out in the creek I spied another jellyfish. 

A wasp investigated one of the patio chairs which offered it no wood.  A venusta orchard spider hung from an enormous, flat web over in the trees.  The one by the azalea was gone leaving me to wonder if it was the same spider. 

Something upset the blue jays, I suspect it was a predatory bird.  Mockingbirds sneaked into the beauty berries.  The regulars and titmice rounded out the bird count. 

Wisps of cirrus clouds moved East while  below them fluffy cumulus slid past on a Northeast trajectory. At one point, the ice crystals that form cirrus clouds were in the right spot to intercept sunlight and refract it into a rainbow, or rather an ice-bow.  I noticed a sundog earlier. 

Then the sky cleared at sunset except for clouds on the horizon that turned gold.  Later, the just-past full moon rose, looking large and illuminating the ground. 

Still hot

Something ate all the suet, this time without removing the holder. The blue jays were still doing a slow-speed chase through the trees.  Dragonflies and butterflies eluded the camera.  White throats were still with us. At least until the feral cat showed up.  It tried to drink from the pool cover but of course the water rose around its feet.  A bit later a female goldfinch perched on the feeder hanger, then flew off.  A downy and a titmouse visited. 

I didn't have the camera at lunch, so I saw an osprey hovering, a downy woodpecker getting a last nibble of suet, and a almost completely changed yellow rumped warbler who gave up on the suet.  After lunch as I was getting ready to leave, an egret fished under my window.  And then, as I passed the feeders, I saw a female hummingbird tucking in.

I got stuck on the HRBT as a rain shower passed overhead and on out over the Bay, and left a rainbow in its wake.  A butterfly ventured a ways along the bridge before rushing back to land. 

Daylight was saved

It was, however, light when I got up.  Sunshine slipped in sideways under a white sky.  The squirrel that seems to delight in leaping from bending twigs missed and fell at least 15 feet, but scrambled back up.  The cat was back, reducing bird watching opportunities.  However, juncos were back, including the brownish female.  White throated sparrows and doves joined them under the feeder.  Starlings tried to get at the last bits of suet.  And a splash on the creek alerted me to a female wood duck. 

By midday the overcast broke into big cumulus clouds, some white, but some dark.  There was sun for several hours.  A cabbage white fluttered through the yard and carpenter bees fed on the rosemary.  The male downy was bold enough to work on the suet while we ate outside, but disappeared just before a hawk zoomed through the yard.

Later, an osprey plunged into the creek behind a screen of brush so I couldn't tell if it was successful.  It flew off over the lake. A little after 4pm EDT, the rain began. The storm moved East and around 5pm the sun shone intensely on the falling rain.  A faint rainbow formed over the creek.   Titmice were busy at the feeder while the warbler watched.  Cedar waxwings landed briefly in the neighbor's sycamore.  And another hour and back to gray, and another band of rain at 7pm. 

Cooler and very pleasant

The sun shone on wet surfaces.  The blueberry plants were dripping.  A Carolina wren visited the feeder early.  At least two and I think more titmice came for seeds.  A female house finch hunkered down and drove off chickadees and titmice till the cardinals showed up.  Another mud wasp obsessed over the glass door and a yellow kneed wasp landed on the screen. K hung fresh hummer juice. 

A buzzard circled at lunch.  The hummer appeared pleased with the fresh juice.  A brown thrasher was busy all afternoon all over the yard, as though it had started another family in the camellia.  A yellow crowned night heron rested on the dock.  A white breasted nuthatch scurried around a dogwood.  A male goldfinch checked out the progress of the sunflowers while a dove poked around underneath. House wrens sang and scolded and investigated the pool skimmings. 

I rescued two June bugs and saw a small gray tiger beetle hot-footing it on the concrete.  An immature male widow skimmer took up post by the steps while a black saddlebags patrolled overhead.  Female widow skimmers hung out in the bushes.  Earlier, a blue dasher perched on another pole, and later I saw a twelve-spotted skimmer.  A tiger swallowtail made a few passes through the yard.  A painted (or American) lady turned up its proboscis at the roses.  I saw a hairstreak or something like it on the chaste tree flowers.  Bees and a few wasps enjoyed the sunflowers, except when they landed on the same one.  A large blue-tailed skink showed up on the patio. 

At first the clouds were coming from the South, then lower clouds began to come in from the East.  Late in the afternoon, a bit of rainbow appeared high in the West in advance of thick cloud cover.  I think it must have been a sort of mist because no rain fell out of that blue sky.  Rain did begin after sunset.

Rainbow!

Morning was sunny and mild.  Lots of sparrows congregated on the way to brunch.

The sky glazed over midday and the temperature dropped.  While we ate lunch seaside more sparrows feasted on weed seeds.  We only had phones for photos.  Pigeons practiced aerial formations and landed in the sea wrack.  The sun burned through and got a bit warmer.

Then, near sunset, dramatic clouds piled up and dropped scattered showers, one of which caught the sunlight and made a gigantic sky-spanning double rainbow.  Gulls and maybe other birds prowled the shore and waves.  I only got blurry photos of some kind of sandpiper/plover. 

Rainbow

I woke to rain slapping the house like a giant broom.  It didn't last long and the clouds are still moving fast on a wind out of the Southwest.  While the clouds kept it dark, the male towhee came for breakfast along with white throats.  The birds I saw yesterday were in the redwood this morning.  They flew out into open air then back to a perch just like dragonflies.  I've got to find out what they are.

Now it has grown lighter and chickadees are coming, but the towhee and the unidentified birds are gone. Bits of blue are showing between clouds and there is a suggestion of shadows, if not actual sunlight. Later in the morning there was real sunshine.  I saw an egret and a flock of mergansers in the lake beyond the dam. A couple of doves stopped for a drink.

Around noon, another period of heavy rain hit.  The clouds to the South looked like a rolling boil and there was a sharp front edge in the East.  After the rain passed, a rainbow appeared in the Northeast.  A cardinal and a finch, both female, came to the feeder along with chickadees.  White throats scarfed up the peanut hearts.  A pelican just passed. 

More sun and clouds

House finches and white throated sparrows are all I've seen so far.  I've been thinking about how the house finches moved so successfully into purple finch territory.  Of all the songbirds that are sexually dimorphic, they seem to accept the presence of other males most easily.  Two were on the feeder together this morning.  Does that give them a survival or reproductive advantage?  By contrast, the male cardinal spent a lot of effort driving off another male last month. 

The two Carolina wrens are conducting their daily investigation of the grill. After lunch, a skink dashed across the patio.  The oak flowers are beginning to fall and the air is full of writhing brown "caterpillars." It makes me think of Pern. A bumblebee was overloaded with pollen. 

When I got home around 5:30, I went outside and discovered the gnats are awake.  Too bad the gnatcatcher migrated.  Blue jays  were loud and one had a standoff with a crow.  Another crow made a strange sound calling its brethren to help attack an eagle.  The eagle was backlit by the sun but the crows drove it off before I could focus.  Then buzzards appeared and surveyed the same area.

Something has built an nest inside a screen of jessamine on the top of a drainpipe.  The towhees are still hanging out under the azaleas.

The first quarter moon was passing through cirrus clouds.  A cloud moved through the spot where the sun can create a sundog. 

A sauna

Blue sky with cream puffs, but the condensation on the windows tells the truth - humid!  The usual suspects are at the feeder and doves are beneath.


Humpf.  The sky has been getting darker and now after 11am, it is raining steadily, heavy at times. Now the sun is shining on the rain.  A Carolina wren is hanging about under the morning glories.  A tiny skink started to pose when a squirrel scared it off.  The squirrel looks very punk in wet fur.  Butterflies are taking advantage of the respite from rain

Back and forth - now it is storming with thunder mid-afternoon.
And sun.
And rain.
And finally, a rainbow! 



(Note: I've now unloaded the camera and filled in the images for the last ten days.) 

Morning fog

All was quiet. Now it has burned off and there are high cloud wisps.

And now they're congealing into heavy clouds, with a rainbow overhead! Is that some kind of illusion?