Overnight rain, sunny day

Everything drips.  The clouds break apart then squish together, allowing some intermittent sun.  More rain is forecast.  Sparrows are still here.  Cardinals, finches, chickadees, and wrens have been on the feeder.  I glimpsed a hummingbird. This Carolina wren fluffed itself and looks strange. 

It's mostly sunny with wind from the South.  For a day that was supposed to be nothing but rain, it has been lovely.  Skinks are on the prowl at lunch.  I'd love to see one catch its own lunch.  I am still trying to photograph the swallows. No joy. The birdhouse, however, has attracted a couple of wrens.  I think they are house wrens.  They seemed to be arguing, but one was also singing. While I was watching the birdhouse, a skink emerged from the pool cover and scuttled past me. 

A menacing rainstorm blew up in the late afternoon, but by sunset the clouds were breaking up. 

Fog, then sun

Fog drifting upstream early.  A cardinal and a squirrel came for breakfast.  Then the fog lifted around 9am.  The rosemary is nearly finished blooming.  A wren played peek-a-boo in the redwood.

A strange cloud showed up in the north around noon.  It was a lenticular over a classic cumulus.  The wind has shifted and in coming out of the SE after days of NE wind. There are cumulus moving fast while higher ice clouds are nearly stationary.  The sun cast a halo briefly. 

After lunch, it was quite warm.  The usual species  came to the feeder. A dark bodied, clear winged dragonfly circled over the lower patio without perching.  My photos are all blurs.  Later I saw a very small damsel fly.  Also real flies - a greenbottle and a biter. The next generation of black swallowtails has hatched. A young skink darted into a crack. 

I went out on the dock in hopes of photographing the swallows.  Instead, I watched as an osprey with a fish landed in the pines the crows have claimed. One soon spied the diner.  It left to recruit others but came back alone, possibly so it wouldn't have to share the fish.  The osprey fled and the crow pursued down the creek and out of sight. 

Earlier I thought I saw a snowy egret take flight - yellow at the rear, not front.  Then later a very small white heron-type bird landed below the dam.  It was maybe half the size of the great egrets I see there.

The sky clouded back up later and I think a little rain fell but the sun broke through before setting.  It was chased by more dark clouds.  In May, the sun sets behind the pines across the creek upstream, not at the head of the creek as it did at the solstice.  Still, there was drama, and later, wind and rain. 

Back to overcast

Cardinals competing with finches for the feeder while sparrows forage in the mulch.  The wind is still strong.  It chills but it does counteract biting insects. Despite a couple of blinks of sun, the sky is still white at noon. 

At lunch, a crow drank from the pool cover, turning its head on the side to get its beak into the shallow water.  Not much else is happening.  I'd better check the feeder again.  Sigh.  A mallard drake walked across the pool cov3r and down the hill. 

K refilled the feeder and the usual birds showed up for supper.  A wren paused briefly.  A male cardinal picked up spilled seeds on the concrete.   I took no more photos.  It is still gray. 

Curtains of mist

It is only supposed to be partly cloudy but a fine rain is blowing out of the East.  A titmouse was on the feeder but it left and did not return.  The sparrows remain, along with the usual three species: cardinal, chickadee, and house finch.

The Carolina wrens appeared in the afternoon shortly before the sky cleared. A mallard drake stopped for a drink from the pool cover.  Some sort of swallow or martin flew swift and high. The deciduous azalea, or pinxter flower, is blooming and the pecan catkins are almost ready to pollinate. 

Sun and sparows

The white throats are still here scratching at the mulch.  A grackle inspected the grass and found something. Breakfast was bright with sunshine but the clouds are getting thicker now - just the reverse of yesterday.  It is still windy.

Hmm, the clouds moved off again and just left haze.  A squirrel has just been frustrated by the feeder, again.  That was an excellent purchase about 20 years ago!  Finches returned when the squirrel gave up. 

Ducks skid-landed on the pool cover.  Geese escorted their five goslings down the hill.  Of course, one insisted on dawdling. The haze has thickened and the wind continues. 

Sun as predicted

It was overcast at breakfast.  Then just before 9am a fierce wind out of the NE swept the clouds before it.  The usual suspects have been to the feeder.  A catbird paused briefly on the bench.  Two small, brown birds have been zooming around too fast to identify - lust or territory? White throated sparrows are still here.

Tiger swallowtails are flitting in the wind. Grackles arrived at lunch.  I think I've seen five different skinks this afternoon,
different sizes, some adult some blue tailed.  This one has lost part of its tail.

The Carolina wrens came by in the afternoon.  High in the sky, I think I'm seeing swallows, maybe swifts or martins, I cannot be sure.  Definitely gulls and cormorants, and maybe osprey are up there.  A pelican lumbered through, perhaps avoiding the wind out on the open water.

A tiger swallowtail posed laying eggs on a wild cherry.  I never noticed before but the veins in the upper wings produce a sort of cats-eye look.  I wonder if it works as intimidation?

Wind and rain

Curtains of rain are blowing up the creek.  Cardinals, finches, and a white throated sparrow nevertheless came for breakfast.  I finally got the two color morphs of white throated sparrow in one photo. 

 The wind defeated the rain.  Lots of chickadees are hungry along with wrens.  I keep glimpsing mystery birds that I cannot identify.  A ragged osprey soared over the creek.  A female brown headed cowbird stopped by briefly.  I have to thank the Facebook Great Backyard Bird Count group for confirming the identification. 

Around 9pm, at least two raccoons came to raid the feeder.  I was alerted by the noise when one jumped off.  I couldn't get much of a photo through the window without scaring them off.   But here is one pawing through the mulch.