First hummingbird!

At breakfast, the creek was still, but speckled with pollen and fallen petals.  A male hummer appeared around 7:30am and hovered briefly around the suet, clearly remembering that as the location of the hummer feeder.  I hope it found the feeder out front.  Or some of the tubular flowers around the yard.  A different butterbutt came for suet.  This one was about two-thirds molted into summer plumage.  A Carolina wren whacked at the mealworms.   A titmouse also favored suet.  White throats excitedly flitted and popped all over like they had ADHD.  I glimpsed a couple of buffleheads on the creek.  I had assumed they'd moved on. Just as I was leaving for my haircut, I spied a brown thrasher thrashing mulch in all directions.

At lunch time, dragonflies buzzed around the patio. I saw a tiger swallowtail and a small orange butterfly.  A downy woodpecker came for suet.   When K moved the pepper outside, we saw both bluebirds in the pecan.  One quickly flew into the birdhouse.  As the afternoon went on, the sky clouded over.  In the evening I saw a great blue heron below the dam.  Sunset was a bar of orange below a roof of cloud.

Cooler

First the cat walked past.  Then two geese explored the pool cover.  There are other creatures I'd rather see in the morning.  Eventually a wren, a warbler, a titmouse, and white throated sparrows showed up.  The warbler didn't look familiar so it might have wintered further South.  Fluffy clouds drifted across the sky.  It was breezy. 

When I got home for lunch K was out, so I planted the broken piece of ice plant I'd persuaded to root.  I watered all the potted and recently planted in the front of the house.  That included the wren's petunia, but nothing stirred.  I saw a very thin, black inchworm (geometrid caterpillar) and a dragonfly along with bees and wasps, and later a tiger swallowtail.  A blue jay flew over the house.  The female bluebird kept watch from the pecan.

By evening there was a lot of cloud cover and the temperature had dropped down into the 50s.  A downy woodpecker worked on the suet.  White throats scurried around under the feeder.  This warm week probably sent a lot of migrants North, but not the white throats. 

Still warm

A goldfinch lurked in the wild cherry which had started to bloom.  I counted at least seven white throated sparrows under and on the feeder.  One tried to eat suet but had difficulty balancing.  Another bathed, as did a chickadee.  A brown thrasher prowled along the mulch edging at the far end of the yard.  Then the cat prowled through.

I sat on the front patio for a while listening to the bird concert, till a garbage truck drowned them out and scared them off.  The male bluebird visited the birdhouse, then kept watch from the pecan.  I heard a jay and crows, and what I suspect was a mockingbird or brown thrasher, which may have accounted for the jay and crow sounds as well.

When I looked out at the water, a boat on the lake held two fishermen and a child.  My view of the lake was  almost gone as the redwood leafed out.  A little green heron landed on the dock. 

The sky grew hazy in the afternoon and eliminated shadows.  We planted what we got from the church plant sale, and not before time.  Butterflies, bees, and wasps flew around but only a wasp cooperated with the camera.  An egret stalked along the bank.  I thought it was a snowy on account of the dark beak, but the green patch at the base belongs to a great egret.  I have seen more snowys in the last couple of years than in all the time before. 

As I drove West after 6pm, the sky was glazed with cirrostratus and I saw a faint sundog.  When the moon rose, thicker clouds made it disappear, highlight clouds from behind, then reappear.

More hot and sunny

At breakfast there were white throats and a Carolina wren.  When we came back after lunch, a bluebird zoomed in front of the car but then we couldn't see it again.  The female downy woodpecker found the fresh suet.

In the mid afternoon, the lake turtles were out sunning, but they stayed away from an egret on their preferred log.

When I left for a meeting at 6pm, the car thermometer said 84°F and when I got home at 9pm it had only dropped to 75°F.  The full moon was rising and again looked misty. 

Hot

Not much was stirring at breakfast.  Then the cat walked by.  Afterward, a feisty male house finch chased everyone else off the feeder.  The suet was gone so K replaced it with the last block I had bought.  But the woodpeckers must have given up because I never saw them.  At lunch we were entertained by skinks.  But still there weren't many birds.  The day was sunny and very warm, but there was a mist around the moon after dark. 

Sunny

At breakfast the downy woodpeckers were arguing over the last shreds of suet.  She lost patience and it made his red feathers stand on end.  A male pine warbler settled for mealworms.  Then the red bellied woodpeckers wanted some suet.  White throats went for seeds from the feeder and the ground beneath.  Some of them looked scruffy like they were molting.  One took a short bath.

When we got home for lunch, a Carolina wren was on the mealworm dish.  Both black and tiger swallowtails were flying along with bees and wasps and flies.  And dogwood petals, which looked very much like butterflies fluttering on the breeze.  The male red belly "clucked" at me because I was too close to the feeder.  Wild cherries were just beginning to bloom. 

The pine warbler was back at supper time.  As it rose, the moon looked very round although it lacked two days of being full.

Calm, at last

Blue sky was reflected in the creek.  It was undisturbed except by geese, mallards, and buffleheads.   There was a breeze, but nothing to disturb the birds, though it felt chilly to me.  Lots of white throats fussed at each other.  I didn't get the mealworms out fast enough for the wren.  A downy woodpecker visited, as did a titmouse.

I saw a black swallowtail clinging to a redwood branch when the breeze picked up before lunch. A robin came for a drink.  The male red bellied woodpecker danced with impatience on an oak branch while I was outside.  After I came in, he descended on the suet.  Two wrens showed up for mealworms.  And the white throats never stopped.  The coral honeysuckle was covered with flowers and the grass was dotted with blue and white violets.

In the afternoon, I went to a workshop in the Brock Environmental Center.  It looks out over marsh and the Lynnhaven.  I didn't see too much of birds, but some interesting flowers: asters, wisteria, scotch broom, raspberry, and a little yellow flower that might actually be native.

When I got home, I saw a brown thrasher in addition to the white throats, wrens, titmice, and feeder regulars.  By then the birdbath had gone dry to the disappointment of a stumpy-tailed squirrel.  The moon rose fat and bright.