Brighter

It was still overcast and wet, but the light was better. The ant-moat rain-gauge was nearly full.  Titmice and cardinals competed for seeds.  One male cardinal chased the other away from the feeder.  Downy woodpeckers sought a turn.

An osprey circled under the clouds.  As I walked past a window (without the camera) I saw a pair of mallards and a shoveler drake along the edge of the creek.  The mallards got out and marched up into the yard, but the shoveler stayed in the water.  Maybe it was lonely since the other shovelers migrated. K saw a hummer at the front feeder but it didn't stay. 

After escaping the rain outside, an earwig drowned in a vase of flowers.  The bluebirds never stopped their trips to and from the nest box.  Geese kept bringing their goslings to visit.  At 7pm, the sun finally escaped the cloud cover. 

More rain

The rain fell harder today.  The birds looked soggy and it wasn't warm either.  A titmouse was almost unrecognizable and a cardinal not much better.  But, mercifully, there wasn't much wind.  Bluebirds continued to bring bugs to the nest box.

The rain briefly became mist at lunch time and K swapped the flying-saucer-shaped hummingbird feeder for the cheap one that actually seems to function better in rain.  Also, the top of the saucer was daubed with guano.  A hummer came to feed in mid afternoon but I missed it.

I did see a brown thrasher toward evening, but it saw me too.  At supper two titmice and a pair of cardinals devoured seeds as though they were starving.  I suspect the titmice were mates, but they looked the same to me.  The cardinals definitely were - he tried to feed her but that over-weighted the perch and spoiled the romance.  And the light was poor and the glass streaky with rain so no photos.

Rain

The rainfall was gentle but the day was dreary.  Of course, baby birds still needed to be fed.  The bluebirds were both working hard.  Two titmice made regular feeder visits along with chickadees, cardinals, and house finches.  I saw a downy woodpecker. An egret watched the water spilling out below the dam. Squirrels were romantic. 

Beautiful weather

 At breakfast, squirrels were engaged in drama.  The short tailed squirrel got affectionate with another, but the relationship went nowhere.  Then a third squirrel bullied the one with half a tail.  An egret fished in the usual spot. 

At lunch, I saw a titmouse and a white breasted nuthatch, but didn't get a photo of either.  Butterflies, dragonflies, bees, and wasps all flew around the yard.  A heron took over the fishing spot below the dam.  After lunch I watched the bluebirds for a while.  An orchard orbweaver spider had built a web beside the fuschia.

In the back yard, bees fed on the rue.  I'm not sure I'd want to taste that honey.  Chickadee fledglings begged for food and taste-tested inappropriate parts of vegetation.  A convoy of goslings passed.  A great crested flycatcher arrived from the South.  I glimpsed a goldfinch, but not clearly enough to know which sex.  A Carolina wren pried something from the oak bark.  The orbweaver in the iris was still there.  An adult skink zipped into a hidey-hole.

When I left Norfolk, the sun was fat and orange as it slipped out of sight.  It turned thin streaky clouds and the rising full moon rosy pink.  But alas, I had no opportunity to get a photo.  Swallows swooped and chattered in the sky over the Center.  Crows were gathering over the interchange as I passed through.  And I saw a firefly blinking when I got home. 

Watching bluebirds

Titmice came for breakfast and a drink.  The neighbors' magnolia had a couple of blossoms.  The clematis was finished and the jasmine was beginning to bloom.  All the potted plants seemed to be doing well.  After lunch, I saw a crow harassing a buzzard, which was just mean. 

It has been clear that the parent birds were carrying food to the nest box, so the eggs must have hatched.  Today I could hear the cheeping when a parent arrived.  I hope they are  not feeding a cowbird!  Anyway, mid afternoon, I sat on the front patio and took pictures of what the parents were bringing.  One beak-full was clearly a spider.

Just as I was about to leave for an evening meeting, a goose family came up the back yard headed toward the pool.  I got a couple of pictures before K evicted them.  Sunset was red with streaky clouds and the moon rose behind wisps of mist.

Sunny but cool

The goldfinches were back for more water. I saw a honeybee on the rue.  It acted odd afterward.  A bumblebee tried to crawl into a blue flag iris.  In the heart of another iris, I spied a small orb weaver. 

I saw a downy woodpecker but it got away. Two titmice made frequent trips for seeds.  A female towhee foraged for a while under the feeder.  An egret seemed to be catching fish below the dam. 

Sun didn't last

I was off early to a meeting and didn't see anything in the yard till late morning.  By then it was pleasantly warm, but too breezy for comfort.  A female amberwing clung to a leaf.  A larger dragonfly eluded me.  I startled a hummingbird moth that was hidden under the gardenia.  I saw it flying a few days ago but wasn't sure what I was seeing.  Then I went crazy trying to photograph a tiger swallowtail. 

A titmouse played peek-a-boo with me.  Two grackles poked around and startled the brown thrasher that had been serenading me.  The thrasher came right back, ready to take them on.  A female hummer settled on her feeder.  Later, a female would not perch so I think it may have been a different bird.

By 2pm the sunshine had become intermittent and heavy clouds rolled out of the West.  A heron staked out the dam outfall.  About ten minutes later a couple of geese were followed by a Muscovy duck along the bank below the dam.  A little while after that an egret took over.

The female goldfinch was back for a drink, followed by the male.  The titmouse brought a friend.  Cardinals chased off intruders.  Bluebirds were hard at work in the front yard.  There was a brief rain around 4pm that was not in the forecast.  After that the clouds were fewer.