Peek-a-boo sun

Big ugly clouds passed over with sunshine in between.  I saw butterflies and skinks, mostly at inopportune moments.  Egrets, great and snowy, by the dam and hummers on the feeder were easier to photograph. And dragonflies eventually posed on their resting stake. 

A blue jay flew to the oak and a bluebird landed on the post.  The bluebird seemed very fluffy, either a fledgling or a molting female.

A couple of light rain sprinkles fell during the day, though the clouds seemed to promise deluges.  

Misty

Mist washed out the pines across the creek when I got up.   A titmouse came to the feeder briefly.  Hummers were up early.  So was a very handsome red cardinal.  A thin trickle of sunlight came through after breakfast.  The morning battle with the geese continued.  Egrets fished in the turbulence from the dam. 

Later there was a light sprinkle of rain.  By lunch time, there were shadows again.  A skimmer perched on the feeder hanger while a hummingbird got lunch.  A cabbage white flitted around the rue while wasps fed.  Skinks dashed about their business.  A stinkbug crawled around on the window.  Since there were no bark butter balls, there were no blue jays.

In the early evening, dragonflies were zipping back and forth over the patio and I tried to catch one on camera.

Gray day

Light rain fell in the morning as we scrambled to get to an appointment.  We surprised the female bluebird with nesting material.  Of course there was no camera handy.  After the appointment, I waited a while for K and observed the shopping strip parking lot ecological niche.  A male English/house sparrow had a lovely bath in the gutter.  A crow watched from a street light.  A laughing gull cruised  over the asphalt scanning for junk food.  A bird I didn't recognize perched on a light pole.

At home, I persuaded K to put out fresh hummer juice which was very popular. One hummer chased another away, then kept watch from the dogwood.  A blue jay came to see about bark butter but it had turned to soup.  A crow watched while a great blue heron and egrets, both great and snowy, fished in the water rushing from the dam.  I sat out front but never saw the bluebirds again.  A slug toured the window glass toward evening.  The sky to the Northeast grew pink though the rest was still gray. 

Rain

The morning was hazy but there was sunlight.  A titmouse made a couple of forays to the feeder, but did not return once I was ready to take a photo.  Instead, I got a blue jay.  Chickadees and cardinals also came for breakfast. 

At lunch time, clouds covered the sky. I saw a small skink cross the steps.  A black swallowtail butterfly discovered the parsley and the rue. There were dragonflies and wasps, but not in yesterday's profusion.

The sky grew dark just as we began to eat.  Rain began and soon was pounding down.  It slacked off and a great crested flycatcher went after insects.  Chickadees and cardinals, and a squirrel, looked wet and bedraggled.  The rain came in pulses of heavy and light but never quite stopped. 

Since I did not see a hummingbird yesterday, I thought the feeder might be empty or dried out.  But one appeared in the rain after lunch, so perhaps the rain reconstituted sugar syrup into an acceptable fluid?  Another arrived later and tried all three holes to no avail. K brought the feeder in and found it was empty. 

A small object on the floor that I thought was an escaping pea turned out to be a snail.  We've no idea how that got inside but back out it was tossed. 

Dragonflies

The last few days have hatched out a wide variety of dragonflies and also the little fliers they eat.  I wish I could have captured the way a dragonfly caught the sunlight while the vegetation behind was still in shade.  I wasted many pixels trying. Wasps also were spotlighted by the sun. The insects had to battle wind gusts. 

Blue jays kept coming for bark butter balls.  Egrets worked up and down the creek.  Fireflies appeared at twilight. K saw the almost full moon through a break in the clouds. Two green stinkbugs landed on the window along with lots of tiny moths and a lacewing, attracted by the light. 

A change in the weather

Subtropical Storm Alberto out in the Gulf has been predicted to run up the Mississippi Valley, bringing rain all week.  Today, the sky was blue with puffy cumulus but in the afternoon it became white with a thin overcast.  Wood ducks came around in the morning and I saw them again later out on the creek. A snowy egret fished below the dam outfall.  Geese escorted their adolescent offspring to the pool, repeatedly, and childless mallards occasionally.

Blue jays kept up their sneak attacks on the bark butter balls.  Female hummers visited.  That was it, except for the three regular seed eaters. There may have been others that went by too fast for me to identify. 

Dragonflies were thick, and finally some perched where I could get a shot.  One dropped out of the sky and landed on its back.  But it soon zipped off.  I noticed a cloud of dancing gnats that explained what the dragonflies were after.  Wasps were thirsty from building nests. I watched a translucent yellow spider (green lynx?) in the window. 

The bolted parsley began blooming and the hibiscus popped up.  K got the stalks tucked into the cage that I hope will support them through storms.  I appreciate this as it was despite concern about snakes lurking in the undergrowth. 

Lovely day

Breakfast was rushed to get to the doctor's office in order to wait.  There I learned that elevated meant my foot had to be higher than my heart, not possible while looking out the window.  So I spent the rest of the morning on my back on the bed.  At least I got to feel the breeze to and from the office.  The temperature was very pleasant in the morning and it was sunny all day with passing clouds.  Hummer(s?) visited.

Lunch and a much delayed home health appointment gave me some time to watch out the window in the afternoon.  I glimpsed a couple of butterflies but saw lots of dragonflies.  I think some were pondhawks, but none of them stopped for a portrait.  Wasps were abundant and more cooperative. 

I saw two skinks.  Blue jays lost some bark butter balls to a crow and some to the courting cardinal. 

I glimpsed a pileated woodpecker on a pine trunk as I was focusing on an egret by the dam.  I thought I saw a wren, but it was a chickadee.  Then I went back to elevating until supper.  About 8pm, a male hummer slipped in to the feeder, without the female noticing. Alas the light was going and all I got was a blur.  Faint contrails turned pink and faded into the dark.