birds and bees and other manifestations of the godhead

As I mentioned, it finally quit raining and when it did summer landed like a wet blanket. A wet blanket infested with mosquitoes. Suffice to say I'm spending lot of time indoors.

Spring is just a memory along with all those lovely flowers. Even the day lilies that bloomed profusely and for months last year are nearly done. A few put on a dazzling display but most the others, like the altheas before them, were disappointing. Some of the ginger is putting out bloom buds. The angel trumpets are frustrating me though. The one I planted last summer over at the shop is at least 3 1/2' tall and bushy and still nary a bloom. Sigh.

I've been collecting pictures of some of the other residents around here.

A male male cardinal has been feeding his two juniors for weeks now. He comes to the tea cup while the two juniors chirp and shiver their wings begging for food. Eventually one of the juniors got up the courage to come to the tea cup though that didn't stop it from begging from dad. 

I looked up the other day to see junior 1 and dad on the tea cup while junior 2 was waiting in the shrub. Dad is done with the feeding though. He's been chasing the juniors off the last two days when they come begging. They're on their own now.

I haven't seen the female feeding them. She's probably already sitting on another brood of eggs.

I spotted this nest the other day and while I did see her sit in it briefly, it is empty.

All the rain has made the frogs and toads happy. Their serenades fill the night with noise. Walking in the Little Backyard, an incautious step will send the little ones leaping away.

I'm happy to say I've seen more honeybees this year. This one was getting nectar from the flowering aloe.

This carpenter bee was hovering by my head until it finally flew up into the hole it had drilled in the end rafter of the barn. Everybody told me to kill it as they would ruin the rafter but I didn't do it.

Now I see there are four more holes so I guess we're going to have to discourage them.

A woodpecker, a yellow bellied sapsucker or a flicker maybe, was happily thunking away on a hollow dead branch in the tallow tree for weeks. 

 
It would thunk on the outside and then it would thunk on the inside.

The intrepid killdeer is still guarding her eggs in the gravel of the driveway of the shop. I'm impressed as it's too hot for me out there and she endures at least 10 hours of full sun. 

The eggs should be hatching any day now and I'm a little concerned with tropical storm Bill making landfall this morning somewhere between us and Houston.

And the anoles.

Giving me the eye.