A hot summer day

Today was going to be hot, we knew that when the night time low never came. For those of you living in other parts of the country, a hot day here in the Northwest is different. It is rare, very rare. The past week has been warm and clear. So the air quality plummeted, you can't have it all.

I got up while it was still "cool" and started to take pictures without leaving the yard, this is what I came up with.

A morning without Hummingbirds is a morning without sunshine. Here a pair of Anna's take a dip and drink.

A male Anna's refreshed lifts off.

A trio of Ospreys circled the house for a few minutes. This one came close enough for this photo.

I watered a few plants on the front porch and out hopped this little guy.

This is Lister, he is new and shiny. Doing a couple laps around the yard before the sun slowed him down.

I have always called these guys Locust. (I may be wrong on the identification). While I was trying to position myself to get a picture of one, it found the second one here. They began a strange head to head "dance" where they took turns raising and lowering their legs in an alternating fashion. They then faced the same direction and froze in place of a few minutes before flying off in opposite directions.


These guys are about the size of a nickel. I had always thought they were butterflies. Now that I took a photo I see that they are actually moths. Or are they? I am not sure, but they are cute.


This handsome little dragon fly liked to pose.

Off at the edge of the yard I heard the calls of these young California Quail looking for their mother. By the time I found them they had found her.


This is a young Robin. They are on their third hatching of the year. The Robins that have nested in our yard for the past five years have had a great deal of difficulty in getting any of their young to survive beyond this point.

Here a young Swainson's Thrush gets a fruity breakfast treat to start the day off. Then he spent the rest of the day demanding more.

This is the second batch of young for this adult Barn Swallow. Four this time and four in the last batch, if the weather holds they may have another before they fly south for the winter.

Around Eleven the sun got the best of both Lister and Phoebe. She is new and shiny also. A quick dip in the pool is a prefect activity for such a hot day.