A Second Look--May 18, 2016

I'm beginning to sound like a broken record. We've had more rain. If you look closely, you may notice rain drops on some of the pictures. About half of them were taken when there was a break in the rain yesterday--meaning I took them when it was only sprinkling instead of pouring. While I didn't get out as much as I wanted last week, the plants were very happy. The emerald green everywhere is proof of that.

We put up another bird feeder near our back doors and we're all enjoying the view--especially the cats. While various birds have come by, it is visited mostly by house finches and goldfinches. And among all of the birds, we have seen more than one fight going on over feeder rights. They look so sweet, but these birds are no pushovers.

Here are some things I saw this week 

during a Second Look.

Cranesbill

If you look carefully, you can see a sunflower seed in the house finch's mouth.

Even though it was raining, the bumble bees were visiting the rhododendron. 

I haven't seen a lot of rabbits this spring. I don't know if that is by chance or that the foxes had a good winter and there are plenty of them around to prey on the rabbits.

Goldfinch

The first purple sage is blooming.

I'm not sure what this is except some kind of snail or slug. I was struck by its white color because I usually associate brown and grey with these creatures. I have no idea if this true, but for a little while I imagined that I was seeing an albino creepy-crawly. 

Buttercups

The squirrels are enjoying the fallout from the new feeder.

The bearded iris have joined the Japanese iris that started blooming last week.

The baby bluebirds have gotten so big that they all don't fit in the picture. Compare this week's picture to last week's. Both were taken from the same distance above the nest.