Tide Turning

It's still hot, Lafayette still seems to have a force field that deflects rain, and ironweed and mistflower still haven't bloomed around the house, but there does seem to be change in the air.  School started this week in Lafayette Parish, preseason football is here, and a peek at the 10-day forecast shows a solid wall of cloud and lightning bolt icons after a 6 week run of a malevolent little cartoon sun. The first weekend of the school year is one of relaxation and rest.  After sleeping as late as I could, a glance out bedroom window showed a scene that could have passed for Indian summer, complete with a hummingbird whizzing around the urban backyard wondering why the feeders were dry.

After remedying that situation, I got back to work doing nothing. Spray from a new mister drifted like smoke in a slight north wind. The air felt slightly cool.

A young Mockingbird with spots on its breast opened its wings and almost tipped over. I could see a tumor on its bill, and one on the bend of each wing. That youngster may have a tough road ahead.

A Broad-winged Hawk glided low directly over the porch and a large freakishly plain orange wasp landed on a peppervine sprout and appeared to be scouting the stem. The young male rubythroat, with a few iridescent throat feathers growing in a crescent on its throat, sampled the fresh nectar of the feeders and perched in a toothache tree where White-winged Doves fed from the clusters of fruit.

White-winged Doves are the most hardcore addicts of toothache trees I've encountered. Even during the height of fig season when all the other backyard birds were in a fig frenzy, Whitewings ignored everything but toothache fruit.  Hopefully these far-ranging doves will eject plenty of the seeds in their rambles and start some renegade toothache tree forests around the town.

A young-looking Great-crested Flycatcher popped out of the toothache trees--flycatchers are also heavy addicts of the fruit of this tree.  I hoped for more birds to appear, maybe some migrant empids, but the morning rush was tapped out.

Whatever cool I had imagined is gone, the air feels dry now, and Mississippi Kites are up riding the heat waves. It's still summer, but pretty soon the kites and flycatchers will be gone, and they'll take summer with them.