Yesterday, my place received 1" of rain which is fantastic. That 1" equals the amount I had received in the last 5 weeks; consistently there has been 1/4" of rain each week except for about 3 weeks ago when I received none. From the UNL Drought Monitor :
Sure, we aren't as bad as some areas, but the average for the state is somewhere around 8-10" below normal (after a mild snow winter).
Finally got some shots of a cardinal that has been hanging around for most of the summer. He has been very skittish and bolts anytime I open the door . Since most of the summer has been extremely hot for this area, the door and shade is normally closed. However, it has been cooler and cloudy for a couple of days, so the shade has been up on the door. With the lights off in the kitchen, and moving slowly, I could keep from startling him. Although in the last picture, he must have caught a reflection off the phone, or I moved, so he played peekaboo.
I am leaning toward a color mutation for the pinkish, although it could certainly be a young male that hasn't come into it's final colors (none of the young males I have ever seen look like this though).
For the last couple of weeks I've also had a female Ruby-Throated Hummingbird hanging around the planters of flowers on the back porch railing. I finally put a feeder out for her last Monday since those flowers probably don't have much nectar (geraniums) and there aren't many other flowering plants around because of the dry conditions and the goldenrod hasn't opened yet. Haven't seen a male around though so don't know if she is a transient or what.
And that is pretty much the exciting news around here - everyone have a great week!
Until a few weeks ago I had only seen female ruby-throats around our yard/feeder. The first male that I saw was doing his courting dance, dipping about the female as she sat at the feeder ignoring him. Lately, the male has been coming to the feeder, alone, and two females have chased one another away from the feeder at other times. As I recall, males and females don't migrate together; but, my memory of which arrives/leaves earlier is not dependable.
Your drought has lasted too long. Glad you got a little and wish more for you. We received 1.35" Friday night/yesterday morning (cold front passage rather than from Laura remnants as was the case for your rain). It had mostly stopped by the time I went out for my walk (left the house at 6:20). I told your dad that I got less wet on my walk than does he, normally, from sweat.
I'm a bit dizzy this morning, but hoping it passes before 8:00am so that I can get some more edging done while the weather is cooler.
Posted by: Cop Car | August 30, 2020 at 08:44 AM