My eye catches movement on the walking path that I cut between the woodland and the meadow, and I watch a mother turkey leading her three small poults to the nearby meadow to search for grasshoppers. When the entourage reaches the creek, I observe the poults dashing around after insects while the hen nibbles blackberries from a nearby bush. By midday, a few of the wildflowers have succumbed to the heat, and as I water them, I see one of the little fence lizards watching for another insect to be flushed out from the mulch. A green anole lays along the branch of a hog plum waiting for a meal of bee or wasp to happen by. One of the many gopher tortoises, this one a big male, is seen walking along the path - his stately progress further slowed by his frequent but brief stops to sample a chickweed leaf or prickly pear cactus pad.
Late afternoon brings the songbirds back to the feeders and the birdbaths.
A timer switches on a sprinkler at the corner of the yard, and the wrens and cardinals perch on the adjacent fence for their daily shower. Movement in the dripping-wet grape leaves reveals a tufted titmouse as it brushes through in its own take on the proper bathing method. Several gray squirrels scurry about underneath the bird feeders, picking up fallen seeds. The hummingbirds seem to linger more at their feeders as daylight fades, as if to polish off as much nectar as possible to hold them until morning. Steadily, the birds, squirrels, lizards and other diurnal animals prepare themselves for the approaching night, and observed activity slowly, if temporarily, winds down.