Where does the time go?

I can't believe that a month has gone by, well, it is summer now! And the monsoons have arrived. Thank goodness.

Talk about nature and it's problems. We've had the most interesting events ever in the garden this month.I couldn't understand why the Rufous-sided Towhees were so hysterical all the time. They hardly ever left the south garden's trees. Talk about noisy, very, very noisy almost all the time, and if I walked under the trees they went nuts. This being the first year that we had had them for such a long period of time, we were fascinated by their behavior. All was explained one afternoon, I went out to photograph the currently blooming plants, when they were dive bombing the daisy plants. I went over to see why, and this is what I encountered. See below:

Masticophis flagelllum, aka, Coachwhip or Sonoran Red Racer

This darling had been living in the trees above the garden, eating eggs and insects and occasionally making a foray into the garden to eat mice and lizards. Now, we don't mind if they eat the deer mice but leave my lizzies alone! Those Towhees were not about to give up once they had him on the ground, they chased him across the yard into the vegetable garden (we didn't have fresh Swiss Chard that night) and you should know that birds cooperate. The largest one pretended he had a broken wing while dragging it around in circles in front of the place the snake went to ground while the other two waited to attack. It was the most amazing sight. End of story, we don't know who won. The birds have departed, the mice are gone, as is the snake. But, not too far as the Doves were going crazy this morning to the north of the house.

While the Towhees were watching the snake one of them encountered this moth that had the audacity to

fly in to the south garden. Mister Moth made a major mistake, as I had never seen such an attack by a bird before the snake attacks. This is what the poor moth looked like when I tried to save it from the Towhee predator. As far as I am able to identify it with my books, it may be a Black Witch but then again it could be anything else. It was about 4 inches across with wings fully extended. Any hints, I'm open to info.

The rain has come and with it the diminution of the fire threat. The plants are greening up as they only can when they get the nitrogen from the rain. The apples are getting red and the vegetable garden is burgeoning and bolting. Tomorrow I replant for fall and winter crops. The rabbits are jealous but I keep them fed with prunings from the gardens. Pedro Conejo has learned to jump the east garden wall and attack the sweet potatoes in their large garden pots! Pots are now surrounded by chicken wire, very chic!