Flowers, Bees, and Baby Birds

I have more pictures than just of those three listed things, but a lot of them are of flowers and bees, and I thought the baby birds might end up being the highlight of this post 🤗

First is from June 2nd.  Rex was being lazy again underneath one of the deck chairs, and the way he was laying, he looked like he'd just curled up and died there.

Neat clouds in the evening of the 3rd:

These next twenty-six pictures are all from June 4th.  Honeybees on the mountain ash blossoms; the sun shining through the mountain ash leaves:

Maple leaves against the sky/sun; a path through the trees:

The beautiful older maple tree, all filled out with dark green leaves; and a bunch of pictures of the tulips and daffodils we planted between the younger maple trees:

Mountain ash leaves casting shadows on each other; a cedar waxwing in the apple tree; a view of some of the wheat crop (and the dandelion "crop"); blue jay sitting at the very tip of a spruce tree.

Small systems of storm clouds had been rolling over us on and off all day, but if I recall correctly, it only actually rained once or twice, and not for very long.
  Until that evening.  I was mowing an area that hadn't been mowed for probably a week, so the grass was kind of long.  It was about 9:30 or so, and the whole time I was mowing, I was keeping an eye on a huge system that was slowly making its way towards us.  Each time I turned to face it again, it was looking a little more ominous than before. 
  It was starting to get quite windy, and I didn't really want to get caught in what looked like it was going to be a heavy downpour - by this time, the system was literally looming over me.  I was just going to finish the area I was mowing and then head back to the house.  There wasn't much grass left to mow in that area, and I probably could have gotten it done in five minutes or so . . . if I hadn't turned around for my next pass and seen lightning in the rapidly approaching system.
  I got back to the house pretty fast.  I like lightning - I think it's fascinating, and seeing it reminds me of how amazing and powerful God is - but I prefer to observe it from indoors, or at least closer to the house than I was.
  Anyway, here's a bunch of pictures from before, during, and after the storm.

June 5th.  A bit of an interesting zoomed-in shot of the wheat field.  I'd been trying to take a picture of what I'm pretty is a goldfinch sitting in the raspberry canes there, but I was taking the photo from the house and my camera doesn't zoom in any farther than that, so it ended up not really being a shot of the goldfinch, although you can see the little yellow blur at the top of the canes.

And then three from today (June 7th).  Sun shining on the clouds, trees, and field; and the baby birds as mentioned in the title!  I'm not yet sure what kind of birds these are.  I'm pretty sure they're some kind of sparrow, as I have gotten some looks at the mother, but she always jumps off the nest and leaves when we come too close, so I've never gotten more than a one- or two-second glimpse of her.  I almost got a picture of her today when I went out to take some of these four little ones, but she disappeared into the dandelions before I could find her through my camera lens.  So I just forgot about her and turned to quickly taking some pictures of the babies before a crow or magpie or something saw me crouching there and came over to investigate.
  (For a reference as to their size, I'm estimating that that one's mouth was about a quarter inch across when he had it wide open.)

A week or so ago, my dad found a blue jay's nest quite near the house, and now the young ones are being taught to fly, so if I get a chance, I'll get a picture of them too.
  I also am pretty sure that there's a robin's nest somewhere nearby too, because I keep seeing a pair of adults hopping around the lawn looking for worms.
  A pair of sapsuckers has been hanging around as well, so they probably are nesting in our trees someplace - as well as some goldfinches.  I'm not entirely sure how many pairs of goldfinches are around here.  We usually rarely see them at our house during the year - if at all - but we'd been hearing them around quite a bit this spring so far.  Then last week (possibly the very beginning of this week), I had heard a sparrow perched in the raspberries, singing.  I wanted to know what kind of sparrow it was, so I temporarily abandoned my asparagus picking and started moving slowly towards the raspberries.
  I got close enough for a fairly good look at the sparrow before it hopped down to hide on the ground among the canes, and I'm pretty sure it was a song sparrow.
  But right after the sparrow disappeared, two or three - or maybe even four - pairs of goldfinches exploded out of the raspberries in front of me, sat perched in various places for a few seconds, then took off into the trees.  And I think I've heard and/or seen them flying over at least once a day every day this week, so I'm pretty certain they're nesting somewhere close, too.
  So, although I don't know the locations and therefore don't have pictures of all these nesting sites, I do know they're around, and I love the variety of birds hanging around!  (I'm still hoping to get some good pictures of the goldfinches, but every time they're close enough to me that I could get a decent shot, I don't have my camera with me.  Hopefully soon I will!)