Weather!!!!!!

The deceiving clouds that turned into destruction.  The sirens were blaring and it seemed like a perfectly normal summer day.  At the north end of town,  dry tornado spouts were moving east sending off three different fronts of clouds.  All of the conditions were perfect for making dry tornadoes.

This is more than a casual cloud as it was dropping tornadoes onto the Pella, Iowa area. The major plant of Vermeer (Caterpillar) was being destroyed. Parking lots of cars destroyed and most all roofs on the plants were removed. Our friends in Marshalltown were safe but their downtown area was destroyed and many homes were lost to these dry tornadoes.  I have never heard of tornadoes without rain and hail.  I guess they were like the whirl wind dust twisters that you sometimes see.  The difference is that the 115 mile per hour winds and the twisters included just clears everything in its path. They are now reporting that 27 tornadoes developed from this cloud.

By Thursday evening we were left with these different kinds of clouds. We cooled off and cities and towns all east of us are still picking up the pieces. The cell phone cameras were on extra duty yesterday as people captured shots of buildings be destroyed, cars flying in the air,  and a clock steeple being blown off the tower of a court house. Weather that did have rain was unusual as for me I was rained on at the town’s brush dump yesterday. My time while unloading the truck of limbs and branches was one with a continual downpour.  My clothes were soaked and I was glad I had an extra shirt in the truck.

I did take this feeder down last evening.  The many newly hatched birds were learning how to pick seed from the feeder rather to learn to go out into the real world to find seed.  The numbers were just too many, as I would seed dozens of birds fly in and out all day.  Flocks of birds would fly away and another flock would fly in to eat. A few slow learner are out there looking for the feeder and are wondering what happened.  The finch feeder will stay up as they are not such a large bunch of birds.

I have seen a couple of hummingbirds at my feeder but they are slow to learn about its being there. I don’t even get a chance to take a photo as they flit in and out.  Once they get used to it I do know they will linger and enjoy the free sugar water.

The cowbirds keep hanging around on the deck as long as I put seed in this plastic container. A statement that I found about this bird is informative. “ They are brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nest of other species.”  The behavior of laying an egg into some other’s nest causes the eventual hatching of a larger bird that crowds out the others. The owners of the nest remain loyal to the cow bird chick until it leaves the nest.

It is a day of projects again for today. I don’t have any more new plants to put in but I may be transplanting a few plants to a new locations.  I do want to  mention that I did get my mums all trimmed back on time this year. My deadheading of the knock out roses has already brought  new buds to form.  We are having a cool day today.  Thanks for stopping by today.