Water, water, water - especially when it's dry

I have a tiny urban backyard.  But I have landscaped it with as many native species as possible and, in 2013, added a pondless waterfall. This week is half over but work has bought me face-to-face with an emotional roller coaster.  Last evening I arrived home from work and put out the sprinkler.  Then I took a 2-1/2 mile walk around the neighborhood - as much for my head as for my body.  I followed this with dinner on my patio table and the latest book I'm reading.  By now the sprinkler had been on for about 40 minutes.  

It has been so dry this summer and the dryness has been exacerbated by the unseasonably hot weather of the past two weeks.  Everything in my yard looks shriveled.

Soon the inveterate bathers, our American robins, began to arrive.  At first 2, then 6, then 9, then 12 and then more.  They were followed by house sparrows - about 10 in all - who seem to enjoy water as much as robins. Shortly after this a single Northern Flicker took up drilling the water-softened soil at the end of my yard.  A Blue Jay flew in.  Two Downy Woodpeckers checked out the scene.  A White-breasted Nuthatch called from the large silver maple tree and a Red-bellied Woodpecker was drilling away in the same tree.

All this time I didn't have my camera.  I thought that going into the house to fetch it would disturb the ambiance of what I was watching.

Then this juvenile Cedar Waxwing flew to my leafless spicebush.  But the real shocker came when a female Scarlet Tanager flew to my driveway landing not further than ten feet from where I was sitting and began bathing in the driveway puddles.

Finally, I couldn't stand it anymore and went in for my camera. Unfortunately, I was too late for a Scarlet tanager photo.

These Cedar Waxwings were bathing on the wet leaves of my shriveled dogwood (Cornis florida).

Finally, an opportunity for fairly clear shots of the Northern Flicker as it worked its way around around the soft ground in the rear of my yard.

This brief respite with my yard birds did as much to help my head as my earlier walk.  The weather has turned cooler today and the chance for this visitation will probably not present itself again.  Autumn has arrived.