Bright sun

The just-past-full moon was bright in the West as the sun turned the few clouds pink. It looks like summer, but it is cold and still breezy.

Doves showed up on the patio.  Gulls and egrets are fighting the winds aloft.  The yellow jackets are very busy repairing their nest but I see no other insects.

Mushrooms abound.  There are jelly ears, puffballs, russulas and more.  The saltbush, or groundsel, is releasing its seeds on the wind.  I tied up the beaten-down sunflowers. 

This afternoon, the cream puff cumulus congealed into overcast.

Storm has passed

The sky has texture - I can see individual clouds and bits of blue sky.  It is still very windy, but no rain is falling for the first time since noon Saturday.  About 9" fell here in three days. The sun appeared briefly, but now there is light rain.

The feeder is back up, but unvisited.  One wretched-looking female cardinal poked around in the mulch.  It's still breezy and cold and damp.  Some of the limbs that blew out of the oak have jelly fungus.  The weeping conks on the stump look moldy.  There's no activity at the yellow jacket nest and no bees on the rosemary.  Flowers drooped to shed rain and are still head down.  Dreary aftermath.  One plank is missing from the dock, not bad all things considered. 

Hurricane Sandy

The wind and rain continued through the night. The hurricane is due East now - 8:30am - about 5 degrees off the coast, so the wind is now out of the North.  I think that means the next high tides won't be so high, despite the full moon.  A hungry male cardinal found the seeds I scattered yesterday.  Two mockingbirds tried to snatch enough berries for a meal.  The wind has stripped most of the leaves off the beauty berry.

We had company at lunch: a dove, a cardinal, and a white throated sparrow.  The dove was scarfing up the seeds I scattered, packing its crop.  It really doesn't have the right beak to hull sunflower seeds. The birds are mostly deep in a bush, but every so often one will think it needs to change bushes.  One cardinal ran across the grass rather than try to fly.  

At 8pm, the storm center came ashore in New Jersey.  That should push water out of Chesapeake Bay.  It is still noisy with wind outside and our high tide should come around 10pm. 

Wind!

The tide is up over the bulkhead opposite.  A flotilla of geese sailed upstream with a tailwind.  It is wet, but the wind is more impressive than the rain.  Since the trees are mostly still green, there are a lot of soggy leaves to catch the wind and pull down limbs.  Morning glories are struggling to open.  The sunflower stalks are riding it out so far.

Chickadees showed up and complained about their missing breakfast.  I've scattered seeds on the patio but I don't know if they will land on the ground.  So maybe today I will find out.

So far, no birds have sampled the seeds. The rain varies but sometimes blows in veils above the creek which is way over its banks.  The dock disappeared about mid morning.  An egret slowly beat its way downstream into the wind.

Wind is over 30mph with gusts over 40.   Rain is fairly heavy.  I haven't seen any birds or animals for hours. I think the center of the storm should be directly East tomorrow morning, probably at high tide.

It is getting dark.  Two sparrows were hopping around in the mulch looking for stray seeds.  I can't be sure in bad light through the wet glass, but I think they were white throats.  The cormorants made their usual evening commute in the face of the wind. 

Yellow, red, blue

Sunflower, rose, morning glory, under a gray sky.  The tide is high and it is windy.  Chickadees and cardinals have visited. Then a dove and a Carolina wren appeared.

Rain started around noon.  Six doves flew off.  The rain is the extreme edge of Hurricane Sandy which is currently predicted to follow the coast North, then hook West into Delaware Bay where it's supposed to run into a cold front and create snowmageddon.

The rain continues and is slowly filling the birdbath.  The chickadees don't care, they're hungry. 

We took the feeder down because of the expected winds.  The cardinals are very upset.  They've searched all over for the missing feeder. 

Egrets at dawn

Flying off to their favorite fishing holes.  A bright planet, probably Jupiter, was visible West of the zenith until a few minutes ago.

The sky was murky all day.  The sun could be seen behind a smoky veil.  It must have rained while I was inside.  On the way back from Williamsburg, I saw a tree loaded with fruit that looked like wild persimmons.  Birds are still coming to the seed feeder - I saw a female cardinal.  

VLA had a program at 8am on Citizen Science which I missed.  Coincidentally, Mary Reid Barrow's Sunday column also talked about citizen science, specifically Project Noah. 

Interesting weather

There was a lot of fog this morning on the Peninsula.  It made me wish I'd taken my camera.  Coming back, we left warm sun and arrived under clouds.  The transition seemed to occur as we emerged from the tunnel.  The moon is past first quarter and played peek-a-boo with the gathering, rose-tinted clouds. 

Morning glories and sulphur butterflies

Yellow and purple.  Two sulphurs got into a dance over the flowers.  There is a rosebud, but it isn't quite open enough for the butterfly.  Canada geese are practicing formation flying. 

It is HOT - over 80.  

Home

It is very warm and sunny.  The volunteer sunflowers are making buds.  The red camellia in the front has blossoms. 

Fog

It began raining late yesterday,

Magnificent sunrise here

Lots of early birds

A great blue heron flew upwind and twenty geese passed over headed North.  On the feeder first was a Carolina wren, then chickadees, titmice, and cardinals, and finally finches.  The sun is making beautiful reflections on the creek, but it is windy and only 60. I think the angle of the sun has more effect on creek reflections than the wind.

The angle of light also changes the colors on a red spotted purple butterfly.  This one was visiting the cherry in spite of the wind.  Look at how blue one side appears.  In other light the same area is purple or brown.  I think this has become my favorite butterfly because it seems to like being photographed and because it looks so different at different times. 

Bees are busy on the rosemary.  I don't see the spider I posted yesterday.  A cloudless sunset. 

Still gray this morning

Again titmice and chickadees were up first, cardinals arrived soon after.   Mid-morning, clouds broke up somewhat and the sun peeked out.  But other parts of the sky were heavy and dark.

Over the course of the afternoon the sky has cleared and it has grown much warmer.  But the pool is now covered for the winter. 

There is an orb weaver in the sweet gum in the front yard like the one I was watching on the patio.  I think a sharp-shinned hawk flew overhead into the next yard - a small bird exploded up and away.  I think I saw a kingfisher flying down the creek, but I didn't hear the characteristic landing rattle. In a parking lot, I saw a bronze grackle tagging after a purple grackle, who cussed it out.  The holly bushes at the Kempsville Library are full of sheet webs. 

Cold and wet

Didn't stop the titmice and chickadees. Veils of rain are blowing past, but neither the wind nor the wet is keeping birds away.  A Carolina wren is exploring the gas grill.  Cardinals are down in the mulch as well as on the feeder with the chickadees.  I've noticed that chickadees almost never land on the ground.

The first camellias  are blooming, one benefit from the cold front.  It seems strange when most trees are still green.  The dogwoods of course have been turning for weeks, and there are single twigs in the sweet gum and the oak that are yellow. 

I think the rain is over.  Wasps and bees are flying. But it is still very gray. 

Still gray

But lightening up a bit.  A new color of morning glory is blooming - a rosy pink. Meanwhile others have gone to seed.

Rain began around lunchtime. Later I heard thunder. 

Cold front

Gray with drizzle and much cooler.  Cardinals are hungry.  A dove and a chickadee showed up.  Morning glories are blooming for all they're worth.  But the rain has them drooping. 

Some stretches of heavier rain and some periods with just wind, but altogether a raw day.  The wet grass feels colder to my bare feet than the pool water did two days ago.  Finches and titmice have also been visiting.  The white-spot squirrel came past with what looked like a ball of white wool in its mouth, which it was hunting a location to bury.  I wonder if it was a cocoon?  

There are some small black swallowtail caterpillars on the parsley which has bolted.  I wonder if they have time to make it to pupate?  A spider thread is holding aloft a morning glory vine.  Other arrowhead spiders are hanging out under the eaves making cobwebs.  The basilica webs are still in the azalea, but I don't see the spiders. 

Dusk crept up instead of blazing in as it has been for the last couple of days. 

Mystery bird

The morning glories are a mass of blooms.  The third quarter moon is high in the West, menaced by a spider in the window.  A squirrel dismantled a pecan in front of me as I ate breakfast.  Some finches came to the feeder.

I went off to a meeting at the YWCA on the Lafayette river and saw this bird hopping around in a groundsel bush.  Also a ladybug and a loaded honeybee.  Goldenrod is blooming now.

I've now been all over the web and through Peterson and I am not finding the bird.  Grrrr. It's the white patch under the eye that I cannot match. 

This is the bird that seems the best match, but it would be a long way from home!  A black-whiskered vireo has the thin black line down from the beak, the black line through the eye with white over and under it, and the hint of yellow around the base of the tail. 

Sunshine

Blue jays are coming for acorns.  Three doves foraged while chickadees and cardinals ate at the feeder. The plethora of nuts and berries is cutting into the popularity of the feeder.  I saw a red bellied woodpecker and a smaller one - downy or hairy - in the oak and I believe they were eating acorns.  Cardinals and mocking birds are eating dogwood and beauty berries.  I think there are migratory birds around too as I hear some unfamiliar calls.  A red spotted purple butterfly visited the cherry seedlings.

This may have been my last swim of the year.  It was cooler today than predicted and I'm pretty chilled.   I rescued innumerable black beetles and several spiders, one of which clung unexpectedly to my hand.  The pool had a lot of whole acorns as well as chewed shells.  And many rafting leaves.   

Still humid

At breakfast, the windows were too fogged to see anything.  Then it got beastly hot.  I missed most of the day, but was rewarded with sunset drama.  Cormorants, egrets, and kingfishers flew around in the twilight.  Lots of fish jumping too. 

Hot and gray

I saw the past-full moon when I got up, and later there was a short time of sun, but it is quite overcast now, and steamy.  The caterpillar is gone, whether about its business or down a gullet, I don't know.  On another cherry seedling I saw what I think is a used, empty chrysalis husk.  The weeping conk funguses look about the same as when I first noticed them.  Finches, chickadees, cardinals and a titmouse visited the feeder.  Cardinal fledglings poked through the mulch.  The chickadees quarreled. 

Sauna

The windows were fogged and the air felt sweaty.  I checked on the caterpillars and neither had moved.  The tiger swallowtail caterpillar twitched when touched.  At 5:30 am the moon was bright in the West, but clouds now dominate.

And as I finished the preceding words, a dark cloud rolled in and a downpour began.  It tapered off in less than 10 minutes. Ever since waves of rain have passed through. Chickadees are seizing a break in the weather to hit the feeder.

A female house finch ran off all the other birds and hunched like a tyrannosaurus on the perch.  Below it a Carolina wren probed the wet mulch.   Then another wave of rain came through. 

The past-full moon is playing peek-a-boo with the clouds.

Back to gray

A squirrel was out and about. The tiger swallowtail caterpillar was on the same leaf.  I wonder if it is preparing to moult?  I found another caterpillar, this time on the new red maple tree.  I cannot tell if the white is a parasite or part of the caterpillar, but it feels hard, not a good sign.

A drizzle started at lunch.  Titmice, chickadees, finches, cardinals, and doves joined us.  Then the computer fan broke right after I uploaded photos, so it may be a while before I attach a picture. 

A round moon peeked through the cloud cover on the way home.