Hurricane Arthur

Gusty rain woke me at 2:30am.  It has not been as windy as I feared - I forgot to take in the hummer feeder.  Finches and a cardinal came to the seed feeder despite the storm.  It does not look like the pool has risen much either.

Arthur came over the Outer Banks but swung back out to sea, having dropped from a category 2 to a 1.  It passed us around breakfast, about one degree East.  I'm guessing that's about 60 miles at our latitude.  "A degree of longitude varies in size. At the equator, it is approximately 69 miles, the same size as a degree of latitude. The size gradually decreases to zero as the meridians converge at the poles. At a latitude of 45 degrees, a degree of longitude is approximately 49 miles." http://nationalatlas.gov/articles/mapping/a_latlong.html We are at 36.8506° N, 75.9779° W. 

Le Mort d'Arthur occurred before noon.  The sun came out while the wind dried everything.  Birds arrived including what is either a juvenile or a disheveled female towhee.  Dragonflies arrived including a female widow skimmer.  She had a territorial dispute with a wasp. 

It has been quite cool for July.  A hummer visited the feeder while I had my hands full with money plant seeds.  A black swallowtail also took advantage of my camera-less state.  Small black scoliid wasps with bright spots love the mint.  Several titmice appeared along with chickadees toward evening.  As the sun set, a dragonfly zipped after small prey higher than the house roof.  An egret passed overhead. Fireflies were thick when the cardinals came for a bedtime snack.  A crescent moon trailed the sun by several hours.