Mysteries

It was warmer and less windy as well as sunny.  What a nice surprise with a hurricane in the offing.  Cardinals were still hungry but not so willing to ignore each other.  Berries as well as seeds were popular.  A Carolina wren slipped behind the wooden fence.  To my amazement, the spinybacked orbweaver's web was in place this morning.  Either it escaped the mower or it rebuilt overnight in the same spot.  The barn spider web above it looked abandoned.  The argiope in the spartina survived too.  There was even a tiny spiderweb on the house plant in the bedroom.  Bees visited the herbs.

There were butterflies at lunch - a red spotted purple, a cabbage white, and something orange.  The sky was very hazy with a few wispy clouds blending in as they sped West.  On the ground the wind gusted occasionally.  The seed eaters kept the feeder busy.  Blue jays stayed behind foliage. An osprey hovered, then flew off before I was aimed.  Egrets were around all day.  I got bad photos of two different birds I couldn't identify, though I think on was a ruby crowned kinglet. The other mystery was in the dogwood. 

By mid afternoon, the sky had become mostly overcast.  There were breaks in the cloud cover but they didn't often line up with the sun.  I could hear the kingfisher but was unable to get sight of it.  A skink darted past me on the sun warmed concrete.  The saltbush had begun to turn white with its feather-duster flowers.   A few stalks of goldenrod whipped in the wind.  A new fungus popped up under the oak.  Something dug a large hole under the sakaki but I couldn't see any reason for it.

A monarch butterfly was buffeted by gusts and didn't venture over to the milkweed, even though the new crop of flowers had begun to open.  A red spotted purple went about its job of laying eggs in the cherry.  I also glimpsed a cloudless sulphur.  I rescued an acorn weevil from the water.   A lovely crane fly clung to the screen door.  A yellow jacket hunted for something among the morning glory leaves, possibly the bug nymph that appeared after the wasp left. 


Squirrels mated on a dogwood limb despite the male having warbles.  Just before dark we took in all the things that might blow away and generally battened down for the storm.  A great blue heron sailed overhead to its nighttime roost.