A male and a female hummer came for breakfast. White throats foraged for seeds and visited the birdbath, splashing a dove. An egret fished. A Carolina wren wanted mealworms. When I got home, I could see both bluebirds watching me from the tree. But when I came back out with the camera, I couldn't find them again. I thought I saw a swallow or maybe a martin swoop over the creek. Later, I saw a big bug that was gone in a flash, leaving an impression of a dark head, thorax, wings, and an abdomen banded in bright yellow fur. It was the size of a cicada killer, but wasps don't have fur and cicadas are months away. A hummingbird moth was my best guess, but none of the pictures fit.
It got quite windy in the afternoon. Cabbage butterflies flitted around the irises. Wasps fed on the rue and prowled around other plants, especially rose leaves. I saw both kinds of Polistes and a black & white mason wasp. The rue also hosted a lot of caterpillars, first, second, and third instars of black swallowtail. And a megachile bee was interested in rose leaves.
Turtles were basking on the logs by the lake. And a pair of wood ducks were relaxing and preening on the neighbors' floating dock. While I was watching them, a fox sauntered through the yard. A short while later, as I was watching cardinals hunt bugs, the fox came dashing back and the birds shot up into the trees. I suppose the fox discovered the neighbors' dogs. The West glowed orange through the trees at sunset. And the feral cat came looking for supper which scared the white throats away.
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