Hot

I squeegeed the window in order to see out at breakfast.  The overnight rain wasn't heavy and it left the air humid.  A Halloween pennant perched on a dead rosemary twig.  Hummers got fresh feeders.

A variety of butterflies defeated my attempts to get pictures.  I saw a palamedes swallowtail, a monarch, a cloudless sulphur, a couple of red spotted purples, battling snouts, and all I got was a duskywing. Skinks of all sizes were all over, including one at the bottom of the pool, alas.

An angle-wing katydid kept popping up among the retaining wall plants.  I saw both a male and a female amberwing.  A slaty skimmer took up the post the Halloween Pennant had left.  Both argiopes were hanging in their webs.  A stinkbug climbed a stalk of rue.  The usual variety of wasps made the rounds. 

A small cicada clung to the stick I wedged on the pool ladder so insects could climb out.  It was under water and not climbing but when I lifted the stick and attempted to remove the cicada, its vibrator went off like a firecracker.  We argued and eventually I got it to sit on my finger for a photo session.  It soon took wing.

Some clouds finally appeared in the South, but they dissipated into an overall haze.  As we ate supper, a white breasted nuthatch landed on the feeder.  A chickadee hassled it and it left.  Then a male goldfinch appeared.  It drank from the ant moat and then left. 

The haze turned golden then rose.  A cardinal was the last bird at the feeder.  A few fireflies greeted the twilight.