Foolish frog

The morning disappeared into various projects.  I just had time to notice dogwood leaves blushing with the onset of shorter days.  At lunch time, dueling monarchs danced above the milkweed.  One seemed more interested in laying eggs and the other in getting a meal.  A fritillary stayed away from the milkweed.  I glimpsed a red spotted purple but it did not hang around. 

A succession of hummers came for refueling. A flock of birds flew over but the camera didn't want to focus.  I wondered if they were tree swallows.  A couple of blue jays came for bark butter balls.  One begged the other so I guess it was a fledgling. 

The absence of Argiope spiders had begun to concern me, but I stuck my hand right into a web while reaching for a stalk of money plant seeds pods.  The spider didn't look full size but it had picked a good spot to catch its meals.  A female common whitetail buzzed around the patio. The perch was occupied by a bar winged skimmer. 

I got the silly green frog out of the pool but when I walked away it jumped back in.  No doubt tomorrow I'll have to dispose of its corpse.  Yuck.  I also rescued a mama wolf spider, a click beetle, a tiny green caterpillar, and a buffalo leafhopper (or treehopper). A long-bodied cellar spider was handing out on the top step just above the water.  I left it alone since it seemed to be satisfied with its location.  

Heavy clouds blocked the sun in the afternoon and then dissipated before evening.  I sat outside to listen to the varied cicadas and saw a few fireflies.  Two egrets flew over and I missed both. 

Around 11pm, something banged on the window a couple of times.  I went out to see what it was and found a cicada.  I tried to persuade it onto my finger but it threw a loud hissy fit and disappeared.  So I cannot say which kind it was, but it seemed small.  The past-full moon had not yet cleared the trees.