Thursday, July 4, 2019

No relief

The hummers drank their feeder dry, but didn't like the fresh one we put out.  While I was in the pool a brown thrasher got curious about the floating head and hopped around trying to get a better angle on me.  In the evening, a mob of blue jays came for wild cherries. 

A hairstreak and scoliid wasps enjoyed the mint, where spittlebug foam recently appeared. I also saw black and tiger swallowtails.  Leafcutter bees moved to the butterfly weed.

Spindly-legged, thread-waisted wasps I think were Ammophila procera were obsessed with the mountain mint.  A small black bee with a belt of yellow fur appeared to have a face full of pollen from the mountain mint. 

Lots of blue dashers were on guard close to me.  At the very top of the oak, a Halloween pennant kept watch.  A slaty skimmer landed on the concrete.  More dragonflies found dead twigs to perch on from the dogwood by the house down to the creek edge.

A robber fly also found a perch on the empty feeder outside my North window.  A cross spider built an orb web outside my West window. In the pool I rescued a sidewalk tiger beetle and several cricket nymphs.  A skink popped out of the retaining wall.  They've been scarce ever since the cat caught one. 

The sky had a split personality, blue to the East and menacing on the West.  But the thunderstorm I could hear passed us by on the West. We needed some rain - everything was drooping.  Dusk came early because of the clouds, and with it came the noise of illegal fireworks. 



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