Cool nights

The last few nights have dropped into the high 60s though the days have been hot.  As a result, the water is cooler  A male ruby throat got a little breakfast before a female chased him away.  I suspect he blew in with the Northeast wind a few days ago.  Wrens and blue jays were disappointed that I'd not yet refilled their dish. 

A pair of goldfinches landed on the feeder hangers to check the place out.   They appeared to dislike the menu.  I saw a black swallowtail and a cloudless sulphur.  I rescued more skinks and a millipede.  Another cicada, bees and wasps, and a red caterpillar had drowned. 

A flock of cormorants joined an egret on the lake.   Another egret stalked downstream.  Leaf cutter bees scalloped the edges of the redbud leaves.  The patient mantis had relocated.  Monarch caterpillars hid under leaves on both the swamp and the butterfly milkweed.  A minute black swallowtail caterpillar was on the parsley.  I was amazed to discover the hibiscus was making more flower buds.  That neem oil was certainly the cure for the sawfly infestation. 

Hot sun

Blue dashers were on duty, protecting us from mosquitoes.  Wrens found yummies in the glass dish.  Hummingbirds checked out anything that looked like a flower. 

The two frogs were back on the ladder step, though before the sun reached it, one frog rode on the thermometer..  I rescued two skinks from the water, also a tiger moth (Apantesis).  The cicada I found had already died.  The creek was very low at low tide. 

A little green bee fed on the lavender while the praying mantis watched.  Fewer wasps were attracted to the mountain mint since the webbing seemed to affect blooming.  I found the hole where the wasp stuffed in the caterpillar. 

The (Mecynogea lemniscata) basilica orbweaver spider in the rue had several egg pearls on its string.  I found a caterpillar on the swamp milkweed and two on the butterfly milkweed.   Titmice were abundant.   

 

Blue sky

Before breakfast, I went to refill the dish feeder and, well, there was a worm spill.  My loss was the wrens' gain.  A couple of fledgling Carolina wrens were demanding to be fed and the parents took full advantage of my clumsiness. 

The hummers drank their feeder dry again.  One tried and tried to find a way to the juice she was sure was there. 

A tiger swallowtail got nectar from the butterfly milkweed.  I also saw black and palamedes swallowtails and a cloudless sulphur.   At one point a wasp chased the tiger swallowtail away but it came back and chased away the wasp.  A great golden digger wasp was around the milkweed all day but I could not tell if it was the wasp involved. 


There were two frogs hanging out by the pool ladder, but they left when I got in.  I rescued two skinks, a couple of lacewings, some bees and wasps.  A metallic green beetle did not revive. 

While I was in the deep end, I saw a threadwaisted wasp run along the ground carrying a green caterpillar.  It got to the corner by the beautyberry where the dirt is exposed, set the caterpillar down, hunted around, moved some pine needles, seemed to get lined up with a particular stone, found its hole, dug a little more, and carried the caterpillar down out of sight.  I waited a little, but didn't see it emerge. 

The Carolina mantis was still hanging around the rose, upsidedown.  A soldier beetle sat in the center of a daisy.  I saw a tiny caterpillar on the butterfly milkweed and another on the swamp milkweed. 

A heron landed on the dock but vegetation kept me from being sure if it was a night heron. 

Sun finally

Everything was still dripping in the morning.  The hummer not only sat on the seed feeder hanger to guard her feeder, she chased away titmice and a cardinal.  

The overcast pulled apart by lunchtime.  A tattered black swallowtail fed on the butterfly milkweed.  A sizable skink climbed the wall.  A bald faced hornet (Dolichovespula maculata) marched across the patio.  I just discovered that it is not a true hornet but rather a yellow jacket. 

There was a frog in the pool, but I tossed it out.  A Carolina wren was loud and busy all over the yard, but primarily around the bark butter dish.  The Carolina mantis stayed put.  A duskywing fluttered all around it.  A great golden digger wasp enjoyed the butterfly milkweed.  And a slaty skimmer perched on a gladiolus leaf.  It turned into quite a lovely day, though toward evening it got kind of buggy. 

Rainy mist

I was up before sunrise, though I never saw the sun.  The clouds colored up briefly.  When the meeting finished, there was sunshine in Norfolk but I passed through a rain band on the way home and an other seemed stuck over our house.  It was warm enough but very damp and the wind was chilly.  The hummers drank the feeder dry despite one of them sitting on the feeder hanger guarding the sugar water.

I found a large cicada in the water, but I suspect it was already dead when it fell in.  A skink was on the top step of the pool ladder but that was slightly under water so I felt the need to rescue the lizard.  I managed to flip it out with a stick because it was cold and tired.

The little brown mantis looked like it was shrinking.  I hope it is finding enough food.  It was very well camouflaged but I haven't seen insects visit the roses. The great golden digger wasp was back at the butterfly milkweed but many of the wasps and bees were missing.  Whatever attacked the mountain mint caused it to quit flowering.  I glimpsed a dark butterfly, but no others. 

The tide was very high again but there are still three nights before the new moon.  The juvenile night heron was back on the dock.  A mallard pair, the drake in eclipse, trudged along the shore.  Crows harassed an osprey into flight. 

Northeaster

Carolina wrens cleaned the dish feeder.  Hummers needed a lot of fuel.  They checked out the flowers as well as the feeder.  Titmice wanted seeds and more seeds. 

At lunch, a fresh-looking palamedes swallowtail enjoyed the butterfly milkweed.  But according to Bug Guide, the red bay and sassafras that palamedes caterpillars need is endangered by an invasive beetle that spreads a fungus wilt. 

The wind from the Northeast was cold and gusty.  It pushed the Bay back up the creeks. High tide nearly covered the dock in the afternoon. A juvenile night heron seemed puzzled by the high water.

A nasty, cold, thin rain fell as I tried to clean detritus from the water.  One hummer took to sitting on the seed feeder hanger to guard the hummer feeder. The little brown mantis still haunted the rose bush. The hibiscus was still blooming. 

Chilly

I was gone almost all day.  It wasn't as gray as yesterday, but a cold Northeast wind did not encourage me to spend a lot of time outside.  I did not get wet but did remove one dead skink from the water.  The beauty berries were beginning to turn purple.  Wrens fussed at me and blue jays screamed about something.  A snowy egret perched on the fallen tree on the lake.  Ducks preened on the dock as the tide rose over the landward end. 

Though buffeted by the wind,cormorants flew in every direction as though they were frantically searching for something.  I found the Carolina mantis again, still on the rose, but on a different part of the plant.  Bumblebees were having a hard time between the wind and the cold.  Actually it was about room temperature but the wind was nothing you'd encounter indoors.

Cold and gray

It was actually no cooler than room temperature but the air was damp and there was a breeze. The pool had accumulated  a lot of needles and some leaves floating.  Alas, there was also a dead frog floating. A male black swallowtail found the butterfly milkweed. Bumblebees were too cold to move.  A couple of doves looked for fallen seeds. 

Hot

A flock of birds bounced around the cherry but never let me get a good look.  The towhee's child was back at breakfast.  Today the cloudless sulphur had the butterfly milkweed to itself. 

A bluetailed skink crossed the patio.  Hummers were active at lunchtime.  A tiger swallowtail fluttered around the cherry.  A Carolina wren gorged on the bark butter mush.  The Carolina mantis continued to hang upside down imitating a rose twig.

There were two skinks aswimming, one a blue tail, the other all  grown up and bronze with dark  lines running its length.  A lot of debris had blown into the water, but not too many insects.  I rescued a honeybee that hustled away across the concrete, but when I next looked, it had expired. 

The pattern continued. In the late afternoon, a bigger cloud than the ones that had already passed loosed a few fat drops from its trailing edge. Another cloud was on its heels and did the same. The third cloud came with mutters of thunder.  A Carolina wren grumbled to itself because by then I was sitting next to the door and too close to its food.  Chickadees and cardinals rushed to get seeds, upsetting the hummers.  A saddlebags cruised over the pool and I think some swallows did so higher up.  The bird I suspect of being a kite was back.  The thunder got louder and closer and lightning reflected off the clouds so I came in.  By 5:30 it was raining hard and booming.  That kept up till after dark. 

Another thunderstorm

At breakfast time I put out fresh bark butter balls.  I sprayed neem oil on the hibiscus and the rose, avoiding the part where the mantis lurked.  And later I also swapped out the hummer feeder.  Then I was gone for hours.  The volunteer butterfly milkweed bloomed again after being stripped by seven caterpillars.  The flowers attracted a tiger swallowtail and a cloudless sulphur.   But the swallowtail would not share so the sulphur visited a zinnia instead. 

I found a skink floating and tried to revive it but I was too late.  A dragonfly was perched on the new stake when I went out to swim.  But it disappeared some time before thunder chased me out of the water.  I think it was a slaty skimmer.  The thunder accompanied a dark, slow-moving cloud that violated the weather prediction.  And later as darkness fell, there was rain.

Afternoon thunderstorm

All I had at hand at breakfast was the snapshot camera, so naturally all the birds came to visit.   A female goldfinch wanted her turn at the sunflower seeds.  The adult male towhee also wanted seeds.  Maybe it was teaching Junior.  A downy woodpecker stopped by for a bite of suet. 

Today followed the typical summer weather pattern which was a nice return to predictability.  Because I expected an afternoon storm, I swam in the morning.  This was fortunate for a skink I found swimming tiredly.  It took a while to recover. 

A yellow daylily bloomed again.  The small brown mantis continued to haunt the rosebush.  The juvenile towhee discovered the seed feeder.  A titmouse wanted seeds too.  A pristine hummingbird enjoyed the sugar water. 

Mantis

Hummers visited for breakfast.  So did the juvenile towhee.   It had a bit of an argument with a cardinal. Wrens worked on the bark butter mush.  The tailless brown thrasher tossed leaves and twigs.  While floating in the deep end I saw a bird in the red cedar that had a pale belly and an eyeline.  I'm guessing it was a mockingbird. 

The brown mantis lurked upside down on the rose canes, blending in so well I had to hunt for it.  A black swallowtail hovered over the rue.  I found a firefly floating on the water.  It seemed very late in the year for one.  Lots more butterflies were enjoying the heat. I chased one with the camera and got one blurred shot.  A couple of dark butterflies had an aerial battle or dance or something.  I think they were palamedes swallowtails. 

There was a lively frog in the skimmer.  It jumped back into the pool and went to the bottom. I ignored it and it disappeared.  Also in the skimmer was a winged ant queen with another ant clamped onto one leg.  She couldn't get it off and eventually disappeared when I was busy elsewhere.  A dragonfly was watching, so I don't know if the ant became a meal.  I went after the oleander aphids with neem oil.  It seemed to work.  Later I used morning glory leaves to try to scrape the dead aphids off the milkweed.  A skink hustled under the patio furniture. 

The sawflies were back on the hibiscus.  While looking at them, I found a second praying mantis, twice the size of the first.  It may have been a Chinese praying mantis.  The small one was, I think, a Carolina mantis. A skipper landed rather close to the big mantis.  

A yellow crowned night heron landed on the creek edge to hunt for crabs.  A gray mushroom popped up in the mulch.  After I came in, a red admiral landed beside my window.  I saw a disturbance in the creek's surface, perhaps a school of minnows, but the heron had left. 

Butterflies

Spider threads caught the morning light.  A juvenile towhee marched up the steps and took over the birdbath.  A hummingbird had the beginning of a ruby throat.  A Carolina wren ate bark butter.  Blue jays and even a dove showed up. 

A skink slipped into the violet leaves.  Then the butterfly parade began with a buckeye.  A variagated fritillary never paused.  A monarch found the butterfly milkweed. I also saw a cloudless sulphur, a palamedes swallowtail, a tiger swallowtail, and a red spotted purple. The brown mantis was still lurking in the rose twigs. 

Sunny

A couple of morning glory flowers greeted me.  A titmouse had a peck at the remnants of suet left over from Spring.  Three chickadees continued to fight over the sunflower seeds.  I have not seen chickadees act like this before.  I wonder if they are siblings. 

The mountain  mint has been attacked by something that leaves the underside of the  flower heads all webbed and full of frass.  Leaves or bracts nearby lose their green and turn pale gray.  Fewer wasps were around today.  A black swallowtail fluttered around the rue.

The skimmer held one of those two inch roaches that live in the mulch. While the skimmer was free of vwertebrates, I caught a blue tailed skink swimming.  I caught it several times before I finally got it to terra firma.  Later it or another dashed around the patio.  

The hummers didn't stay long on the feeder.  But they did keep coming.  I spotted the tailless brown thrasher.

In the late afternoon, a monarch landed in the cherry tree and stayed there till I got too close.  It never went near the milkweed. 

As I dripped dry, a titmouse scolded me for being too close to the feeder.  So I went inside and the titmouse got its supper.

Sticky

The hummers were out of juice and the Carolina wrens were picking crumbs out of the dish feeder. We replenished both.  A blue jay noticed right away that there were fresh bark butter balls. 

A black swallowtail flitted around but I didn't see any dragonflies.  A very moth-eaten-looking great blue heron stood on the neighbors' floating dock.  I assume it was just molting.  A cormorant and an egret perched on lake snags. 


We went to Suffolk and on the way back drove through a thunderstorm, but it never arrived at home.  The praying mantis was still on the rose canes.  A hummer came in for a drink.  I found two skinks in the skimmer, one was still alive. 

Powerless

We lost power for about 8 hours, most of which I spent outside.  It wasn't quite a return to life a century ago, but after sunset it began to be worrisome. 

Surprise sunshine

Hummers were already feeding when I got up and I woke early.  Titmice and the usual three showed up as soon as I opened the seed feeder.  I saw the first morning glory of the year.

At lunchtime,  I saw a tiger and a black swallowtail, and I think a red admiral.   Later a cloudless sulphur flitted past.  A blue jay inspected a knothole on the top side of an oak limb.  Short of buying a drone, I won't know what it found there but a couple of weeks ago a red bellied woodpecker did the same thing. 

I was expecting an all day rain so the sunshine after lunch lured me into the pool.  Also, I saw a skink swimming in the water and didn't want to have to deal with its carcase tomorrow. 

As I dripped dry, I noticed an odd bee, or maybe bee fly.  A few dragonflies were out but not in the mood to pose.  The rain returned around 5pm. 

Thunderstorm

A black swallowtail tempted me to take pictures I don't really want.  A molting hummer did the same. 

I saw a caterpillar on the butterfly weed, probably the one I moved there.  A duskywing visited the mint.  The great golden digger wasp came back to the mountain mint.  A blue dasher kept watch.   I caught a fiery skipper at an odd angle on the morning glory.  An amberwing perched in the grass making it hard to focus. 

An egret paused on the dock.  I found a good size limb fallen across the fence.  A skink ambled across the patio.  An osprey cruised in circles over the creek.   A hummer nervously fed while a house finch drank from the ant moat.   At least the storm waited till evening.

Gray sky

As I ate breakfast outside, I noticed a slug on a leaf that had come to the point and was figuring out how to turn back.   A hummer joined me for breakfast.  

The air seemed very damp and toward evening there were showers.  A frog was in the skimmer.  It leapt into the pool but eventually I caught it and told it to leave.  I don't mind swimming with frogs but the water seems to poison them. I rescued a green June beetle and a metallic green tiger beetle. 

And after I got out, I found a monarch caterpillar climbing a bamboo stake and persuaded it to relocate to the butterfly weed.  A green pondhawk perched on the feeder handle by my window.  

While I was on the phone in the afternoon,all sorts of things flew by.  I saw a cicada killer, butterflies, and dragonflies.  A flock of robins landed in the cherry tree.  A Carolina wren thoroughly inspected the redwood trunk.  Chicadees and cardinals hunted in the saltbush while house finches poked through the cherry. 

Skink skills

A blue mud wasp visited the mountain mint.  A buckeye came with the same goal.  A fiery skipper tried the daisies.  A male goldfinch drank from the nasty ant moat. 

I was sitting inside, digesting lunch, when I saw a disturbance in the water.  Thinking it might be a skink, I grabbed the pool brush as a rescue tool.  Well, there were three skinks, all blue tails, floating at the deep end.  The first I fished out ran to hide under my flipflop, with just a smidge of blue tail sticking out.  When I carefully lifted that foot, it dashed across the other foot and off into the shrubbery. 

The second skink when rescued ran back into the pool.  It refused to be netted by the brush and dived!  Then it swam under water.  Fine, I thought, I'll rescue number three.  That one was no trouble and quickly ran under the azalea.  I had another go at the escape artist and snagged its tail.  When I deposited it on the ground, it ran to the red cedar and climbed the trunk till it could hide behind a branch.  I checked the skimmer and, sure enough, there was a fourth little skink sitting on the handle. Since it seemed safe, I left it there.

It was gone when I came back, but I found a swimming skink that seemed the same size, so I'm guessing it was able to swim out of the skimmer.  I found a large dead cicada in the water.  I also fished out a scary mess of legs that I thought was some kind of spider, but the photo looks more like the remains of a leaf footed true bug.  I had counted the antenna as legs.  And I rescued a green eyed bee that was alive, but then stopped moving.  I thought it died, but when the ants came for it, the bee rose up and took flight, and promptly fell in the water again.  I rescued it again and this time took pictures. 

A Carolina wren hunted in the grass.  The neighbor's crape myrtle shed flowers on the wind that landed in the pool like pink confetti.  A tattered skimmer used one of the perches.  An amberwing perched on an azalea twig and glowed in the evening light.  A red spotted purple investigated the cherry that grew from a pit I tossed out.  A Carolina saddlebags used the dead twig atop the oak.  A squirrel ate green dogwood berries.  The tailless brown thrasher camped out under the shrubbery. 

I stayed up to watch for Perseid meteors and  I believe I saw a couple. It was the only opportunity because a storm was coming. I couldn't photograph meteors, but I did get the moon. 

Pleasant

There were more butterflies than dragonflies. 

A blue jay scolded me while I swam.  The frog was sitting on the pool ladder again.  A blue tailed skink floated belly up, alas. 

Humidity

While looking at the weather for tomorrow, I noticed that it is predicted to be less humid.  I got curious about humidity and dew point: According to the National Weather Service, "The dew point is the temperature the air needs to be cooled to (at constant pressure) in order to achieve a relative humidity (RH) of 100%."  But it didn't explain how to calculate less than 100% or why "a temperature of 80 and a dew point of 60 produces a relative humidity of 50%."  Wikipedia did explain, and the math was beyond my pay grade.   

I saw a female common whitetail but it saw me and took off.  

Running around

There were butterflies as I ate lunch - a tattered buckeye and a silver spotted skipper.  A sizable bumblebee visited the mint.  The great golden digger wasp was back.  A house wren perched on a rose cane. 

When we got back in the late afternoon, the clouds looked ferocious. They just blowing East for a couple of hours, but finally there was a rain shower. 

A frog decided the pool thermometer would serve as a lily pad.  A Carolina saddlebags patrolled the airspace over  the pool and two four spotted pennants perched high in the oak. 

A Carolina wren carried away bites of the bark butter.  Chickadees and cardinals came to the feeder even though we were sitting close.  But the titmouse was afraid and frustrated at not getting any supper so it just scolded. 

The moon was briefly visible above the clouds.  I believe I heard a kingfisher. A loud single-note whistle made me look for a great crested flycatcher or maybe the towhee that visited yesterday, but I didn't see any of them. 

Drying out

There was a disturbance in the cherry tree that resolved itself into a flock of robins, many still speckled.  Baldy, the boss cardinal hung around much of the day.  I poured the rainwater off the bark butter and the Carolina wren was happy. 

Rainwater raised the pool level past the skimmer opening.  I rescued a metallic green tiger beetle and a few wasps. The tattered hairstreak made it through the storm and was joined on the mountain mint by another in better shape.  A duskywing tried to join them but didn't have their tolerance for wasps.   A red spotted purple flitted around the cherry.  A black swallowtail kept returning to the rue but a palamedes swallowtail defeated my photography. 

Blue dashers were at their stations.  I glimpsed a saddlebags that didn't come back.  A big dragonfly, maybe a darner, banged into the window during lunch.  A slaty skimmer clung to a dead saltbush twig by the creek.  Other insects zipped past and one failed to bully the resident dragonfly off its perch. 

A downy woodpecker hiked up the oak.  I think the  hummer juice got diluted because they weren't into it.  A lovely male goldfinch took an interest in the parsley seeds and dogwood berries.  The tailless brown thrasher prowled along the azalea bushes.  Titmice came for sunflower seeds. 

Geese were pleased with the denuded dam.  A chickfila container floated downstream. One turtle basked on a lake log.  A juvenile night heron stood on the dock peering into the water which was quite high though the moon wasn't even up.  When it did rise, the craters were clear and sharp. 

Frog-strangler

A male towhee had breakfast on the sunflower feeder.  I saw some hummers on their feeder.  Skinks scampered around the steps. 

Blue sky and hot sun brought out butterflies.  Unfortunately it also energized them.  Only the hairstreak stayed put on the mountain mint.  A black swallowtail, and (I think) a palamedes swallowtail, a sulphur of some sort, a little black butterfly that was probably a duskywing, and an orange butterfly that was probably a fritillary all lured me into snapping photos without looking.

I used the pool in the morning because meteorologists predicted a stormy cold front would arrive in the afternoon or evening.  The skimmer held a dead frog, probably the fool from yesterday.  A spider was tucked up into the crevice where the pool steps attached.  They like that spot.  While in the deep end, I glimpsed the tailless brown thrasher hopping through the grass. A green June bug clung to a floating leaf, so I hauled it out.  A skink ignored the beetle as it hustled across the patio. 

The storm got here a little after 3pm and the torrent of rain prompted flash flood warnings.  Visible lightning bolts struck North and West under lurid clouds.  As the storm moved overhead, the clouds became featureless gray and the lightning turned into directionless flashes.  Our street flooded where it joins the main road, as usual.  Our trash can tried to escape downstream in the gutter.  Altogether, it fit Nellie's favorite name for a downpour. 

Chickadees, titmice, and house finches braved the rain to visit the feeder.  The ant moat was full to the brim so I suspect the hummer juice was diluted.  And the bark butter had barely dried out from the last rain.

Skinks and frogs

A house wren visited at breakfast.  A great blue skimmer awaited the little biters.  The palamedes swallowtail stayed out of focus but a black swallowtail posed.  Palamedes has a striped body, black has speckles.   A katydid nymph was head down on a rose cane.  A basilica spider built a lovely domed web. 

There was just one frog but two skinks.  I let the frog and a skinklet run off, but I made the adult skink pose - it was old enough to know better than to go swimming.  I also rescued a green June bug.  A spider with a pearly egg sac rescued herself.  I found a cicada shell in the water that may have tempted the spider.

A night heron preened while resting on a piling.  It had its wings dropped and spread the way they do when too hot. I found the outer skin of a monarch chrysalis, which I hope means a butterfly hatched out.  I still could not figure out where the monarchs go to pupate. The tailless brown thrasher prospected for insects. A gray gill mushroom popped up in the grass. My offhand ID was some kind or Russula.  I'm probably not qualified for the Mycoblitz. 

Damp

There were sprinkles in the morning and a shower in the evening and air too humid for surfaces to dry.  A swallow flew over chittering as it snatched insects, but dragonflies were scarce.  The wasps were in the usual abundance on the mint. A fat bumblebee showed up. Despite the damp overcast I saw an assortment of butterflies.  First a red admiral, then a hairstreak, a fiery skipper, and a monarch, but only the hairstreak held still for a photo. There was a  lot of debris in the water but few critters needing rescue.  I did fish out another mama spider. 

Titmice were everywhere at breakfast.  The hummer feeder had flooded but K hung fresh juice for them to fight over.  One poor hummer was too twitchy to perch.  A Carolina wren was disappointed with the soggy bark butter.  I drained the rainwater off afterward.  A blue jay also had designs on the bark butter.  Then a house wren visited. It seemed to be impressed by the hummer's hovering.  Following that, a pine warbler came to lunch. 

I saw an egret and a heron on the lake, but a yellow crowned night heron preferred our shoreline and its abundant crabs.  There were dramatic cloud formations when I left for my meeting but on the way home just a featureless overcast and drizzle.  Then I spotted a streak of pink sunset behind the cargo cranes on the Lafayette. 

Lightning

The Carolina wren was back for breakfast.  The hibiscus put on a show of five blossoms.  K hung a fresh feeder for the hummingbirds.  When we got home, they were enjoying it.  A buckeye joined the wasps on the mint, but not the mountain mint.  I also saw a tiger and a palamedes swallowtail.  A silver spotted skipper had flitted past at breakfast.  

 I rescued a mama spider and several crickets from the skimmer, which was full of dried oak leaves.  It looked like a squirrel's drey had come apart and pieces had fallen or been blown into the water.  A thumbnail size mud crab on the pool steps turned out to be deceased.  I imagine it escaped from a raccoon but then couldn't escape the water. A blue dasher and a great blue skimmer kept the mosquitoes away. 

A couple of blue jays tried to pull a bait and switch on me but just then K came out to tell me about picking figs ahead of the storm.  The bird I think is a Mississippi kite circled under the cloud cover.  A hummer packed on some calories.  Swallows flew high and chittered. 

Thunder growled for quite some time with no lightning that I could see.  Finally there was a flash and I counted to twelve before the thunder.  A couple of minutes later, I heard a hissing, sizzling sound as well as a tremendous bang simultaneously with the lightning flash.  I hustled inside and the rain just missed me.It came down hard with more thunder and lightning for at least an hour.  So I counted the day as done.

Buggy

Overcast periods were interspersed with intervals of sunshine. Several times the clouds separated into orderly rows and In the afternoon a sundog rainbow appeared overhead. After dark, I caught the crescent moon.   Jupiter was visible in the South. 

A Carolina wren pecked at the bark butter remains before I discovered the mess had gone moldy.  I replaced the food but didn't see any visitors.  A brown thrasher lurked around the edge of the yard, hiding that it had lost its tail.   A yellow crowned night heron landed on the dock and an egret took off. 

A black swallowtail visited the rue and I found a tattered gray hairstreak on the mountain mint.  A fiery skipper was attracted to the blue pool net.  All the same bees and wasps were there too.  I found a cicada shell quite high up in a dogwood, attached to a leaf.  A slaty skimmer used a perch while a Carolina saddlebags stayed in the air.  I rescued crickets and tiger beetles but the cicada I found was too far gone. 

Two blue tailed skinks roamed the mulch. The beautyberry was nearly finished blooming and had lots of green berries.  Something left silk and frass under the mountain mint flower heads.  

Heavy sky, humid air

Thanks to the neem oil, the hibiscus was blooming again.  A volunteer portulaca put out a flower.  A few raindrops fell but the air remained oppressive.  It was neither hot nor cool, except when an occasional breeze reminded me that I was wet. Titmice were busy with seeds at breakfast.  Then they all left.  The usual trio came for seeds throughout the day.  Hummers argued over their feeder. I took two photos of a standoff between hummers, and the wretched camera focused on the trees in the background. 

Two great golden digger wasps and two blue mud wasps intimidated most of the other bees and wasps on the mountain mint.  A yellow kneed wasp ignored all that and hunted in the grass.  A slaty skimmer perched on the bark butter hanger and a female pondhawk rested on the ground.  I was surprised I didn't see any flying dragonflies since the still, humid air was perfect for annoying little bloodsuckers.  One harassed me in the pool.  I rescued a wasp, two metallic green tiger beetles, and a half dozen crickets.  A mama spider found refuge on the pool ladder but I fished out a male.

Blisters

Again with the poison ivy.  Grrrrr.  Aside from that annoyance, it was a very pretty day.  A Carolina wren investigated the bark butter dish, but the rain had made soup of it.  Probably a half inch fell, judging by the ant moat. Hummers got a fresh batch of juice.  If anything, that made them more aggressive.  There were several battles as well as chases. 

One rudbeckia seed germinated and today a blackeyed susan popped up among the daisies. A sheet of cloud moved in and worried me but it kept going and the blue sky returned. 

The great golden digger wasp was back and so was a blue mud wasp.  One threadwaisted wasp harassed another, or maybe it was looking for love.  I found two dead grubs on one of the patio chairs.  My best guess was that they washed out of a wasp nest.  A yellow kneed wasp was hunting among the violets.  I rescued some beetles from the water but I left a stinkbug to its fate.

A duskywing skipper alternated between the mountain mint and the regular mint and the lavender.  I found a small monarch caterpillar on the swamp milkweed.  Twelve spotted skimmers and Carolina saddlebags were flying low but a twelve spot chased the saddlebags over the roof.  At least one blue dasher lurked on the vegetation.