Hot Halloween

The temperature got up to 80° in the afternoon but it was very windy.  K spotted a caterpillar on the patio.  My best guess of its identity is large yellow underwing, an invasive pest.  I saw a cloudless sulphur cross the yard.  A  little black moth rested on the front door.  But the wind kept birds out on sight, except for the feeder regulars. 

Ho-hum

The day was much like yesterday, overcast with random gusts of wind.  During lunch, a couple of woodpeckers flew to the dogwood and out of sight.  In the afternoon, I saw the male kingfisher on a piling.  But the only picture I got was blurred by low light and foreground foliage that threw the focus off.  Little birds flitted among the branches in the oak  canopy.  I couldn't identify them, but they might have been the titmice that showed up at the feeder later. A blue jay shot up from somewhere in the front yard when we left.  And of course the cat came back. 

Dull day

The feral cat was back at breakfast.  And so the birds were not.  The cat sat on part of the cover that was over the water.  Maybe that was warmer?  And the cat returned at supper, this time on the concrete.

An interesting crane fly hugged the wall out  of the wind.  Despite the gray sky and chilly wind, flowers were blooming.  A lost kayak paddle bobbed on the creek.  A Carolina wren briefly inspected the mealworms I had put out, but left without eating. We decided where to plant the two pots of milkweed.  K wanted a rosebush moved.

First white throat

The morning's blue sky filled with fuzzy-edged cumulus.  It was still windy and a lot cooler and drier.The tide ran high in the morning in response to the dark of the moon.

After lunch I spotted the first white throated sparrow of the season.  Crows were having a fit over what I suspect was the coopers hawk I saw yesterday. 

I picked the hibiscus pod in order to save the seeds.  Two bugs were also in the pod.   A winged ant wandered around the patio. By mid afternoon the cloud cover was complete. 

Steamy

The day was hot and humid with intermittent drizzle and occasional flickers of sun until mid afternoon, then the torrent struck.  Fierce gusts of wind accompanied the downpour.  Afterward, there was some sunlight but the air dripped with moisture. The warmth brought pollinators to the camellia.  I saw a bumblebee and a paper wasp.  A rosebud started.

At lunch time, a dove looked around under the feeder.  Then a coopers hawk shot across the yard and caught a songbird with a yellow breast.  Everything was very quiet for some time afterward.  A squirrel watched the whole thing then made a very cautious departure.

Clouds

Yesterday was overcast and all I saw was squirrels.  And after dark, little moths on the window.

The clouds at dawn today were gilded with sunlight.  The creek was as glassy as yesterday, but the reflections were dazzling, not muted.

There was plenty of sunshine.  The drier air sent the saltbush fluff flying like snow, but it was impossible to photograph.

I found a little glass snail on the patio.  When I came close to the covered steps I heard something plop into the water.  I hop whatever it was could get out again.  A queen yellow jacket buzzed around and I glimpsed something that flew like a dragonfly. 

Cat kill

The wretched feral cat caught a female cardinal under the feeder.  I didn't see it coming any more than the poor bird. 

Titmice wanted sunflower seeds.  I saw someone fishing from a boat on the lake. 

Clear skies

The waning moon was a morning crescent.  Titmice joined the feeder crew.  Seed fluff from the saltbush filled the air.  It was a lovely day.

I think I saw a phoebe.  A downy woodpecker found the suet.  Gulls circled high over the creek.  House finches found something they liked on the lower patio.

Warm

The creek was glassy in the morning but it only had gray sky to reflect.  In the afternoon, there were some brief times of sun, but then a light drizzle followed in the early evening.  The usual seed eaters came out to eat.  The tide again ran high.  A small flock of small birds swooped around each other very high up.  All the camera got was blurry spots.   Would swallows be around this late in the year?  A great blue heron prowled the shoreline at twilight.

Gray

No rain, but no sun.  The annual rainfall climbed back above "normal."  Squirrels were still busy burying my pecans. It was warm enough that insects visited the camellia flowers, but I didn't catch any in a photo.  The tide ran high in the creek again, despite the third quarter moon.   Mysterious rings of ripples popped out randomly on the water surface.  I noticed a new deadfall in the lake.  The feral cat sat on the pool cover, possibly for warmth. 

Rain

I noticed the sky was clouded when I went to bed.  The morning rain was gentle and not wind-driven despite the meteorologists' concern about Tropical Storm Nestor. The weather got nastier mid day.  There were lulls, though when the seed eaters came out.  I actually saw a chickadee shove a cardinal off the perch!  I glimpsed a Carolina wren and a blue jay through the rain streaks.

In the afternoon, a male kingfisher perched on a piling downstream.  On the dam in the background were an egret and a great blue heron.  Something was busy under the water at the shoreline, making ripples. Low light and rain spatters on the glass messed up a lot of photos. 

Long day

Dawn did not catch up with me till I got to Yorktown and night fell as I reached that stop on the way back.  I did not see the moon although it should have been visible before and after dawn.  It was cold in the early morning but mid day in Richmond was very pleasant. I saw a flock of robins on the campus and heard a lot of twittering in the bushes. 

Cool

The warmth of the sun was welcome in the windy chill. In the afternoon, the wind was less and the creek got very glassy.  The sky was intensely blue with some cloud wisps coalescing in the West.  A couple of squirrels played at the far end of the pool but birds were scarce except for the usual feeder trio.  Little moths flitted day and night. 

As the shadows got long, cormorants gathered on the lake snags, along with a great blue heron. Around sunset, the feral cat prowled the patio and seemed very interested in the corner with the downspout.  We chased it away several times but it returned.  It's welcome to rodents, but not birds.

Hectic day

Geese were up at breakfast time.  I was hardly home at all.  I did pour the rainwater off the bark butter for the wrens.

I had a brief stop home in the mid afternoon and something peeked around a cherry trunk. I hoped the photo would tell me what, but it looked more like a tiny cartoon ghost than a bird.  Maybe a titmouse?  It was not a wren.  That bird was busy turning up its beak at the bark butter. 

At sunset, the sky to the West glowed gold which somehow shaded into blue without ever turning green.

Pool covered

The pool covering was yesterday, but the day slipped away without a post. I am always sad when it's pool closing time, even though I didn't want to get in the cold water Monday.  Nevertheless, I kept the camera busy.  A heavy dew made surfaces elegant.  The hibiscus did bloom.  And there was a seedpod. 

I found an orb web under the trees.  The tiny spider had an even tinier fleck of red that indicated it was an orchard spider, Leucauge venusta.  A black swallowtail visited the parsley though it's awfully late for a caterpillar to start life.  A cricked rafted on the water.  I saved four ground beetles. 

Carolina wrens worked on the dish of bark butter and mealworms.  A female bluebird looked around but didn't see anything she wanted.  Then a robin showed up.  Titmice drank form the ant moat rather than the birdbath.  A pine warbler got some mealworms. 

I was fascinated by the way the sun refracted the distorted surface tension caused by a floating leaf.  They made amazing patterns.   Later, clouds made sunset impressive, but hinted at weather to come.  

Rain began at breakfast and was light but steady.  A little before 4pm, we had a cloudburst and then the sky began to clear, but it looked strangely dark.  Blue jays competed with squirrels for pecans.  A Carolina wren was not pleased by bark butter rain broth soup.  

Hibiscus bud!

Overnight rain left everything wet and dark clouds looked like the rain might return.  The sky began to clear at lunch time.  I discovered a bud on the hibiscus - unheard of in October! 

I had too much to do to spend time enjoying the sunshine in the afternoon.  A mockingbird enjoyed the beauty berries.  The creek was quite placid and not particularly high despite the full moon last night. 

Changing weather

The hot, sunny morning clouded over by the time we got home in the afternoon and by 4pm light showers passed through.  So did quite a few birds.  Several pine warblers squabbled over the bark butter balls.  I also saw a male downy woodpecker who sneaked up on the suet like a ninja. 

I rescued a bird grasshopper, a couple of small wasps with red bodies, some ground beetles and one spider. 

Three or four bluebirds surprised me, but were equally surprised and fled.  A blue jay tried to be invisible.  Titmice were intimidated by their smaller chickadee cousins. The cardinals were all decked out in fresh feathers.  But the low light made the camera struggle. 

Summer briefly

It was as lovely as yesterday, but warmer and only a little breezy.  But the pool water had dropped to 70°F.  Early in the morning, two birds struck the glass door to the patio, but were gone when K checked.  They left imprints of the powder from their feathers.

The morning tide flowed over the dock again.  I heard that elsewhere in the region it caused flooding. The full moon isn't till Sunday night, but apparently a storm to the Northeast and way out at sea was pushing the water into the Bay.  Meanwhile a drought watch was declared for lack of rain. 

A cricket rafted on a cherry leaf while a ground beetle and a small black caterpillar swam.  An ant carried a tidbit as large as she was down the retaining wall.  There were butterflies: a monarch during lunch, a cloudless sulphur, and a couple of brownish flutterbyes.  A leaf-footed bug patiently rowed through the water till I rescued it.  I also saved an assassin nymph and a bumblebee.  Other bees were too far gone, as was a lacewing.  A moth thrashed ripples from where it was caught on its back in the surface tension. Spider threads caught the sun everywhere but I only saw one live spider, which I evicted from the pool. 

I glimpsed a woodpecker but it flew off.  A blue jay tried to hide with its nut.  A mockingbird made repeated visits to the beauty berries.  Or maybe there was more than one mockingbird.  I got excited about little birds in the trees, but all the ones I could identify ere the usual suspects, chickadees and titmice.  A rustling in the grass was not a squirrel, but a brown thrasher. 

Beautiful day

Morning tide completely covered the dock.  The sun touched a saltbush in bloom and sparkled the creek as I rushed off to a breakfast meeting.  I didn't see anything at lunch and then I got distracted in the afternoon.  So when I next looked out the window, it was at little moths drawn to the light.

I went out to see the moon but it was still behind the trees.  An hour later it was well above them,  "Waxing Gibbous, Illumination: 95%."  But it won't be full till the 13th.

Clearing

I thought I saw a wild animal at breakfast, but it was that feral cat.  It seemed to have a plan to hide under the beautyberry bush. 

The sun got back in town in the afternoon.  But it got a chilly welcome from the  North wind that cleared the overcast. A small flock of buzzards soared back and forth overhead as I sat outside.  Unless they were young eagles?

During a rushed supper, without the camera at hand, I watched two mockingbirds fight over the beauty berries.

Gray

It would have been room temperature outside, if not for the wind.  That or the day long overcast seemed to discourage birds.

Crows, however, were visible and noisy.  One apparently found something nice to eat.  Another had a pecan, which surprised me. 

Squirrels were active too.  Chasing, burying nuts, and, judging by the detritus in the pool, still working on that rickety drey.

Cold wind, thin rain

Dank and dreary with another extremely high tide for the first quarter of the lunar cycle.  Lichens on trees were loving the respite from drought.  But power poles were catching fire in the rain!  

“'Pole fires' sparked by salt and rain are causing power outages across Hampton Roads"   "It sometimes happens this time of year when the skies have been dry for a while, when enough wind blows salt from the ocean and when, at last, a light rain falls, said Dominion Energy spokeswoman Bonita Billingsley Harris. Dirt on the poles and lines also contributes."  I saw at least two of them, not on fire, but being repaired.  

It never rained very hard, but it added up to a good soaking, badly needed.  By night the rain had mostly become mist.  On the way into Norfolk, I saw a few crows battling the wind to get to their rendezvous where the highways cross.  

Summer-like

Lots of birds!  House finches and doves kept fooling me into thinking I'd glimpsed something more interesting.  At least two mockingbirds were hanging around because they got into a fight, chasing and screeching.  One mockingbird was quite the connoisseur of beauty berries. 

And then, when I thought the mockingbird had come back, it was a catbird.  The red eyed vireo popped up, then a male oriole.  I rushed some jelly out to bribe him, and while I was at it, I hung some suet up to see if yesterday's pileated woodpecker would return. 

The warmth lured a skink across the steps.  A mockingbird ate dogwood berries.  A blue jay hid to enjoy its berry. 

A monarch butterfly flew around in the trees, ignoring the milkweed which, admittedly, was not blooming.  But neither were the trees.  A Carolina wren fussed at me from the sakaki where it seemed to think it was hidden. 

After dark, I took some moon pictures and got it passing behind a band of clouds. 

Warmer

Cloud cover came and went, but the sky was gray more often than blue.  There was more detritus in the water which had dropped from 80° on Thursday to 75° today. Nevertheless, I stayed in long enough to clean it up and to rescue a small beetle and a couple of small moths.  And to avoid a spider scuttling on the surface tension.  The only other invertebrates were a lacewing in flight and gnats dancing in a cloud.

Birds were more plentiful.  A blue jay kept an eye on me.  After hearing a woodpecker for a while I finely saw that it was a pileated.  A mockingbird came for the beauty berries.  Robins flocked in the trees. 

A Northern Parula Warbler appeared in the domestic cherry tree.  An egret flew downstream.  Titmice were camera shy. 

Gray sky, chilly wind

A squirrel tried to bury its (my) nut next to the birdbath.  I think it ran into the buried landscape cloth because it took the nut  and left.   The drey-building squirrel dropped another load of construction material into the pool for me to fish out.

A Carolina wren visited the mealworms.  The seed feeder's usual suspects were joined by titmice.  I fetched a lot of leaves and pine needles out of the water, but no insects.  Despite the dank air, Virginia and all the South is in the midst of a drought.  We are almost down to a normal year's rainfall. 

The yellow rose put out a succession of blossoms over the last week.  The red rose was blooming too, but it has always been a healthy plant.  I think the cloud cover was caused by the wind swinging around to the East where it pulled vapor off the ocean.  It also pushed the tide high in the creek.  When I went out after dark to hang the brick on the feeder, I was surprised to see the moon for an instant before the clouds covered it again.

Back to Fall

A couple of Carolina wrens came for breakfast.  Morning was overcast but the North wind cleared and chilled the air, ending the heat wave.  It also dumped bales of pine needles and leaves into the pool.

While cleaning up the mess, I discovered a wheelbug on the barrel where I was dumping leaves.  Maybe it was prospecting for dinner, or maybe I picked it up with the leaves.  If the latter, I was lucky I didn't get bit.  It disappeared when my back was turned.

The wind drove the tide high even though we're midway between new and full moon.  The waxing moon was sharp in the twilight. 

Still hot

This was not quite the scorcher yesterday was.  That set a record at 93°.  But I got plenty sweaty at TCC promoting the ERA. When I got home, I threw myself into the pool.  I rescued a bird grasshopper but it didn't wait for a picture.   The wheelbug hadn't since yesterday, but it certainly looked lifelike.  

I watched the squirrel make a mess of constructing its drey.  It appeared to think that if it just kept stuffing branches inside, something good would happen.  

The tide ran high in the creek.  I caught the crescent moon in the afternoon.  It was faint by day but at least I didn't lack for illumination.

While watching a cardinal in the beauty berry, I noticed a red eyed vireo. I don't know if it was a new one or the one I saw last week.  A chickadee seemed to bully it, though I've never seen chickadees eat beauty berries.

Sunset was spectacular - the sun was a huge red ball on the horizon.  The camera couldn't catch that, but it did get the surrounding glow. 

Summer heat

There was another frog in the pool.  I caught it but when I went to take its picture, it wiggled free.  I also found a wheelbug and laid it in the sun to see if it would revive. 

The fungus under the oak was getting big. It turned out that this day set a temperature record.  I was very glad to be in the water.  

Mellow day

The clouds were back but every so often the sun would get through.  As I ate breakfast outside, the creek was a mirror for the trees, reflecting light that had not yet touched the water.  The blooming salt bush added sparkle to the shade.  There were buds on the  yellow rose. 

The clouds were fewer and there was more clear sky in the afternoon, but the sunlight was still frequently blocked.  The squirrel's drey was refurbished with green leaves.  While swimming I discovered a drama on the pool ladder.  A grasshopper had ascended the slick chrome railing and was, I think, drying out from a pool bath.  But below it on the railing was a spider, just sitting and waiting.

A mockingbird preened in the cherry by the fence, but didn't hang around for a picture.  A chickadee pretended to be a nuthatch on the oak.  Every  time I thought I saw something interesting, it turned out to be a house finch.  A red bellied woodpecker paid the tree a brief visit.  I could hear blue jays,but they stayed out of sight.

On the way home I glimpsed the creamy new moon as it followed the sun out of sight.  It was sharp and thin and reflected too little light to think of taking a picture.