There was a storm in the night that flooded the feeders and we were a bit late getting them refreshed. A male ruby throated hummingbird slipped in and got a couple of good drinks in between the females. Half the time the light was wrong and his throat appeared black.
A big skink with a tiny tail hurried under cover. I wonder if it was the one I saw last week that had just lost its tail. Black swallowtails seemed frantic to get eggs laid. The usual bees and wasps were back at the mountain mint. Like the hummer's throat, lighting that hit just right made the great golden digger wasp's face shine like metal. A blue dasher kept watch from a bamboo stake.
The storm had dumped tree debris in the water, including lots of pine needles. I saved a scarab beetle clinging to some needles and a sidewalk tiger beetle swimming with its almost invisibly thin legs. I also fished out a caterpillar and K found a horntail. The caterpillar eventually revived and I left it in a clump of parsley. I also moved another caterpillar from an almost denuded milkweed to the butterfly milkweed.
In preparation for the remnant of Hurricane Laura, I turned the plastic end tables upside down, but I had to turn one back up because it had two monarch chrysalises. hanging from the underside. The cottontail grazed under the azaleas.
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