Two monarchs emerged, "eclosed" in the technical term, this morning. The humidity was so high, the camera fogged. Unfortunately, one fell from its chrysalis and its wings never fully unfolded. The other was fine and flew off. The third chrysalis, which I thought would open first, will be last.
A squirrel dangled from its toenails to get at dogwood berries. Hummer wars were fierce today. Usually one gives up quickly and flees, but not this time.
The pool pump gave out yesterday, so critters that fell in were not sucked into the skimmer. I rescued two skinks, one big black bee, a black wasp, a horntail, and the sad crumple-winged monarch. I was amazed that the monarch seemed no worse for its near drowning and I was sure the horntail was a corpse. But when tiny ants tried to bite off bits of horntail, it made a remarkable recovery.
One skink was tired and docile but the other tried to escape by swimming through my crotch. But eventually I was able to grab it and plop it onto the patio where it ran for cover. Meanwhile the other was still catching its breath.
A delicate damselfly did not need rescuing. I think it was an immature female Eastern Forktail, Ischnura verticalis. A few blue dashers and skimmers were around.
I went out after dark but before the moon was up and noticed two planets high in the South, Jupiter trailed by Saturn, I think.
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