Wednesday, August 9, 2023

Fans of figs

The fledgling bluebirds were still sharing food.  A goldfinch checked the sunflower to see if there were any more seeds.  A Carolina wren scurried around.  An odd-looking starling visited, perhaps a juvenile not done changing feathers.  It weighed too much for the seed feeder. 

Argiope #2 was sitting on its zigzag web, waiting.   A fiery skipper probed a violet leaf.  I picked a lot of figs very carefully.  A blue jay and another bird might have been a brown thrasher ate figs that were out of my reach.  The wasps were easier photo subjects, especially the cicada killers.  June beetles and flies also enjoyed rotting fig.  I had to scrub fig mud off my shoes.

I discovered one of the tobacco hornworms had drowned in the pool.   Afterward, I watched the mountain mint while I dripped.  Another fiery skipper showed up.  A blue jay watched me.  A blue dasher hunted from a bamboo stake perch. 

Later, I discovered a slender bug on the door frame.  A black swallowtail kept returning to the rue.  Another dragonfly used a bare wild cherry twig as a vantage point.  I thought it was a Carolina saddlebags, but the photos look like a widow skimmer.  The sky was a clear blue background for twelve-spotted dragonflies. A tiger swallowtail did not hang around for a portrait.  A second blue dasher tried to dislodge the one on the perch but lost and retreated to a gladiolus stalk. 

A skink chased another across the patio.  A hummer objected to my proximity. A mockingbird grudgingly let a blue jay eat first.  Then more jays arrived.  And even a juvenile bluebird  cut in line.  But eventually the mockingbird ate its fill.  Seems hard to believe they chase crows but won't argue with a blue jay.  A white breasted nuthatch came for seeds.  


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