The heat returned with sunshine in a hazy sky. An osprey landed briefly in the pines but I wasn't ready. A male Needham's skimmer used a bamboo perch. A different species perched on a bare twig atop the wild cherry. A damselfly lurked on the pool edge. My best guess is orange bluet Enallagma signatum. At supper, several dragonflies darted over the water.
Bees and wasps covered the mountain mint, but a snout butterfly and a fiery skipper managed to get a share. I thought I glimpsed other butterflies but couldn't be sure. A gray long-horned bee (Melissodes spp.) posed for me. So did a mydas fly. I guessed that a big insect that banged on the window was a cicada killer. While I was in the pool a wasp flew into me and I knocked it into the water. I rescued it very carefully. I also saved a couple of bumblebees and many beetles. And I evicted a few spiders.
The two infant Argiope spiders had moved their webs a few inches. I saw a wasp fly into the white part of each web. I don't know if they were after the spiders or if the webs looked like something desirable, maybe a moth. I don't think the wasps caught the spiders. I looked up spider wasps and they have a different body shape.
The beautyberry was in bloom. Goldfinches refused to visit until I was inside. I saw the hummer flying around the sakaki. Apparently it bloomed while I was gone. Dark clouds brought an early twilight. The illegal fireworks started making it hard to know if there was thunder.
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