A male goldfinch paid an early visit. Later, a monarch egged the butterfly milkweed. Fiery skippers joined the bees and wasps on the mountain mint. A buzzard circled. I checked on the three Argiope spiders and all were OK. A slaty skimmer perched near me and snatched invisible bugs out of the air. The Southern purple mint moths infested the rosemary again - I need to deal with that.
The wind was very gusty and thrashed the leaves off trees. The hot sun so energized the insects that I missed quite a few. Something that might have been a hummingbird moth swooped down on the mountain mint then shot over the house. I glimpsed rusty wings and some yellow on the body, and it had a vertical profile. Later, I saw another duskywing skipper.
The hummer, or hummers, seemed unfazed by the wind. A lot of sugar water got drunk. One I thought might be a male perched on a dead twig atop the wild cherry despite the wind. It was a very dark hummer, for sure, but with no hint of ruby.
A blue dasher joined the slaty skimmer. And I realized that what I had assumed was another wasp was actually a female
Eastern amberwing,
Perithemis tenera. Also, I glimpsed what I thought was a male widow skimmer, at least I got an impression of black and white wings. Sometime after 5pm, the weather shifted from hot wind pushing cumulus out of the SSW to a slow-moving overcast.
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