Gray

It's too bad I was indoors yesterday instead of today.  There was a little rain overnight and overcast skies all day.  The juvenile male cardinal and his mother were back.  The fledgling hovered while the adult sat on the feeder perch and fed him.  Titmice were not impressed.  A white breasted nuthatch waited for a chance at the unoccupied feeder.  

I went swimming despite the cooler air, bugs, and lack of sunshine because it might be the last time this year.  There was a yellow jacket in the skimmer which I very carefully rescued.  Several snails clung to the side of the pool and I found a black swallowtail caterpillar on the bottom.  I also rescued at least eight black ground beetles and one assassin bug nymph.  Reduviidae nymphs look utterly alien.  The white breasted nuthatch came back after I got out.  So did the cardinal mother and son. 

The first camellia

It was another hot day, and humid.  In the morning, the male juvenile cardinal was begging his mother for food.  Titmice and chickadees streamed to the deed feeder.  A downy woodpecker made a face at the barkbutter mush.  The first camellia of the season bloomed.  I was away all afternoon and when I got back, the male juvenile cardinal was begging his mother for food again. I also saw the adult male cardinal but not the juvenile female.  

Hot

I spent the morning at a fair out near the oceanfront.  A monarch fluttered by.  The day was sunny and grew really hot.  Hurricane Helene switched the wind direction so the clouds flowed up out of the Southwest, finally.  I startled a couple of skinks on my way to the water.  Another skink was floating on a waterlogged leaf so I lifted it, leaf and all, onto the concrete.  Two bullfrogs were in the skimmer, one little and one "almost eatin' size."  A third frog swam past me headed for deep water.  A leg cramp made me get out before I caught up with that frog.  

While drying in the sun, I witnessed a battle to the death.  A skink had caught a cricket.  Much rolling and thrashing ensued, but the cricket was doomed.  A jet passed over with no contrail.  Those little purple mint moths were everywhere.  I also spotted a picture-winged fly, Delphinia picta.  

Hurricane weather

Both kinds of nuthatches stocked up with their equivalent of "bread and milk."  Titmice crowded the seed feeder.  A downy woodpecker had barkbutter balls.  The female juvenile cardinal was beginning to get the hang of feeding herself but still begged.  A squirrel ate dogwood berries.  So did a mockingbird.  A foraging squirrel was covered with warbles.  A blue jay stayed in the trees.  A monarch butterfly briefly visited the butterfly milkweed.

Hurricane Helene was a long way off but even so, local weather was affected.  The morning was overcast but quiet.  Rain began around 2:30pm and gradually got heavier.  The tide was still running high for the point in the lunar cycle.  I glimpsed a couple of gulls but they flew out of sight immediately.  

Mosquitoes

Some early flickers of sunshine encouraged me to brew some solar tea.  When I went to collect it later, a kingfisher noticed me and flew from the dock.  The sky was mostly low stratus clouds making the sun no brighter than a table lamp.  Still, that was enough to pull the temperature up to 80° and the humidity high as well.  Mosquitoes were ambitious and in my face while I was in the water.  I saved a young skink, evicted a good-size bullfrog, and rescued a half dozen black ground beetles, and a tiny snail.  None of them stayed for a portrait.  Yesterday I removed the rescue stick just in case I wasn't able to do it later.  Is that why the water was full of beetles?  A stream of chickadees came to the feeder, and sometimes dodged a cardinal.  I heard a blue jay.  A yellow butterfly fluttered out of sight at lunch. The saltbush began blooming. 

Humid

Morning was still wet and gray.  That did not stop the nuthatches, brown headed or white breasted.  A male cardinal fed his daughter.  A mockingbird tried the rehydrated wild cherries.  The rose drooped to shed rain.  A sparrow, I think was a song sparrow, landed on the railing but the camera insisted on focusing on the raindrops on the window.  In the afternoon we got some sun.  A two-lined spittlebug drowned in the bucket.  The tide rolled over the dock again even though we had a third quarter moon.  

All I found in the pool water was tree trash, snails, a cricket, and a leaf footed bug.  While dripping off, my eye was caught by a really colorful Southern purple mint moth.  Another mockingbird surveyed the scene from the maple, then flew in for a drink.  Two female cardinals tolerated each other, one on the seed feeder, the other on the barkbutter.  I think the one eating seeds was older.  At any rate, she was feeding her son.  Interesting that the parents fed the offspring of the opposite sex.  She looked like the joys of motherhood were wearing thin.  

Rain

 No pictures, nothing to report.  

Very froggy

Defying the meteorologists, the sun shone brightly until late afternoon. The creek glowed in reflected dawn light.  Pale blue morning glories peeped out of the vegetation.  It was breezier and not as warm as I would have liked.  The creek overflowed the dock again and flooded our "living shoreline."  After lunch, a yellow crowned night heron hunted along the edge of the flood.  All it found while I watched was some plastic debris.  

The black cat had a good roll in the sun but it didn't stay long.  I decided to get in the water but first I surveyed for frogs and saw three.  Two were sitting on the rescue stick while the third was riding the thermometer.   When I emptied the skimmer I found a fourth.  It appeared overinflated and it seemed lethargic which worried me.  The two on the stick were bigger than the other two.  I caught the frogs and put them outside but I think they jumped back in as soon as I left. 

I glimpsed a few butterflies but not to identify.  A mockingbird flew out of the beautyberry bush while I was in the water.  A few wasps looked for flowers on the mountain mint.  Soaring birds circled very high up.  A downy woodpecker had some seeds and some barkbutter balls.  Brown headed nuthatches stuck with seeds.  Unfortunately, clouds moved in while I was trying to drip dry and I got chilled. 

Dull gray day

This was the equinox but with the cloud cover, who could tell.  The tide seemed even higher today though the full mood was several days ago.  When the dock emerged from the water, it hosted 16 mallards.  Between the lack of sun, temperature in the low 70s, and wind, I didn't get in the water.  The frog on the rescue stick  was disappointed.  The change in weather delayed release of the milkweed seeds. 

A bird climbed around the feeder post in a nuthatch-like way but I could never see enough of the bird to be certain what it was.  It had black spots on white undertail coverts which isn't right for a white breasted nuthatch.  iNaturalist told me it was a black-and-white warbler.

Frogs

The tide overran the dock again and flooded the salt marsh grasses..  I was busy all morning but the weather waited for me.  The sky was cloudless and the sun intense, though the wind and water were chilly. There wasn't as much bird activity in the afternoon.  A Carolina wren bunny-hopped along the back of the bench, then flew to the barkbutter balls.  As though that gave permission, a blue jay followed.  Of course there were cardinals and chickadees. 

A little brown frog was hanging out on the leaves in the skimmer.   A couple of larger frogs were chillin' on the rescue stick intended for critters' escape if they fall in the water.  When I got over to the deep end though, I only found one frog.  I gently lifted it out onto the concrete.  I also found two cabbage looper moth caterpillars, Trichoplusia ni, and rescued one, but the other sank and I couldn't find it.  Perhaps just as well.  Southern purple mint moths were everywhere.  I glimpsed a skink disappearing into vegetation but, thankfully, there were none in the water.   

Warmer

It was a lovely day except for that Northeast wind that just wouldn't stop.  The tide ran high again.  Brown headed nuthatches kept coming all day too.  A hummer fed without perching.  A squirrel came through the back yard with an ill-gotten pecan.  Another milkweed pod split open.   The gulls were back, but only a few.  

Sunshine!

There were still a lot of clouds but I was grateful for every moment the sun got through them.   A hummer found the feeder but was too anxious to perch.  I wondered if it was a tourist migrating South rather than one that nested here.  Downy woodpeckers availed themselves of seeds and barkbutter balls.  A white breasted nuthatch was gone before the camera was ready but brown headed nuthatches were more cooperative.  

High tide over-topped the dock.  When it receded, mallards moved in.  They looked bedraggled and the males were in eclipse.  I glimpsed a small bird in flight that might have been a kingfisher, or something else.  Southern purple mint moths were everywhere.  A red spotted purple danced through the trees.  It amazed me at how easily those colors disappeared against green leaves.  

The fungus no longer looked appetizing, more like moldy bread.  I had a good, if chilly, swim.  A skink, a mama spider and her spiderlings, and two crickets got a second chance at life on dry land.  Vast quantities of leaves and needles clogged the skimmer, floated on the surface, and sank to the bottom.  I heard a red bellied woodpecker but didn't see it. 

When I got home from a meeting, I went back outside.  A couple dozen gulls flew over. headed Northwest.  It was impossible to be sure but they might have been laughing gulls in winter plumage.  Three young mockingbirds feasted on beautyberries.  I knew they were young because their eyes had not yet turned yellow.  

A rustling in the dogwood turned out to be a red eyed vireo.  It seemed curious about me.  A rustling in the undergrowth might have been another, but all I could see was a belly in shadow.   A hummer monitored all this from the top of the wild cherry.  The boy cardinal came back, still begging his mama for food.  The kid was a bottomless pit.  Poor worn out mother.  A great blue heron flew up into the pine behind the hackberry where the vegetation mostly hid it.  Sunset cast a warm caramel glow on the clouds.  

Damp

The rain trailed off in the morning but the day remained gray.  There were more birds at the seed feeder, including a Carolina wren, a very wet downy, a brown headed nuthatch, and a red bellied woodpecker.  A mockingbird ate beautyberries.  A mourning dove plodded through the wet. 

 An orb web was made visible by moisture.  The hummer feeder filled up with rain water so I took it down.  The ant moat filled too and a bucket left outside was more than half full.  While cleaning the pool, I found a brown marmorated stink bug.  I rescued a small beetle and a jumping bristletail.  Southern purple mint moths perched on many surfaces.  After I showered I noticed a bold jumping spider had joined me. 

Tropical depression

If the storm was tropical, why wasn't it warmer?  It was certainly depressing enough.  There was a flood watch on account of the conjunction of rain, wind, and moon.  The rain came in bands with interludes.  During one I saw titmice, chickadees, cardinals, and brown headed nuthatches at the seed feeder.  During another, I went out and cleaned the pool of leaves and needles.  I got drizzled on and chilled.  

Showers and gusts

There were flickers of sunlight in the morning but also a couple of showers.  The barkbutter dish was nearly empty but I didn't want to waste more in the rain.  A cardinal picked over the crumbs but a mockingbird disdained them and just drank water. 

The sunflower must have completed fertilization because all the ray flowers (aka petals) were withered and drooping.  At supper, there was a flurry of birds.  A Carolina wren inspected the barkbutter dust.  A hummer stayed low in between trips to the feeder.  The creek was running high and there were reports of flooding elsewhere in town. 

Gale

A brown headed nuthatch visited us at breakfast along with chickadees and the rest of the usual seed eaters.  A blue jay ate barkbutter fragments in the bottom of the dish. The hummer kept watch over her feeder.  The yellow rose opened and the lanceleaf coreopsis had a flower.  

A sign of the changing seasons: mallards were napping on the dock.  Big birds circled over the creek and fought  their way upwind.  Clouds blew across the sky faster than a jet.  The wind found more leaves and needles to blow into the water.  Birds and insects were scarce in the afternoon and it wasn't very pleasant in the water.  But the hummer needed to refuel, wind or no wind.  A cardinal brought her son to the patio by the feeder and stuffed him with seeds.  

Chilly

A thin overcast veiled the sun and muted its warmth.  The wind gusts dumping tree detritus in the water.  I rescued a bumblebee from a sinking leaf but found no other wildlife afloat.  K saw two frogs earlier.  A monarch and a red spotted purple flitted around without alighting.  I could only find one fat caterpillar today.  I spotted the kingfisher on the bench on  the dock, but then it spotted me.  

After dark a pink and green grasshopper or katydid with very long antennae landed on the window.  

Gray day

The black cat showed up early to drink from the pool.  I hope it wasn't sick.  K saw another sick raccoon, this time out in the street.  Blue jays swarmed the barkbutter balls at breakfast and never returned, at least when I was watching.  I put a fresh feeder out for the hummer.  The roses put out buds. 

Sometimes the overcast thinned a bit but it never broke apart.  The creek not only picked up the dull colors, it had a matte surface.  Humidity and the lack of wind brought out the biting insects but I didn't see their predators except for a frog.  There were a few Southern purple mint moths to remind me to hose off the rosemary.  I saw one dark butterfly.  The two monarch caterpillars were bigger.  Brown headed nuthatches competed with titmice, chickadees, house finches, and cardinals for a seat at the seed feeder.  

Raccoon

An early hummer was very hungry.  She tracked an incoming bumblebee and chased away another hummer.  She puffed up her feathers and even raised a little crest.  Brown headed nuthatches were determined to get seeds.  Cumulus clouds blew in from the East but higher cirrus clouds flowed from West to East.  A red rose bloomed.  

I was able to locate the two monarch caterpillars again.  I do not understand why they bite part way through a stem and cause the leaves to droop and dry, but they keep doing it.   Frogs hung out on the escape stick.  They did not notice they'd been joined by a field cricket.  I rescued two crickets and one small skink. 

Just as I was getting ready to catch the frogs, a raccoon walked up to the pool and tried to get a drink.  The frogs made themselves very scarce.  At first I thought the raccoon was young and foolish but the longer I watched the more it seemed to me to be sick.  It was very awkward and almost fell in a couple of times.  That persuaded me to get out at the other end.  It wandered over to the polypore and nosed around but then it came back to the pool.  The frogs popped up for a breath and disappeared again.  The raccoon appeared to fall asleep.  K called Animal Control and they caught it and said it was fatally ill, though not rabid.  

At supper. the persistent nuthatch was back.  Clouds were softly tinted as the cormorants commuted back to their roost.  

Still nice weather

I was mooned by a mockingbird when it found the barkbutter dish empty.  Brown headed  and white breasted nuthatches were also ready for breakfast.  A hummer plunged its beak deep into the feeder.  I might need to refill it tomorrow.  A bumblebee visited the sunflower. Later I saw a skipper feeding there, but it kept its wings up and I could only see them on edge.  

The kingfisher was back atop the post at the end of the dock.  It had a lot of blue in patches on its breast and a faint hint of a rusty belly band.  Some Southern purple mint moths fluttered around.  A Guinea paper wasp was curious about the ant moat.  A little black Zethus spinipes wasp hunted flowers on the mountain mint.  Both monarch caterpillars were doing well.   Three frogs entertained me but there were no skinks.  Blue jays showed up after I finally put out more barkbutter balls. 

Lovely weather

Blue jays and hummers were early again.  The creek shone with reflected sunlight.  A bumblebee visited the sunflower.  The sky was very blue, the air warm, and the breeze light.  A bumblebee pollinated the sunflower.  When I went for a swim, I rescued a young skink, or rather, it swam up to me and demanded my aid.  And I evicted two frogs.  

After some searching I located the two monarch caterpillars, each underneath a leaf.  Two dark butterflies danced or dueled, then flew in separate directions.  I'm fairly certain the nearer one was either a palamedes or giant swallowtail.  A new-to-me butterfly hid behind vegetation.  I only saw it because I was tracking a weevil.  After considerable research my best guess was Common Checkered-Skipper, Burnsius communis.  It's irritating when something new to me is named "common."  Also, the authorities changed the genus from Pyrgus.  

I thought there was a strange bird on the dock but it was only a pair of mallards, one behind the other.  Then I realized that above them was a kingfisher.  My day for seeing a surprise while focused on something else. 

Warmer

The creek was placid and reflective in the early morning light.  Blue jays got up early for barkbutter balls.  So did a hummer, but for sugar water.  A mockingbird wanted plain water from the ant moat, also barkbutter balls.  Two brown headed nuthatches returned for seeds.  They made a larger chickadee wait for a turn. 

There was a flower on the hibiscus.  I had not expected that bud to open because the insects had bee at it, but it managed despite damage.  The business parts were working even if the petals were tattered.  The sunflower continued to open center flowers.  The beautyberries were bright magenta.  The polypore looked like bread dough gone wild.  A seedpod on the butterfly milkweed opened. 

Finally I got back in the water.  It was a bit nippy.  One frog sat on the ladder and two more were on the rescue stick.  When I got over to the deep end, I only saw one frog.  It was sitting on the rescue stick so I left it alone.  I fished out two pink and green caterpillars.  An ant decided the first one was dead meat and tried to tug it home.  It was only ten times her size but she got it moving.  The other one was in better shape and I think it was a double-lined prominent moth Lochmaeus bilineata. 

There were two caterpillars on the butterfly milkweed as well.  And I saw a monarch hurry across the yard.  Mainly, I was watching for red spotted purples and they were all around.  One showed great interest in dogwood and wild cherry leaves.  A black swallowtail flitted around me and some snouts dashed between trees. Toward evening a white breasted nuthatch visited the feeder. 

Too cool

The day was full of sunshine but barely got to 73. A titmouse was being cute at breakfast.  Two brown headed nuthatches shared the feeder.  Light blue morning glories dotted the vegetation.  Blue jays visited the barkbutter dish.  We replaced the empty hummer feeder and a hummer was soon slurping it up.  The monarch caterpillar was a little bigger.  Toward evening, a heron stalked along the shoreline.  I saw the ripples first before the bird.  I caught a hummer in flight too.  The saltbush was thinking about getting ready to bloom.  

Dreary

Rain was falling when I got up and it didn't quit till mid afternoon.  A brown headed nuthatch visited the feeder anyway.  A Carolina wren followed.  Then a sparrow foraged underneath.  I couldn't be sure but this one may have been a song sparrow. The male goldfinch came for seeds.  The air barely got up to room temperature and the wind was gusty.  The sunflower promised brighter days.  So did the streaky, muted sunset clouds.  

Lovely day

The white breasted nuthatch was up early, soon followed by a brown headed nuthatch.  They both wanted seeds, as did a house finch.  Young mockingbirds were hoping for barkbutter balls but I hadn't gotten outside yet.  The sunflower shone like its name.  A goldfinch got a drink.  

When I refilled the barkbutter balls, I saw a soldier beetle on the mountain mint.  A frog waited on the ladder.  A skink scooted under my chair and then hid among pine needles.  The lengthwise lines on its body made surprisingly good camouflage.  Eventually it ran across the step and went about its business.  I put shoes on to get close ups of the Berkeley's Polypore.  When I got in the pool two frogs awaited me.  Also a drowned skink, alas.  Neither frog made any effort to get away.  I also rescued a magnolia green jumping spider Lyssomanes viridis.

I saw butterflies and one dragonfly but they did not cooperate.  The one butterfly that I got a recognizable photo of might have been a hackberry emperor Asterocampa celtis.  Certainly it was very close to a hackberry tree.  A cloudless sulphur got away, as did a dark butterfly.  There was a very small monarch caterpillar munching the new leaves on the butterfly milkweed.  While I was photographing the caterpillar, a jumping spider marched down the railing, keeping a wary eye on me.  My guess was a canopy jumping spider Phidippus otiosus.  A few wasps looked for nectar on the mountain mint. 

Blue jays and a male cardinal vied for barkbutter balls for supper.  The white breasted nuthatch came back for another meal but a female cardinal was in the way.  Then it was house finches, but finally the bird got fed.