Arthropod day

Two female pileated woodpeckers started the morning.  It appeared that the one eating suet was feeding the other, but behind the post so I couldn't be sure.  Later the nuthatches slipped between the cardinals and house finches to get seeds.  Chickadees and titmice also visited the feeders and a titmouse asserted its status.  A female bluebird noticed that I had put out fresh barkbutter balls.  A juvenile bluebird visited the seed feeder.  A crow found the mealworms that the bluebirds tossed out.  A blue jay also got into the mealworms. 

The largest Argiope spider refurbished its web in the window.  All three of the smaller ones seemed to be doing well, though the web in the aster was still fingerprint shaped, not a straight stripe like the other three made.  A dragonfly hunted from one of the perches.  It might have been a bar-winged skimmer.  Later a prince baskettail flew loops over the pool.  Pool rescues included a centipede, a mama wolf spider and babies, and a bumblebee.  I don't know if the centipede revived of became someone's lunch, but it disappeared.  When I got out of the pool, a robber fly landed on my arm.  I persuaded it to move to my left hand but that was still too close for the camera.  After a moment it flew off and I have no idea what my attraction was.  

Two duskywing skippers fed with the wasps and bees on the mountain mint.  There was at least one honeybee.  I think one bee might be a two-spotted longhorn bee.  It certainly had hairy hind legs.  A large wasp with a striped abdomen That I think was a horse guard wasp Stictia carolina also fed on the mountain mint.  While I'm delighted that they attack biting flies, it is concerning that one expects to find prey here. 

This year, the gladiolus flowering has been more sporadic than I remember from other years.  A few fresh flowers opened on the butterfly milkweed but there was still no sign of caterpillars.  I just noticed that the blueberries ripened before the wild cherries.  The temperature peaked at 93° then yo-yoed with the clouds and sun.  Twice, raindrops spattered me when I went outside but didn't wet anything for more than a minute.