Gray

A bluebird and a brown headed nuthatch were early visitors.  A Carolina wren tackled the suet.  The Argiope had a fine, new web.  The orange skipper was back on the mountain mint.  The best match seemed to be a Delaware skipper but iNaturalist said fiery skipper.  Leafcutter bees, honeybees, sand wasps, and others crowded the milkweed and mountain mint. 

A bald faced hornet went for an unplanned swim.   Drizzle began before lunch.  There were breaks when the birds and insects returned.  A blue dasher took up the perch by the rosemary.  Later, a widow skimmer took it over.  A tattered black swallowtail perched in the rosemary.  A skink caught some rays while on the step wall.  A Carolina wren picked at the soggy barkbutter balls.  Then a pine warbler arrived with the same idea. 

As I left for an evening meeting, fierce clouds were boiling out of the South.  I barely beat the rain inside.  But as I backed out of the drive, I saw two rain lilies blooming.  Alas, the rain flattened them before I got home.  Wasps were still coming and going from their nest in a bush at the foot of the driveway.  Meanwhile, a spider was constructing a web nearby.  Bold spider!