Cicada

The morning sky was white from a thin overcast and not much was happening at breakfast time.  Cornell shared a link for a Fall bird Migration Dashboard but it indicates this is not yet the time for Virginia.  A Carolina wren finally came for suet.  The spiders were, of course, patient.  Around 2pm, the sky cleared enough for sunshine.  Fluffy cumulus blew away to the West while a high layer of cirrocumulus slid slowly East.  I went outside and a cicada buzzed past to land on the feeder post.  A blue dasher decided that was way too big a bug.  

The clouds dissipated and the sun became very hot.  The fungus under the oak seemed bigger but still looked like fresh bread.  Some beautyberry clusters showed a hint of red.  I located the three black swallowtail caterpillars again, though I was expecting the biggest one to have gone off to pupate.  It looked like it might stay right there for the change. 

Lots of butterflies were on the wing but few stopped to pose.  One that did was a dark swallowtail that I think might be a dark phase tiger swallowtail.  It rested on a dogwood leaf long enough for me to get out of the water, get the camera, and stalk it.  Eventually it flew to a lower bush and then danced in the air with another dark butterfly.  It disappeared, then a dark butterfly I thought was the same one flew to the top of the wild cherry where it seemed to be laying eggs.  Seeing the wings against the bright sky lent some proof to the tiger hypothesis.  

A red spotted purple drank from the pool, then rested on the concrete.  Unlike the swallowtail, it was quite tattered.  Another, in better shape, rested on a maple leaf.  I also glimpsed a monarch, a hackberry emperor, a summer azure, a sleepy orange, and others I couldn't identify.  

In the late afternoon, a fresh sheet of cirrocumulus rolled out of the West.  It moved on through quickly and the sunlight returned.  A female widow skimmer landed on one of the perches, then switched to another.  A male hummer visited the feeder but the light didn't catch his gorget.