Mostly insects

I did not begin to take pictures till mid afternoon.  The brown thrasher found a new singing perch.  Titmice kept busy feeding their fledglings. 

I rescued a paper wasp from drowning, also several spiders.  An Eastern forktail damselfly waited on the side of the pool for food to fly by.  Then I saw a backswimmer rowing through the water.  It went after a spider but I think it spit it back out.  Then it drifted with bits of debris camouflaging it.  Unless the spider bit it?  A tiger swallowtail laid eggs on the cherry leaves.  A cloud of goldenrod soldier beetles hovered over the parsley flowers. 

Hot

A blue jay bounced on a dead branch in the dogwood, then helped him/herself to mealworms.  Butterflies went for lavender.  K hung fresh hummer juice but a hummer wouldn't try it.  I don't know if it was the juice, or if something scared the bird.  K said the frog was back in the pool. Titmice finally arrived mid morning. 

Around noon, a yellow crowned night heron waded outside the rim of spartina instead of stalking on the grass side.  K planted the day lily I bought.  It was a gorgeous day and I was stuck keeping promises instead of being outdoors.

Classic June day

I woke up early and went outside.  The sky was covered with cirrus strands like hair and a light breeze brought flower scents.  A bumblebee worked on the lavender.  Crows flew over and a wren sang.  My mother would have recited this while I muttered that a day in February was more rare.

On my way back from the doctor, I stopped at the plant nursery and bought a dwarf day lily with a dark reddish-brownish flower.  When I got home, butterflies were enjoying the lavender. I saw a silver spotted skipper and a duskywing.  A tiger swallowtail and a cabbage white fluttered, apparently aimlessly, but too confusingly for me to get the camera focused.  A snowy egret watched the water flowing from the dam. 

I sat outside in the middle f the afternoon and a squirrel came up to me and walked between my feet.  I actually felt the fur!  And the squirrel was not chasing or being chased, but just walking around.  I didn't move while he was near me but I got a photo as he walked away. 

The brown thrasher was back in the oak working through his repertoire.  I also hear a wren, chickadees, and a cardinal.  A hummer turned up her beak at the feeder so we brought it in to clean.  (While I was out running errands, I saw a man waiting in front of the library with earbuds in his ears, oblivious to the mockingbird beside him singing.) 

I watched a spider walk on its reflection in the water. When I hauled the skimmer basket out to empty it, it was stuffed full of frog.  The frog had a struggle to extricate itself.  Then, of course, it dived right back into the pool.  I followed it around till it finally jumped out under the cedar. 

Hurricane season

It was a beautiful June morning that made the hurricane label seem silly.  Early clouds cleared off and the rain during the night left drops behind to sparkle in the sunlight.  A male goldfinch peeked from the cherry but came no closer.  An egret fished in the dam overflow.  Titmice slept in but then wanted seeds.  Blue dasher dragonflies perched and scanned for flying food.  A wasp was very interested in hackberry leaves.

After my lunch I watched a yellow crowned night heron catch hers or his. When the heron is about to pounce, it gently wags its body from side to side.  The rain this week overfilled the pool.  I found ground beetles and fireflies floating along with spiders running on surface tension.

The gladiolus spears (flower buds) appeared and I counted three yellow rose buds.  A lovely comma or question-mark butterfly flitted around the roses but never let me get a clear shot.  Fish kept jumping high out of the water, I think fleeing a predator. A striped bee nectared on the lavender.  A couple of egrets fished in the dam outfall. 

More rain

I heard the rain in the night but it ended long before morning which was humid, but not wet. Something disturbed the creek surface right along the shore, but I could not see anything but ripples. Mushrooms popped up in the grass. A hummer needed her energy drink. 

At lunch, I watched a blue tailed skink go around a loop of garden hose only to find itself inside another loop.  It crawled over the scary hose and escaped under the rosemary.   There were at least two female hummers and one was dominant. The other was too nervous to perch on the feeder.  A black swallowtail egging the rue seemed the same size as the hummer.  

A female blue dasher guarded our front patio, and a striped bee pollinated the buttercups.  I rescued a couple of fireflies from the water.  One appeared to have an ant clamped on a foreleg. Between the rain and the lawn mowing, the water was full of drowned roaches.  There were also spiders that were quite lively.

Down in the creek fish jumped high out of the water.  The brown thrasher serenaded again.  I glimpsed an osprey and a male hummer.  The short tailed squirrel found a peanut I'd dropped by accident in the birdbath.  He was certain there must be more treats in the water and paddled all around.  An egret and a little green heron fished at the dam outfall. 

Clouds boiled out of the West in the late afternoon and rain arrived a little before 6pm.  It lasted about half an hour, then cleared and all the titmice rushed to get supper for their fledglings.  But then more clouds came from the NW and brought an early dusk and thunderstorms.

Damp

Light rain wet the concrete at breakfast under a gray sky.  The feeders were not very much in demand at first. Eventually the titmice arrived.  I counted five at one time and some acted very naive so I suspect they were fledglings. The cardinals were still dating but a male finch showed up with a fledgling.  The young one fed itself while still shivering its wings to induce a parent to feed it.  That behavior must be connected with the feeling of food for the juvenile bird.  Meanwhile, the adult carefully ignored the fledgling.

The second time a hummer appeared, it acted very anxious.  It may have been a different female on the lookout for the first one.

Heavier rain fell later in the morning.  The sky remained overcast till quite late in the day.  K and I agreed there were two female hummingbirds.  at dusk, I wasted time trying to photograph a firefly.

Hazy

The cardinals were billing again.  I don't think they coo.  The haze made the egret by the dam appear to be in fog.  A hummer had breakfast.

It turned out to be a lovely day, albeit with a white sky, but I missed too much of it.  I finally got outside after 4pm and got wet.  Spiders needed rescuing.  Swallows flew over the pool.  I saw a couple of dragonflies and a butterfly.  A wren sang loudly from various spots as it circled the yard. 

When I got out, a brown thrasher performed at the top of the oak.  Titmice were everywhere but I think they were dodging their greedy fledglings.  A couple of red bellied woodpeckers also played chase through the leaves.  The female hummer made many visits to her feeder throughout the day.  I acquired a couple of very itchy bites.