Hot

Clouds threatened for much of the day but rain didn't begin till 9pm.  Thunder and lightening accompanied the rain for hours.

In the afternoon I went to an offshore drilling panel at the Brock Center. Asters, canna, and a small yellow composite were blooming. 

On the way home I swung around Witchduck Lake and got a view of the dam stripped of vegetation. 

A hummer visited during the brief time I was home. 

Mysterious birds

I was gone much of the day.  Down at the Municipal Center I glimpsed an amazingly green bee  but it left quickly.   When I got home, after 5pm, I went outside for an hour. 

A slaty skimmer haunted the creek edge.   Turtles were out basking again.  A golden digger wasp and a threadwaisted wasp shared the mountain mint uneasily.

A soaring bird made me wonder if it was a Mississippi kite.  Then an immature red bellied woodpecker  began calling from the oak.  (I had to look up a sound file to be sure.)   I also saw a brown thrasher and a half dozen blue jays.   And, of course, there were hummer wars - one crashed into the window and kept going.  But there was also a wasp hanging around the feeder.

So many figs

The hummers were hungry and territorial. Finally I saw a juvenile cardinal. It was closely supervised by mom, but it wasn't begging. 

A sizable robber fly wanted to come inside, but I didn't let it.  We had corn on the cob and while two of the four ears had worms, another had corn smut,  I haven't seen corn smut in half a century, except when it was on the menu in Mexico.

Cumulus clouds rolled through in the afternoon, giving occasional relief from the sun.  Three turtles and an egret were out on the lake.  Occasionally a skinklet ran across the patio.  I picked figs till I was hot and sticky and there were still so many more.

A couple of threadwaisted wasps demonstrated that mating was not all that easy. A paper wasp wanted a way into the hummer juice.   I speculated that the big moth dinner had caused the Argiope to molt and that is was hiding till its new skin was ready for public exposure. 

A Needham's skimmer used the perch I moved so I could see it from the window.  A blue dasher used the dead twigs by the  creek. A slaty simmer replaced the Needham's when the perch became shaded.  A four spotted pennant used the redwood for a perch, possibly because the pine candles opened into individual needles.  Another slaty skimmer used the bark butter hanger. 

Beautiful weather

Overnight, the temperature dropped below 70°F again, but the air was drier and didn't leave heavy dew.  The sun was hot in a cloudless sky, but the breeze from the North was brisk. It was still enough when I got up that I coated the hibiscus  with neem oil.  I noticed that the Argiope was gone.  A grasshopper nymph was on the wall of the house.  Somewhat later, the male cardinal went after it. 

A Carolina wren breakfasted on bark butter balls.  I snapped a photo of something on the cherry and learned it was a downy woodpecker female.  Titmice alternated with chickadees.  Hummers fed all day long,  when they weren't chasing each other.  One perched in the cherry to keep watch on the feeder. 

A variegated fritillary played hard to photograph. Then it flopped on the wooden step wall as though exhausted.  A female Eastern pondhawk perched on twigs around the mountain mint.   The mountain mint also attracted golden digger wasps that battled over turf.   The other, smaller bees and wasps on the mountain mint tried to make the golden digger leave.  I saw a red spotted purple and a yellow butterfly I assume was a small tiger swallowtail.  On a twig at the creek's edge a dragonfly looked golden.  A bar-winged skimmer and blue dashers perched around the yard. 

Predators

The bald male cardinal appeared to be hunting for caterpillars on the butterfly weed.  I hope that they were not all eaten, but I didn't see any.  The usual wasps fed on the mountain mint.  Hummer wars were frequent.  I surprised an night heron and a crow (I think) at the water's edge.  Then I went off to staff a voter registration drive in a hot downtown park with teens performing, loudly.  

After I got home, I went out to check on my favorite spider.  At first all I could see was a moth in the web.   Then the Argiope came climbing up to wrap its prize.  I  could see a planet, presumably Jupiter, in the Southern sky but the moon was waning and in hiding till morning.  I finally found a website for planets with daily updates like the one for the moon.

White sky

A very heavy dew left every surface wet.  I hung a fresh hummer feeder and refreshed the bark butter balls.  Dragonflies were waiting for the small fliers.  A yellow crowned night heron paced below the dam.

Hummers were hungry.  Some of the monarch caterpillars disappeared.  A hummer tried to feed from the rose.  A skinklet scurried around the birdbath.  The blue jays found the bark butter while a couple of titmice came for seeds.

When I went out to the pool there were even more dragonflies.  I am certain of the great blue skimmer and the slaty skimmer.  I added water to the birdbath and one dragonfly  zoomed right over and perched on a leaf where it could watch for egg laying mosquitoes.  

The Argiope had a tidy meal all wrapped up. Chickadees fussed about something in the camellia.  A female eastern pondhawk rested on a money plant leaf.  The two remaining monarch caterpillars appeared to hold a conversation with much waving of the long black hairs that look like antennae. 

Humid

It was warmer, but I didn't think it was hot till I picked figs.  The humidity plastered me.   A fiery skipper perched on an indigo pod.  That caused me to notice the hairy yellow caterpillars all over the plants.  Curiously, the figs had not attracted many insects, despite the ones that were ruined by the rain - splitting open and smelling like a brewery.

A black swallowtail made the rounds of host plants and took a nip of mountain mint.  A buckeye stayed with the domestic mint.  Threadwaisted wasps were mating again.  I saw an ailanthus webworm on the mountain mint, but it wasn't responsible for the caterpillars on the indigo.  The monarch caterpillars' frass lined up on the leaves like fake caterpillars.  Blue dashers monitored the ground level and a twelve spotted skimmer the upper air. 

On my way to the pool steps I spied a big brown skink.  It came very close, but I had left the camera in the shade.  In the skimmer basket I found a baby skinklet that was still quite lively.   I made it pay for rescue with photos.

In the evening, there was again a mysterious disturbance in the creek surface, but a boat came home and set up waves.