Waxing gibbous

The bullfrog was buried in the leaves that had collected in the skimmer.  When I pulled it out, the frog jumped out and landed on the hot concrete and kept hopping.  More leaves were floating and one, to my disgust, was being ridden by a two inch mulch roach.  The only other rescue was a small dark moth.  I got photos of none of these.  After dark, I took a few pictures of the moon which was past the first quarter and 67% illuminated.  

Hot sun

Thinking that the sun would be less intense this close to the equinox, I didn't wait for shade.  The larger bullfrog awaited me in the skimmer.  It acted lethargic but eventually it hopped off my palm and into the water.  I didn't see it again.   A skink rafted on a sinking leaf and I assisted it onto a rescue stick so it could have the satisfaction of saving itself.  A field cricket was also rafting so I set its leaf raft on the concrete.  I also fished out a couple of black ground beetles and a mint moth.  Something tickled me and after getting it off  my skin, I saw it was a very tiny spider.  An egret flew behind the trees and something that might have been a kite soared in the hazy blue sky.  The seed eaters were all I saw at the feeders.  Squirrels were busy up in the trees.  The long-haired yellow cat sneaked past and I yelled at it.

Too busy

Yesterday I didn't get outside till very late.  There was a dead frog in the water.  One monarch caterpillar was still feeding.  Today I was a little earlier but all I found swimming was one black ground beetle.  Neither I nor a paper wasp could find any caterpillars.  A few mint moths flitted around the milkweed.  The Berkley's polypore appeared fully developed.  The beautyberries were ripe.  One milkweed pod had opened.  

Caterpillar hunter

Both the air and water had cooled though the sun was warm.  I fished a few beetles out of the water and chased off a frog.  One foolish monarch caterpillar ate all the green pod enclosing immature milkweed seeds.  I was thinking that it was "eating the seed corn" when I notices a more immediate danger.  A Guinea paper wasp was hunting caterpillars around the milkweed.  They chew up caterpillars and other soft insects and feed the mash to the grubs in their paper nest.  The monarch caterpillar had created a big sign that it was nearby.  I saw a couple of other monarch caterpillars that were sticking to leaves.  

Crabby

In the late afternoon, the sky was very deep blue.  The water was full of tree detritus, leaves, pine needles, chewed acorns, cherry stems,  cedar sprigs, and old catkins.  I found one of the black swallowtail caterpillars drowned.  I also found a little fiddler crab with a body no bigger than my thumbnail.  It pinched my palm hard enough to leave tiny punctures, and it left its big claw fastened to me.  I nevertheless released it to hike back downhill to the shoreline.  An ant rescued itself by crawling up my back and took a lot of persuading to leave me alone.  At least two monarch caterpillars were still feeding and, unlike the other critters, were willing to pose.  And that was all I saw.  

 

Gale

I found five monarch caterpillars.  One was determined to eat a pod instead of a leaf.  I moved it and it found another pod.  A squirrel with a pecan paused before climbing the maple.  A hummer made frequent feeder visits.  She intimidated a downy.  The wind filled the water with debris almost faster than I could collect it.  Lots of pine needles and leaves damaged by lack of rain kept blowing down.  The frog awaited me under the skimmer lid.  Later, I caught a frog but it didn't look like it was the same one.  There were more beetles in the water.  

Waves of rain

All day, rain alternated with periods of sun but the sunshine never lasted long enough to dry surfaces.  I swam in the late morning and got rained on.  Distant thunder made me a bit nervous.  The frog was under the skimmer lid again, and dived again.  After I cleaned the pool, I lifted it out onto the patio and it hopped into the vegetation.   Several beetles were swimming and a green June beetle had climbed out via a rescue twig propped on the pool ladder.  Other wildlife stayed under cover from the rain that at times came down hard, but I did see one sulphur butterfly during a lull.  This is not a stream, it's water on the patio reflecting vegetation.