Hibiscus blossom

I forgot to make an entry yesterday but it wasn't a dull day.  The male goldfinch seemed to be getting a drink every time I looked.  I camera-chased a tiger swallowtail.  Also I've been noticing wild cherry leaves carefully sculpted by caterpillars to hide that they've been partly eaten.  A spider was rafting on a sculpted leaf so I brought it to land.  It spun a bit of web then launched itself up into the dogwood, at least six feet up and away.  I thought it was one of the heptagonal orbweavers, but it was more brown with a butterfly shape marked in beige.  Turns out it is a butterfly orbweaver Araneus pegnia.  I also got pictures of the floating pine needles making occult symbols in the breeze.  A buzzard flew over and a hummer visited the fresh feeder.  

The morning looked nice but I had a meeting.  I think this may be the latest in the year that the hibiscus has bloomed.  There was a hummer and a goldfinch.  In the afternoon, I waited for some shade but almost waited too long and got sprinkled upon.  A cicada was submerged on the top step so I fished it out. Later I carried it up the steps for a photo and it began to revive!  iNaturalist identified it as a Northern dusk-singing cicada Megatibicen grossus.  

A frog in the skimmer seemed dead so I disposed of it.  Another in the pool was bigger and fairly lively, but I caught it. A determined mosquito bit me on my face since that was all it could reach.  I did my best to drown it.  I saw a monarch and a little skink as I dripped off.  I couldn't find any monarch caterpillars but the parsley plant I bought had a first instar black swallowtail caterpillar.  There were flashes of sunshine between the thunderheads while I was outside, but thunder and real rain began before 6pm.  It cleared after about half an hour.  

 

Accident

A storm overnight brought down leaves and needles but little rain.  The pool skimmer was packed with needles.  When I had removed most of them, I lifted out the basket and a frog jumped out and into the pipe leading to the pool filter.  I left the basket out in the hope it could swim back, but it didn't reappear.  Eventually I gave up and put the basket back in place.  I did catch another frog later and I rescued a heptagonal orbweaver.  And I think I must have fed several mosquitoes.  Earlier, a dragonfly hunted from a garden stake.  A dark butterfly passed by.  While I was dripping off, a very small skink with a very long tail ventured out, but I didn't have the camera.  Today was just as gloomy as yesterday and I didn't want to risk rain on the camera. The thirsty goldfinch was back.  

 

Gloomy

The usual two frogs went swimming with me.  I didn't see anything else of note in the water.  A leafhopper floated but I don't know if it recovered after I fished it out.  A hummer drank from the milkweed flowers.  I saw a monarch but it didn't visit the milkweed.  The Asiatic dayfloweres were blooming.  A red spotted purple landed on a dogwood but was edge-on to me.  

Cloudy

The sky often looked like rain but none fell and occasionally there was sun.  The male goldfinch was thirsty but also quick and hard to catch on camera.  I took the camera to the pool edge and got one frog inside the skimmer.  There were two but the other dived.  I eventually caught it.  The one that didn't dive tried to hide beside the camera, I guess because it was dark.  A black ground beetle rode a leaf around the skimmer.  I caught a dragonfly nymph in my hands and we studied each other, but I couldn't figure out any way to take a picture so I released it.  

As I dripped, a skink crossed the steps and climbed the retaining wall.  I counted 27 full size milkweed pods and didn't include some smaller ones.  but no caterpillars.  A cloudless sulphur flitted across the patio.  Hummers focused on the one-hole feeder and I discovered the bigger feeder was dry.  

 

Cool

The temperature overnight crept below 70°.  Morning felt cool and damp, in part because a large, heavy cloud seemed stuck overhead.  Once again there were two frogs which I caught.  I have been persuaded that they are young bullfrogs.  In addition, there was a half-grown grasshopper in the skimmer, which amazingly revived.  When I tried to urge it away from the water, it shot straight up into the air.  Is it "pronking" if an animal has six legs?  

A few beautyberries were beginning to blush.  A tiny wasp drowned in the one-hole hummer feeder.  The hummers did not approve.  They were happy when a fresh feeder appeared.  The squirrel was back but, alas, I had no peanuts.  A black swallowtail hunted for parsley, of which there was none.  It shamed me into going to the nursery and buying a pot full.  Toward evening, a little flock of eight mallards gathered on the creek.  The males were in eclipse and only their yellow bills indicated their sex.  

 

Beautiful weather

The day was sunny and warm enough with a breeze and low humidity.  In the morning the sky was so blue it seemed to have a tinge of purple.  I found two live frogs and a dead amberwing dragonfly in the pool.  A glass snail may have been estivating.  A tiger swallowtail egged the cherry but I got only glimpses of other butterflies.  The camera caught a snout and a mint moth.  I heard a goldfinch and then it alighted for a drink.  But the second I moved, it was gone.  I fed a few peanuts to the squirrel with the tuft of pale hair.  It had scratched bare spots around its neck, maybe warbles.  

A blue dasher perched on the rosemary.  One hummer vigorously defended "her feeders" from another.  The mountain mint was no longer attracting pollinators and even the milkweed wasn't getting much attention except for very tiny insects.  Cicadas sang at least three different tunes.  I suppose I could use my phone to record and ID them.  A Carolina wren indulged in barkbutter balls.  A skink and I spotted each other on the steps and it disappeared immediately.  

Hummingbirds

The wild blue morning glories were blooming when I replaced the low-hanging hummer feeder.  When I went for a morning swim, three frogs awaited me but two hopped away and only one dove into the water.  I caught and released it on land too.  A black swallowtail egged the gone-to-seed parsley and a dragonfly flew fast over the water while I swam.  I found a tiny, pretty beetle afloat but it never revived.  It was about the size of a ladybug but not so round.  iNaturalist identified it as a shield-backed cryptocephalus, Cryptocephalus mutabilis.

A hummer came to the little feeder but did not stay long.  Maybe rainwater diluted it?  A tiny orb web hung between the feeder and the post.  Later, a hummer visited the 3-hole feeder and still later, two hummers argued about it.  

As I dripped dry, I noticed ridges in the clouds coming from the Southwest.  They were perpendicular to the wind direction, sort of like ocean waves.  They're classified as altostratus undulatus clouds.  A red spotted purple rested on a dogwood branch.  A little skink followed the edge of the concrete to cross the patio but on the way back it took a shortcut.  A downy woodpecker hung below a branch it was hammering in the section of the dogwood that lost its bark and died.  A titmouse fussed because I was too close to the seed feeder.