Lovely day

Another summer day strayed into October.  So I went swimming again.  A blue tailed skink perched on the handle of the skimmer waiting for rescue.  Its tale was not blue from the cold water but I let it warm up instead of posing.  I rescued some black ground beetles and a small brown click beetle.  A fat, tan spider lurked on the one remaining rescue twig.  It may have gotten annoyed with my splashing because when I came back with the camera it was gone.  Another web was going up between the house and the dogwood where the birdhouse hangs.  Chickadees came for seeds, blue jays chattered in the trees, and I heard a rattle that might have been a woodpecker.  

Big bird

The windows were very lightly fogged at breakfast but the sun was bright  I saw two sulphur butterflies that did not pause for a photo.  In the afternoon, the hot sun lured me back into the water.  It was "fresca" but not really cold.  I rescued a few black ground beetles but nothing more exciting.  The milkweed pods split and dangled seeds but didn't quite let go.  A big raptor photo-bombed a picture I was taking, possibly a young eagle?

Nothing much

I didn't see much yesterday and even less today.  The odd little fuschia plant had a second flower stalk.  Yesterday, the sky was cloudy with blue patches but today was sunnier albeit with plenty of clouds.  A crow watched a gull sitting on the navigation sign.  A spiderweb stretched from the house to a dogwood but it didn't look like it was in use.  I couldn't get the camera to "see" it.  K hung a block of suet in place of the hummer feeder.  

 

Warmer

The wind flipped around to the West and we had sun and clouds.  The high was in the 70s and the water was colder.  K noticed a spider thread between the camellia and the azalea but I couldn't find more web or a spider.  A monarch circled the water but paid no attention to the milkweed.  Titmice were hungry for seeds.  

 

Sunshine at last!

After four days of gloom with little rain to show for it, the sun's return was very welcome.  A chilly wind still blew and the tide still ran high.  We took down the hummer feeders.  I heard birds commenting in the trees.  Alas, I was in a meeting all afternoon and the sky clouded over by the time I got home.  

Full moon

The Northeaster continued to push water up the Lynnhaven and the full moon (not that it was visible) pulled the tide even higher.  It was gray and cold and sporadically drizzling.  A Carolina wren got hungry enough to join the cardinals, chickadees, and house finches.  Trash bobbed in the creek along with geese.  Across the creek, an egret walked along the bulkhead that had emerged as the tide dropped.  

Gull games

The wind was somewhat diminished but still pushing the tide into the grass.  Our living shoreline looked quite flattened.  I saw no birds but a few seed eaters until late when there must have been a school of fish in the creek.  Gulls skated on the air, twirled and skimmed the water.  To the Northeast, the clouds looked pleated.  Geese huddled in the lea of a dock.  A cormorant splash-landed.  A great egret landed on the dock, then shifted to a piling where it got its feathers back in order.  The light got a little better and there was even a bit of color to the clouds at sunset.