Wind shift

The wind swung around to the Southwest which cleared the air, but heated it.  I got my swim in the morning.  Several May beetles needed rescue.  I also fished out drowned camel and field crickets and a big mulch roach.  A small brown diamond clung to the wall.  When I touched it with a twig, legs popped out and it transformed into a spider..  (Always use a twig!)  Bees and wasps worked on the milkweed and mountain mint.  The orchard spider worked on its  web.  

 

Smoke

Code red air quality alert issued in Hampton Roads due to wildfires.  The wildfires are more than a thousand miles away but the thick haze was very apparent beginning yesterday.  While I couldn't smell anything, I coughed and my eyes felt irritated while I was outside.  A widow skimmer stood guard on one of the perches but something bit me anyway.  I rescued a brown click beetle that had wedged itself into a crevice and wold have starved or fallen into the water.  A mama spider hid behind a stick I had placed to help insects crawl out of the water.  I also fished out an acorn weevil.  There seemed to be fewer bees and wasps on the mountain mint today.  The orchard spider seemed OK.

Arthropoda

I got in a nice, early swim which was fortunate for a crane fly, a tiny moth, camel and field cricket nymphs, and a big May beetle.  A larger moth and a robber fly were, alas, defunct.  I did not rescue a Japanese beetle.  More interesting insects feasted on the mountain mint and the butterfly milkweed.  The green bee was back along with several other kinds of small bee.  A feather-legged scoliid wasp joined the thread-waisted wasps.  A Macrosiagon dimidiata beetle also fed there.  The orchard spider prospered but I fear the Argiope must have been eaten.  

The fallen cherries were fewer but instead there were hackberry leaves with what looked like shattered galls.  The beautyberry was finished blooming and was making little green berries. Two blossoms opened on the hibiscus.  As I ate supper, I could see a dragonfly in each stake, except when they dashed after prey.  The blue dasher took the shorter stake and the slaty skimmer the larger.   I took that as testimony that it was buggy outside.  Besides, it was very hot and we are at the edge of the smoke hazard from Canadian wildfires.  

Green bee

I thought I would have no pictures today, but then I saw a little green bee at work on the butterfly milkweed.  The orchard spider was still in roughly the same spot.  There wasn't anything of interest in the water.  The usual bees and wasps fed on the mountain mint.  A hummer visited the feeder and K fed the crow.  

 

Ultraviolet sky

The sun burned in a clear ultra-blue sky, but a breeze from the North kept the temperature pleasant. The squirrel Einstein was back.  A tiger swallowtail stayed a flit ahead of the camera.  A cabbage white was more willing to pose.  A hummer visited the milkweed.  Its feeder was dry so I put out fresh but I don't know if it noticed.  Chickadees and titmice were very busy at the seed feeder.  A titmouse that was molting looked very untidy.  

I had a mixed-up schedule that put me in the water with little shade.  A few beetles needed rescue.  A dragonfly zigzagged inches above the water.  Meanwhile, the bees and wasps made drama on the mountain mint.  Thread-waisted wasps were mating.  The common whitetail zoomed across the patio and out of sight.  All was well with the orchard spider but I couldn't see the Argiope.  

Dragonflies

I was gone in the morning.  At lunch, a male widow skimmer used one of the bamboo stake perches.  Then I had an afternoon meeting so my swim was late.  More beetles, including a weevil, to rescue but not much else.  After I got out, I saw one or more dragonflies hunting over the pool. It (or they) zipped erratically at about dogwood height, apparently seeing lots of prey, but I never saw a dragonfly land.  I just had an impression of a pale tan body with no markings.  The sky had clouded over so the light level wasn't very high.  

I went outside hoping to get a picture of the dragonfly, but no luck.  Instead, a hummingbird visited the milkweed, then came and gave me a thorough examination, and moved on to the feeder.  I didn't see what happened next as I was staying still in the hope of not spooking it.  There were honeybees and leaf-cutter bees on the mountain mint.  At supper time, a male goldfinch visited. 

 

A genius among squirrels

Crows cam looking for peanuts at breakfast.  Birds, and squirrels, continued to eat cherries, though fewer remain on the tree.  A very athletic squirrel hung by its toes from the feeder roof so that only part of its weight rested on the perch and thus did not trip the counterweight that closes access to the seed trough.  At least once, the toes lost their grip and the squirrel landed in the mulch.  But back up it went for another try.  Toward evening, a great blue heron perched on a dock piling.