Sunny day

The day was quite warm but the breeze made it very pleasant.  A female downy woodpecker had a seed breakfast.  A Carolina wren also visited.  Hummers found the new feeder, which was fortunate because the old one was empty.  (I'll put the other out tomorrow.) There were at least two hummers because I saw one chase another away.  I spotted one preening in the wild cherry.  

A  bird circling very high might have been Mississippi kites. Another, I think, was a vulture.  Again, there were two frogs but they didn't put up much of a chase.  I rescued a spider from a mostly submerged twig.  The pool steps had a lot of drowned greenhouse millipedes.  A cicada's cast-off shell was lying on the patio.  I also found some cicada wings that had been discarded by whatever ate one.  There were plenty left to sing in the afternoon sunshine.  

The sky was mostly clear blue with clouds being hurried along by the West wind.  Occasionally, they cast sunbeams against the upper atmosphere.  I saw skinks of all sizes running errands and basking in the just right temperature.  Alas, they always dodged out of sight when I moved the camera   A blue dasher kept my space clear of small fliers.  

The butterfly milkweed had more pods developing than I have ever seen, probably because it wasn't feeding any caterpillars.  I think wasps got them.  Tiger swallowtails flew around the trees and a dark butterfly swooped through closer to the ground.  I saw something that might have been a snout heading into the dogwood.  A strange feather blew around the patio.  I thought it was white till I caught it and realized it was half black.  It was a big body contour feather so it came off a large bird, possibly the kite?  

 

Warmer

The day got warmer than predicted and stayed humid.  Cloudy periods alternated with burning sunlight.   A heptagonal orbweaver spider with red legs and a yellow abdomen tried to take possession of the door and another dangled over the pool steps.  I found two grown skinks basking, one by the pool steps and the other by the deep end.  Two frogs were hiding in the skimmer but I chased them down.  

I found another praying mantis castoff exoskeleton afloat.  There were mosquitoes, but nothing worse.  A blue dasher was standing watch when I came outside and a bigger dragonfly glittered in the sunlight when I got out of the water but I never got a good look at it.  A third skink wanted something behind my chair but didn't stay there long.  I saw a weevil sitting on a chair arm.  A titmouse watched from the dogwood.  As we ate supper, there was a flash and a loud crack of thunder, then nothing.  Sometime later a light rain began.   

Rain again

Yesterday's rain left the air much cooler but very humid.  Morning was relatively sunny, what I saw of it.  It was distressing that all week I kept having morning meetings and afternoon rain.  My only photos were of the juvenile cardinal.  The sun was still shining when I went swimming but I saw dark clouds coming and it wasn't very long after I got out that the rain began.  There was one frog in the skimmer and it took itself off immediately, so no chasing.  Instead, I rescued a pair of green June beetles that were so busy mating, they hadn't noticed they'd fallen into the water.  They finished what they were about before I could get a photo.  

 

Thunderstorm

The sun was hot when I went out to swim.  I caught four frogs and found another cast exoskeleton from a praying mantis floating on the water.  But clouds boiled up in the Southwest and ten minutes after I came inside, the storm arrived.  The rain waxed and waned through the afternoon, finally finishing before supper  Enough rain fell to bring the water level to the top of the skimmer opening.  The fledgling cardinal was hungry by then.  The sky cleared around sunset leaving a golden band of cloud.  

Little and late

A juvenile cardinal hunted for breakfast under the feeder.  A hummer and a Carolina wren showed up around lunchtime but neither posed.   A red spotted purple butterfly was more cooperative but the sun overexposed it.  In the late afternoon, I chased three frogs and several chunks of mulch around the water.  A skink surprised me, or I it, as it walked on the concrete outside the pool.  I didn't find any insects of note while I was outside.

 

Uncomon insects

An overcast sky looked like a storm was brewing, but it blew away. Then the sun was scorching and a buzzard soared ominously overhead.  A skink scuttled into a crack.  The blue was almost gone from its tail.  There were three frogs to chase and I caught them all.  I found an Asian horntail in the water along with an expired dragonfly nymph.  

A wheelbug climbed one of the milkweed pods.  Some dogwood leaves showed Fall color but I wonder if it was drought stress.  

Hot & humid

There was a storm in the night that left rain in the birdbath and leaves in the pool.  A brown headed nuthatch came to breakfast.  Only one frog was present.  I think they travel on rainy nights.  No sign of the green head, thank goodness!   Morning was cloudy and seemed like the sort of weather to bring out biters and their predators, but I only glimpsed a couple of  dragonflies.   There were more butterflies.  I saw a red spotted purple, a snout, skippers, and a hairstreak.  Several hummer visits might have all been the same bird.  The afternoon was mostly sunny and hot.  The butterfly milkweed was loaded with pods instead of caterpillars.  It has not been a good year for insects.  I blamed the drought but K blamed "Mosquito Joe"  the bug spray poisoner of suburbia.  Sunset painted a pink streak across the deepening blue sky.