Wet

It did not rain much in the morning but it was too humid for anything to dry out.  Currently we are in the cone of predictable paths for hurricane Joaquin and thus in for another week of gray skies and rain.  This September has been a washout.  A minuscule jumping spider dangled from a thread over the table.  I induced it to transfer to my hand so I could take it outside.

Gulls were flying against the clouds and I glimpsed an egret going upstream.  A blue tail skink dashed across the steps.  The swallowtail caterpillars were still munching the rue. 

I heard thunder in the late afternoon. 

Sticky

The sun was out at times and there were periods of rain.  After dark, I saw lightning to the North.  But all day it was extremely humid - hot and sticky or wet and dank.  When I got up, the moon was bright in the West but a half hour later it had disappeared.  Sunrise had a lot of cumulus drama.  Between meetings, I saw some English sparrows and got a glimpse of a mockingbird.  There were, of course, Canada geese. It was raining pretty hard around 9pm and I used an umbrella to block the feeder, but when I went to bed at 11 a misty moon was glowing. 

Humid

The temperature would have been pleasant if the air had not been so dank.  The sky was most often overcast with thin patches and occasional sun.  The wind was definitely weaker and from the East instead of the Northeast.  But the prediction is for another gray week.

In the morning, cardinals and chickadees were joined by a titmouse.  I haven't seen much of the finches lately.  Bees and wasps were busy all day.  The small black wasp with white marks is a potter wasp.  A raddled orb web hung from the moonflowers, and a couple of black swallowtail caterpillars munched on the rue.  The basilica orb weaver still lurked in the dogwood. 

The saltbush began to bloom and the camellia put out its first blossoms.  The moonflower vines were loaded with unfurling flowers.  The mushroom under the oak was bigger than last week.  The tuxedo cat bird-watched from the safety of the neighbors' yard.  A blue tailed skink rushed along the retaining wall. Blue jays called from the oaks but hid behind the leaves.  I also heard a kingfisher and a heron, and of course geese.  Some bird became a meal, judging from a pile of gray down feathers.

I watched a squirrel deal with acorns to hide.  It waited on the trunk till it was satisfied it wasn't being watched.  Down it came and buried the acorn at the base, then patted dirt back just like a dog burying a bone.  Later, I went to see the result and found an artistically arranged leaf covering the disturbed dirt.  Another burial had a pine needle draped across.  The poor squirrel was badly infested with warbles.  

Drying out

There was actual blue sky and sunshine today, for a while.  I glimpsed a flicker early in the morning and some brown streaks zoomed by later.  Mother and son cardinal interacted.  The squirrels were lumpy with fly sores.  One investigated the watering can and another tail-flashed from the dogwood.  Bees and wasps returned to the rosemary and a bug silhouetted on the window. 

The clouds returned mid afternoon and the moonflowers opened early again.  A lunar eclipse in the early night was supposed to be spectacular with a larger than usual moon and a reddish tine, but the clouds did not appear to care. This was all the moon I saw: 

Flood tide

The creek flowed over the lower, land-ward end of the dock when I got up.  The birdbath was full so the rain must have gotten heavier than yesterday.  Low, dark clouds zoomed out of the Northeast under the general overcast. The Canada geese have taken to the streets. 

I didn't see much at lunchtime, mostly chickadees.  Maybe I just wasn't paying attention because around 4pm the yard was quite lively despite the wind and wet.  At least four doves were promenading.  Cormorants, geese, ducks, and crows flew over.  A pair of flickers probed the mulch for creepy crawlies forced up by the wet.  Blue jays were all over the place.  I think, like the squirrels, they were after dogwood berries.  A male red bellied woodpecker showed up very briefly.  Something small and brown went up a tree trunk but the light was too low for the camera to catch more than a blob.  The gloom had moonflowers opening in the afternoon, only to be torn by the wind.

Warbler and warbles

The common yellowthroat returned for breakfast but there wasn't enough light for the camera.  I saw a bird by the fall webworm mess in the cherry but it was obscured by leaves.  A titmouse visited the feeder briefly. 

Several squirrels had sores from scratching where warble flies had laid eggs.  The maggots develop under their skin and apparently itch a lot.  However, it is not supposed to cause permanent harm. The sky was back to gray and a spit of rain hit the window after breakfast, but wind gusts dried it quickly.

I thought a bird that flew downstream might be a hawk but it was gone before I could be sure.  Small carpenter bees were busy in the rosemary in the light rain.  The regulars visited the feeder.

Windy

There was more sunshine today but plenty of clouds.  We saw an osprey trying to hover in Chesapeake.  I picked one of the two pimento peppers.

Even though I was gone most of the day, my brief time outside was rewarded with a visit from a common yellowthroat warbler.  It apparently found bugs in the sunflower/morning glory mound.  The juvenile cardinal was in evidence.  An egret flew overhead.  Doves poked around after I came in.  And a squirrel lost its grip and fell from quite high up in the oak, but it caught the next limb down. 

Out front, a skipper landed on the lantana and at least three caterpillars were still munching azalea leaves. The moon penetrated the rushing clouds after dark.

Equinox

The wind blew the clouds away for breakfast but the blue didn't last.  Cardinals and chickadees visited the feeder.  The mother cardinal has stopped feeding the juvenile male, but he still cried for food as he fed himself.  A pair of flickers ate dogwood berries for a short while.  The tail of the female is in the upper left. 

As I was coming in at noon, I saw a mockingbird on K's car.  It showed up in the back yard briefly as well.  A female downy woodpecker appeared at lunchtime.  The wind blew occasional gaps in the clouds but the sun didn't last long enough to counteract the wind chill.  A pair of doves napped on a branch of the oak.  Wasps hunkered low to avoid the gusts.  I thought I glimpsed a dragonfly in the front yard. 

A couple of cormorants dried out on perches above the creek.  The across-the-creek neighbor with the pink bench added a verdigrised heron that kept distracting me.  There were lots of feathers floating on the water.  I heard lots of birds I either couldn't find or else were silhouetted against the sky while I got quite chilled out on the dock.  The saltmarsh fleabane appeared to be nearly done flowering.  It spread from last year!

After dark, the waxing gibbous moon was mostly visible behind the clouds still blowing across the sky.  The wind seemed to be a bit gentler, at lest the moonflowers weren't being shredded.  The tree crickets were in full cry. 

High water

The Northeast wind pushes water into the bay and up the creeks.  It also kept the sky gloomy with brief moments of sun or rain.  Chickadees and cardinals came out anyway to feed.  A hummer flew by the feeder without stopping.  A dove paced around the patio.  Bumblebees kept working on the rosemary.

This wind from the NE that started Sunday is supposed to last for another week.  I was not ready for summer to end, but by the time we see sun again the water would be too chilly.  So the pool got covered for the winter.  A dove poked around under the now-dead sunflowers.  A moonflower tossed in the gusts.  The spider had not ventured out when I last checked. 

Cooler

A lot of squirrels were scampering around during breakfast.  Chickadees and cardinals came to the feeder.  A few gleams of sunlight got through the clouds.  The orb web still covered much of the kitchen window. 

A male goldfinch put in a brief appearance at lunch and was followed immediately by a shower.  There were brief, sudden showers all day.  That didn't discourage the bumblebees and yellow jackets. 

Mallards occupied the dock as the NE wind pushed the water high.  Four robins poked around the mulch in the late afternoon.  Cormorants and crows fought the wind.  Squirrels dropped acorns and leaves all day.  I heard blue jays and a woodpecker that I could not see.

Northeast wind

The morning was sticky.  Wind finally cleared the air but brought clouds.  The only wildlife I saw in the park where I was registering voters was yellow jackets.  On the way home I observed the gulls in a shopping center parking lot.  Canada geese were all over town. 

A hummer visited the clean, fresh feeder and didn't stay.  I don't know what they dislike about it.  A skink raced across the patio as I ate lunch.  I finally got in the pool which was full of leaves, pine needles, and acorns.  While I was catching that stuff, crickets used me as an island.  I also saved some spiders, but the caterpillar I fished out was a goner.  Meanwhile the sun disappeared completely and the wind was quite chilly.  The moonflowers opened early.  I wish we'd see some sphinx moths visit them.

The spider was back in the kitchen window tonight though it was much harder to see as the clouds began to drizzle toward sundown.

Blue sky

Fluffy cumulus decorated an intense blue, occasionally giving relief from the sun.  I rescued a couple of spiders and saw a very delicate crab spider that needed no help.  A glass snail was all tucked in on the edge of the pool.  A cicada was floating but something had eaten most of it.  A couple of cast leaf-footed exoskeletons also floated, as did many acorns  A skink with a very short tail dashed away from me.  A blue-fronted dancer damsel fly rested in the sun.  Bumblebees and yellow jackets were hungry.

I only saw the regulars on the feeder.  The mushroom under the oak has grown. A sizable spider moved into the space outside the kitchen window, probably to take advantage of the light inside attracting bugs. 

Sunshine

At breakfast, I could make out chickadees and cardinals through the fogged up window.  Later house finches joined them.

When I got back in the evening, at least one hummingbird was interested in the lavender, but not the feeder.  Something pooped on my thumb and it was such a small amount I suspect the hummingbird.  Egrets flew around the creek and cormorants over it.  Bumblebees were busy but I did not see wasps.  A camel cricket clung to the underside of the soffit.  Squirrels dropped acorns and branches and then got thirsty and drank perched on the pool ladder. 

Something was biting us, though no rain was predicted.  Clouds streamed out of the Southeast, often obscuring the crescent moon.  They had all moved to the Western horizon by sunset. 

White sky

Yesterdays clouds spread into overcast.  The feeder attracted a titmouse in addition to the regulars.  A dove rested beneath.  and I glimpsed a wren in the rosemary.

By lunch the clouds broke apart and allowed some sunshine.  I rescued a bird grasshopper Schistocerca obscura that was in the water.  It took off flying.  Later a young skink needed fishing out.  It warmed up on the patio, sides heaving.  A squirrel got very close to the pool without noticing me and dashed off in a panic.

The day never got very warm.  Cumulus clouds gave way to cirrus.  When I got home from my meeting, I looked for more egg-covered azalea leaves, and found them.  I removed the praying mantis egg case and discovered a caterpillar on the same branch.  Egrets flew over, headed North for the night. 

Still cool and sunny

Chickadees were thick while a female cardinal fed her fledgling.  Cardinals and a brown thrasher went for beauty berries.  Doves hunted fallen sunflower seeds.  Squirrels and blue jays dropped acorn shrapnel into the pool.  A hummer dropped by but apparently didn't like the feeder. 

A palamedes swallowtail passed by at lunch.  The azalea bushes out front that were denuded by caterpillars had clusters of insect eggs on some leaves.  And I found a praying mantis case there too.

I missed too much of the day and the sky got that murky look that veiled the sun. Cirrostratus clouds covered the West and produced some brilliant sundogs and a streaky orange sunset.  But I was driving on the freeway.

Another fall-like day

Sunny and cool.  I saw a cloudless sulphur here.  Over at the Kempsville library there were lots of funnel webs and a dragonfly.  Azalea caterpillars stripped the two azaleas down by the sidewalk but they had all but one disappeared.  A Carolina wren flew up into the crape myrtle between the azaleas.

A skink scampered across the patio.  Doves poked through the mulch, but a brown thrasher stayed under the shrubbery at the far end of the pool.  A fledgling cardinal cuddled up to the birdbath while an adult worked on the beauty berries.

Early fall

The air was crisp and full of light and the creek reflected it all.  Several moonflowers were still open along with the morning glories and a couple of red roses.  A cardinal family fed a fledgling.  A goldfinch came for the water in the hummer feeder and a titmouse for seeds.  Bumblebees and yellow jackets were up and working on flowers.  The pimentos were beginning to turn red.

Butterflies appeared at lunch.  A cabbage white visited every rosemary flower.  I saw a palamedes and a tiger swallowtail, a cloudless sulphur, and a red spotted purple.  Later, there were dragonflies, first an emerald female eastern pondhawk, then a bright yellow-sided skimmer.  I rescued a leafhopper assassin bug twice and several spiders from the water.  The basilica spider was still in the dogwood but the funnel weaver appeared to have abandoned its web. 

Lots of blue tailed skinks were out in the sun, but no adults.  Three buzzards circled high over the creek in the intensely blue sky.

Rain and sun

Dark walls of cloud passed over and rain fell mid morning.  An egret stood on a neighbor's dock.  Brown thrashers poked around under the red cedar.  Doves came closer.  A squirrel with a green pecan appeared to be thinking about hiding it in the trash can.  During one of the brief periods of sun, a red spotted purple basked on the mulch beside the birdbath. 

A female goldfinch got a dring from the hummer feeder but the hummers themselves turned up their beaks.  So K took it down to clean.  It does not pay to put very much juice in - better it goes dry than funky.  The red spotted purple laid eggs on cherry leaves.  An orange butterfly (monarch?) passed through quickly.  A duskywing fed on the rosemary.  Finally by mid afternoon the sky seemed ready to stay clear.

Gray sky

I was gone much of the day.  The regulars were joined by titmice.  A mother cardinal fed a young'un.  The wind was pretty strong. Bumblebees worked on the rosemary. 

The clouds finally let loose after 6pm in a real "frog-strangler."  It passed and we went to a concert.  When we came out, there was another chorus - frogs, I think.  And then more rain on the way home. 

Orioles and a new warbler!

I would say the storm blew them here but others have been reporting orioles for several days.  I put out some grape jelly but who knows if they will find it?  Also appearing: hummers, titmice, and doves.  When I got up, the overcast made it too dark for the camera.  Fortunately it was a little brighter when the orioles arrived. They looked like a pair - one paler in color than the other. 

It was nearly noon when we got back.  Blue rents appeared in the overcast and then right at noon the Northwest wind cleared the sky.  The gusts made it tough for small birds and insects.  A couple of buzzards rode the wind. 

Chickadees ignored me to get their lunch but the finches were too wary.  The juvenile male cardinal didn't care.  Meanwhile, a hummer investigated everything but the actual feeder holes.  A male downy woodpecker hammered on dogwoods and a hackberry.  Blue jays were up in the oak while a mockingbird in the redwood imitated them.  The first Northern Parula warbler I've ever seen hopped around in the cedar but my photos were disappointing.   

Two black swallowtails, a red spotted purple, and a duskywing fought the wind.  One swallowtail laid eggs on the rosemary as well as the rue.  I also saw an amberwing and assorted bees and wasps including a cicada killer.  I tried to photograph the basilica spider web and the funnel web but they didn't show up.

The sun heated the day and brought out the dragonflies, including a damselfly.  A blue dasher and others I couldn't identify seemed to be using me as bait for mosquitoes.  Hackberry emperors did aerial battle over the pool, apparently for the best sunny oak leaf.  The cast exoskeleton of a leaf-footed bug looked menacing as it floated on the water.  Another funnel weaver had taken over the pool cleaner.  A silver spotted skipper visited the rosemary.  The birds were more heard than seen and I thought I heard a catbird. The wind was chilly in the shade. 

Gray sky cleared

At least the windows were not fogged at breakfast.  The regulars, a titmouse, and the hummers were hungry.  A squirrel went by with a large raw area on its right side between front and rear leg.  I suspect it was bitten by a warble fly and then scratched.  Another squirrel carried a large green pecan off, the second I've seen this week doing that.  A gleam of sun came through around 9am but it didn't last.

By lunch the clouds had lumped up and  the sun was bright.  A very tiny skink tagged its tail across the patio.  A female goldfinch watched from the cherry.  A pair of doves poked through the mulch.

I rescued two blue tailed skinks from the water and K saved another.  I also fished out a lacewing and a cicada, but it seemed dead or dying.  A fresh mushroom popped up under the oak.  A spindly legged true bug was waiting for me on the glass door.  A hummer watched the feeder from the dogwood, when not drinking.  The other birds were more wary. 

Fluffy cumulus clouds flowed East on a gusty wind while higher, thinner clouds moved more slowly.  Just about the time the sky was clear, the sun disappeared behind a low bank of cloud on the Western horizon.  That was around 6:30pm.  At 7:30 the cloud wall hit and the power went down and up twice.  So I shut down the computer and found myself in pitch darkness except for lightning.  I just made it out to close the feeder when the rain began to hammer.   The whole storm lasted about 20 minutes then grumbled away East.

Dramatic clouds

On my way home at noon sprinkles of rain fell while the sun shone.  The regulars were joined by hummers and titmice for lunch. 

The afternoon was very hot and sticky.  Only the feeder regulars and hummers were visible in the back yard.  A black swallowtail flitted through.  Junior cardinal worked on the sunflower. 

I saw a few stars when I got home after dark.  The moon won't be up till dawn.

Very humid

The windows were fogged till 9am.I could dimly make out titmice and hummers and the regulars.  When the dew finally evaporated, a song sparrow appeared.

A stink bug supervised the construction as menacing clouds rolled up from the Southeast.   Crows got excited about something.  Titmice dared to come to the feeder even though I was outside.  A golden digger wasp visited the rue.  Then a light rain started around 2pm.

Since it was just a light rain I got in the pool and cleaned out leaves and one small spider.  After I got out the rain stopped and everything came to life.  But I didn't have the camera on account of the wet.  I saw a great crested flycatcher in the cherry, three blue jays eating acorns, the regulars plus titmice and hummers, and an egret flying up the creek.  The sky began to clear around 4:30pm.

I had sun in my eyes driving West at 6pm.  Later, sunset was colorful but as soon as it had passed, the clouds gathered again.  The crows also gathered in the twilight over the 64/264 interchange.

Sun came back

The windows were fogged again but blue sky was apparent.  K hung fresh juice for the hummers but none showed during breakfast.  Just the regulars at the seed feeder.  The saltmarsh fleabane was blooming beside the spartina.   

Thin, high clouds flowed East.  Skinks reappeared in appreciation of the sunshine.  A few dragonflies were still around.  I rescued a blue dasher male from the pool.  Also a yellow jacket and a few unidentified bugs.  A basilica spider built a web in the dogwood where I hung the birdhouse and already had two beads on its string-of-pearls egg case.  A funnel weaver built in the corner of the pool steps.  All sorts of butterflies were out: black, tiger, and palamedes swallowtails, a cloudless sulphur and maybe a sleepy orange, hairstreaks, red spotted purples, and the one I think may be a hackberry emperor.

A dove appeared unconcerned by our presence outside for lunch.  And the hummers kept drinking and chasing. But the goldfinches were too wary of us to come for seeds.  One bird I thought was a goldfinch turned out to be a great crested flycatcher hidden by leaves.  Two turkey vultures circled over the creek.  A Carolina wren scolded long and loud from the camellia.  I thought I heard a couple of blue jays calling, but the photo I got is of a mockingbird!  I also heard a woodpecker knocking and other sounds I could not identify.