Peek-a-boo sun

Big ugly clouds passed over with sunshine in between.  I saw butterflies and skinks, mostly at inopportune moments.  Egrets, great and snowy, by the dam and hummers on the feeder were easier to photograph. And dragonflies eventually posed on their resting stake. 

A blue jay flew to the oak and a bluebird landed on the post.  The bluebird seemed very fluffy, either a fledgling or a molting female.

A couple of light rain sprinkles fell during the day, though the clouds seemed to promise deluges.  

Misty

Mist washed out the pines across the creek when I got up.   A titmouse came to the feeder briefly.  Hummers were up early.  So was a very handsome red cardinal.  A thin trickle of sunlight came through after breakfast.  The morning battle with the geese continued.  Egrets fished in the turbulence from the dam. 

Later there was a light sprinkle of rain.  By lunch time, there were shadows again.  A skimmer perched on the feeder hanger while a hummingbird got lunch.  A cabbage white flitted around the rue while wasps fed.  Skinks dashed about their business.  A stinkbug crawled around on the window.  Since there were no bark butter balls, there were no blue jays.

In the early evening, dragonflies were zipping back and forth over the patio and I tried to catch one on camera.

Gray day

Light rain fell in the morning as we scrambled to get to an appointment.  We surprised the female bluebird with nesting material.  Of course there was no camera handy.  After the appointment, I waited a while for K and observed the shopping strip parking lot ecological niche.  A male English/house sparrow had a lovely bath in the gutter.  A crow watched from a street light.  A laughing gull cruised  over the asphalt scanning for junk food.  A bird I didn't recognize perched on a light pole.

At home, I persuaded K to put out fresh hummer juice which was very popular. One hummer chased another away, then kept watch from the dogwood.  A blue jay came to see about bark butter but it had turned to soup.  A crow watched while a great blue heron and egrets, both great and snowy, fished in the water rushing from the dam.  I sat out front but never saw the bluebirds again.  A slug toured the window glass toward evening.  The sky to the Northeast grew pink though the rest was still gray. 

Rain

The morning was hazy but there was sunlight.  A titmouse made a couple of forays to the feeder, but did not return once I was ready to take a photo.  Instead, I got a blue jay.  Chickadees and cardinals also came for breakfast. 

At lunch time, clouds covered the sky. I saw a small skink cross the steps.  A black swallowtail butterfly discovered the parsley and the rue. There were dragonflies and wasps, but not in yesterday's profusion.

The sky grew dark just as we began to eat.  Rain began and soon was pounding down.  It slacked off and a great crested flycatcher went after insects.  Chickadees and cardinals, and a squirrel, looked wet and bedraggled.  The rain came in pulses of heavy and light but never quite stopped. 

Since I did not see a hummingbird yesterday, I thought the feeder might be empty or dried out.  But one appeared in the rain after lunch, so perhaps the rain reconstituted sugar syrup into an acceptable fluid?  Another arrived later and tried all three holes to no avail. K brought the feeder in and found it was empty. 

A small object on the floor that I thought was an escaping pea turned out to be a snail.  We've no idea how that got inside but back out it was tossed. 

Dragonflies

The last few days have hatched out a wide variety of dragonflies and also the little fliers they eat.  I wish I could have captured the way a dragonfly caught the sunlight while the vegetation behind was still in shade.  I wasted many pixels trying. Wasps also were spotlighted by the sun. The insects had to battle wind gusts. 

Blue jays kept coming for bark butter balls.  Egrets worked up and down the creek.  Fireflies appeared at twilight. K saw the almost full moon through a break in the clouds. Two green stinkbugs landed on the window along with lots of tiny moths and a lacewing, attracted by the light. 

A change in the weather

Subtropical Storm Alberto out in the Gulf has been predicted to run up the Mississippi Valley, bringing rain all week.  Today, the sky was blue with puffy cumulus but in the afternoon it became white with a thin overcast.  Wood ducks came around in the morning and I saw them again later out on the creek. A snowy egret fished below the dam outfall.  Geese escorted their adolescent offspring to the pool, repeatedly, and childless mallards occasionally.

Blue jays kept up their sneak attacks on the bark butter balls.  Female hummers visited.  That was it, except for the three regular seed eaters. There may have been others that went by too fast for me to identify. 

Dragonflies were thick, and finally some perched where I could get a shot.  One dropped out of the sky and landed on its back.  But it soon zipped off.  I noticed a cloud of dancing gnats that explained what the dragonflies were after.  Wasps were thirsty from building nests. I watched a translucent yellow spider (green lynx?) in the window. 

The bolted parsley began blooming and the hibiscus popped up.  K got the stalks tucked into the cage that I hope will support them through storms.  I appreciate this as it was despite concern about snakes lurking in the undergrowth. 

Lovely day

Breakfast was rushed to get to the doctor's office in order to wait.  There I learned that elevated meant my foot had to be higher than my heart, not possible while looking out the window.  So I spent the rest of the morning on my back on the bed.  At least I got to feel the breeze to and from the office.  The temperature was very pleasant in the morning and it was sunny all day with passing clouds.  Hummer(s?) visited.

Lunch and a much delayed home health appointment gave me some time to watch out the window in the afternoon.  I glimpsed a couple of butterflies but saw lots of dragonflies.  I think some were pondhawks, but none of them stopped for a portrait.  Wasps were abundant and more cooperative. 

I saw two skinks.  Blue jays lost some bark butter balls to a crow and some to the courting cardinal. 

I glimpsed a pileated woodpecker on a pine trunk as I was focusing on an egret by the dam.  I thought I saw a wren, but it was a chickadee.  Then I went back to elevating until supper.  About 8pm, a male hummer slipped in to the feeder, without the female noticing. Alas the light was going and all I got was a blur.  Faint contrails turned pink and faded into the dark. 

Through the window

All I could do was watch from indoors.  Much like yesterday, it was sunny and breezy.  Blue jays and hummingbirds came for food. So did the trio of regulars, including house finches.  The cardinals were still dating.  The male flew at the window, more like he wanted in than an attack on his reflection.  He did, however, chase another across the yard earlier.

I glimpsed a titmouse at the feeder.  A crow came for bark butter balls but spooked, maybe it saw me?  Doves scurried around the lower patio. A wren investigated the birdhouse. 

An egret fished below the dam and an osprey landed in the pine tree.  Unfortunately the hackberry is now tall enough to obscure the osprey's preferred perch. Lots of wasps were nectaring.  I glimpsed a butterfly or two, not well enough to identify.  I think the cold wet Spring was tough on large insects.  The bolting parsley was cloaked in tiny orb webs.

In the late afternoon a pair of goldfinches visited.  She wanted a drink of water, but not from the big ant moat.  Only the little one built into the hummer feeder would do.  He just watched.  Neither wanted any sunflower seeds.  Snooty vegans!

Rough day

We left before dawn for a medical "procedure" and got home mid afternoon.  A bank of clouds blocked the actual dawn, but the day was mostly sunny.  Big cumulus clouds passed by and were gone by twilight. I saw blue jays and hummers and of course cardinals and chickadees.  Egrets fished below the dam.  A large bee worked on the rue.  And then, 8:50pm, I saw a firefly! 

Mostly misses

At breakfast, a hummer was on the feeder and an egret was in the creek.  We went out to lunch, then had dessert on the patio.  I saw a couple of skinks but I guess they saw me as well.  The rue was full of interesting bugs, including a spider. The ladybug and soldier beetles were still on the plant and polistes wasps flitted around it. 

While I was returning books to the library, first a mockingbird and then a brown thrasher posed.  If only I'd had the bigger camera along. At home, a blue jay watched from the oak but I couldn't tell if it was the same one we've been seeing.  The cardinals were still dating. 


As I was about to sit down for supper a pileated woodpecker landed on the post to chck out the suet cage.  I don't know if the suet had gone off or if it saw me reach for the camera, but off it went.

Humid

At breakfast, a female blue dasher dragonfly landed on the watering can.  The molting blue jay was back at lunch.  Bark butter balls made the bird thirsty.  An egret fished below the dam.  A few drops of rain fell. 

I wanted to gel the last seeds in the ground before I'm immobilized.  Lots of mushrooms popped up thanks to the rain.  I saw a skink on the West wall of the house, but the camera decided I wanted a photo of the fence between us.  Some of the oxalis growing in between stones was pink, whether from the minerals or a mutation, I don't know.  I transplanted some to see it the color would change.   The magnolia began blooming. I saw the remains of a crane fly on a wall.  It had interesting wings. 

The pool crew ran into geese with two goslings frantically trying to get out of the water.  The molting jay returned several times.  Toward evening, the feral cat showed up.  I hope the jay avoided it.  And the day concluded with a male hummingbird, but the overcast meant there was no hint of a ruby throat, just a black head.  The temperature dropped in the afternoon but the humidity made me very sweaty. 

Drying out

Dark clouds passed over frequently, but no rain fell. Wind gusts smacked the trees and grounded fliers.  The dam outfall was still a popular fishing spot for egrets and herons.  A crow wanted some bark butter balls for lunch.  A hummer was satisfied with fresh juice. 

Wrens investigated the fancy birdhouse but I don't think they will move in.  Blue jays wanted food without posing for a photo, but I got a few anyway.  A female goldfinch came for a drink from the ant moat.

The rue attracted insects like a soldier beetle and a ladybird beetle in addition to wasps.  I saw a couple of dragonflies and butterflies, but could only identify the ubiquitous cabbage white.  The other butterfly was a rusty brown and no bigger.  I saw one skink but it was too fast for me.  I killed one mosquito and a no-see-um, and probably got bit by others. 

Three swallows hunted in the sky and a crow-size hawk circled overhead.  A molting blue jay enjoyed a bark butter ball.  I think it was a fledgling because it was more curious than wary.  The temperature outside was very pleasant except when the wind blew. 

Still more rain

The creek was glassy but had only gray tones to reflect.  Roses were bent with the weight of little droplets of rain.  Glimmers of sunlight teased my eyes.  A heron fished below the dam.  We were gone from breakfast to late afternoon.  Waves of rain passed through all day and the ground was already saturated after four days of soaking,

When we got home the male bluebird was sitting on the post, but he flew as soon as I touched the camera.  A song sparrow was more cooperative.

A crane fly bumbled against the window as the sky darkened with another rain cloud. 

Below the dam, an egret and a great blue heron shared a feast during the downpour.  I could not tell if they were catching fish or crabs or what. 

Drizzle

It would stop and I'd go out and the drizzle would start again.  It was room-temperature but the humidity felt clammy. The cardinals continued to court, making me wonder if they will ever get to nesting. 

A hummer thought the juice was fine, not diluted by the rain.  Fishing below the dam was still popular with the egrets. 

Swallows were scooping bugs out of the sky.  I saw some bluish dragonflies zooming around.  A cabbage white flitted across the yard. The first daylily blossom appeared. 

Floods

There was a man in a boat on the lake by the snags so of course all the wildlife was gone.  I discovered that a crop of obscene fungi popped out of the mulch in the front yard.  The rain had been spitting during the morning but it became steady after noon.  An egret fished below the dam.  An osprey landed in the gum tree next door.  I saw something at the foot of the dock, green heron or juvenile night heron or something else, but it was gone when i looked back.The water was surprisingly clear for this time of the year.

By mid afternoon the rain had stopped but the clouds looked menacing.  A tall cloud over the oceanfront looked like a funnel but it wasn't spinning.  The ditches were up to the road along Oceana, and some of them were bubbling!  Methane, or some warfare-related gas?  And then I came to a spot where the water was over the road and cars were turning back.  So I did too.  I got over to Birdneck and it was flooded too.  The only open road South was General Booth.  Coming back in the dark I tried Dam Neck but that was completely blocked with high water signs, so I went back via the General.  I don't know if that area got a lot more rain or if it just drains badly.  Fortunately our neighborhood only has one spot that floods.  I know the navigation system doesn't have feelings but I imagined I heard frustration when I ignored directions that would have sent me bobbing like a cork. Newspaper coverage.

Rain

A blue jay came for breakfast.  The rain started at lunch time.  It was heavy for a little while and attracted an egret to the dam outfall.  Then I headed out to an appointment that lasted all afternoon.  When I came out, a parade of over two dozen goslings and two adult geese was holding up cars.   And when I reached mine, I heard bird cries and saw two songbirds chasing a Coopers hawk with dinner in its talons.  They all disappeared into a tree and I came home.

Wasps were working on the rue.  The hibiscus finally reappeared.  An incredible number of buds covered the rose.  A couple of blue jays came for bark butter balls.  The creek water was surprisingly clear for right after a rain.  A yellow crowned heron perched on a piling out in the water.  And then the feral cat prowled along the marsh.  A egret and a great blue heron haunted the lake at twilight. 

Still warm

At lunch, a cabbage white landed on the blue eyed grass.  A mallard pair were enjoying the pool cover puddle when a couple of geese marched in, accompanied by the Muscovy duck. 

A blue jay gave me grief but later I caught it through a different window.  Then I saw a yellow crowned night heron out in the creek. 

Clouds thickened and brought twilight a bit early.  Swallows chattered and zipped after insects in Norfolk.  A few crows flew around the overpasses where 64 and 264 meet. 

Hazy sunshine

A male hummer showed up at the feeder but then zoomed away.  I don't know if it was avoiding the female or something else, or if the juice had gone off.  Later i saw a female hummer slurping up the sugar water so the male must have been scared off.  A blue jay breakfasted on bark butter balls.

Wasps were everywhere and I saw some butterflies.  A spider worked on a web in a window.

A wren was up to something under the table - it flew off almost as soon as I noticed it,  On the lake, the prehistoric-appearing heron shared the log with wood ducks and turtles. Only mallards visited us. 

When I returned home after 9pm, there were distant lightning flashes, but only a few wispy cumulus flowing through the stars.  Soon a sheet of white rolled down from the Northwest and a gusty wind hit the house.

Lovely Mothers Day

The temperature ranged from too warm in the sun to slightly chilly in the shade when the wind blew.  I heard a great crested flycatcher but couldn't see it.  Wrens were also playing coy. The hummer however was easy to photograph.I spotted what I believe was a hermit thrush at the far end of the pool. 

One pair of geese were down to one gosling which I threatened to eat if they didn't leave, especially after they photo-bombed my picture of an egret.   An osprey circled over the creek and flew upstream. 

Lots of skinks were out enjoying the warmth.Toward evening the feral cat became very interested in something, probably a skink, that slipped under the pool cover.  A paper wasp constructed a nest in the corner of the front patio.  I saw several butterflied, including a tiger swallowtail, and at least one dragonfly, but the were all too fast for me. 

The bluebirds (also thrushes) were visible from the front patio.  One was drying off after a bath.  At one point I thought I saw a hawk, a large bird with a pale belly, fly away.  Then the brown thrasher demonstrated that it was the culprit that threw mulch onto the driveway.  A blue  jay discovered that I had bought more bark butter balls.  The cardinal pair were still courting. 

Too hot

During breakfast, a brown thrasher landed on the feeder post, but it flew off as I reached for the camera.  An egret waited below the dam.  I was gone from 10am to about 4:30pm.  My car temperature gauge read 102°F and it was in the shade. The official high was 93°F which broke a record from 1881. 

A jumping spider was back on the screen door.  A squirrel sprawled on the patio, too hot to move.  A hummer struggled to stay on the feeder in the gusty wind.  On the lake there appeared to be an invasion of prehistoric wildlife: four cormorants and a great blue heron.

Hot again

At breakfast a great egret and a great blue heron haunted the dam outfall.   The egret soon moved on leaving the fishing spot to the heron.  It was hazy and when the heron caught the sunlight, the effect was quite prehistoric.  A hummer demonstrated that the storm last night had not ruined the sugar water.  It seemed worried and spent more time watching the sky than sipping.

We had some windows replaced which sent most wildlife into hiding.  And I was running all over town and missed much of the day.  I did see a skink at lunch, despite the proximity of men with saws and such.  It was in the 80s when I got home, but I wanted to spend at least some time outside.  I saw insects zipping across the pool but could not tell if they were wasps or dragonflies.  The water on the pool cover shivered with insect activity.  Again the only butterfly was a cabbage white.  A wren looked at the birdhouse but I think I was too close.  Blue jays were doing something up in the oak.   Swallows flashed overhead and I took a couple of pictures of the empty sky. 


After I came in, a little green heron landed on a piling.  It only let me take one photo.  A Muscovy duck paddled upstream all alone. The feral cat was bird-watching in the twilight till I went out to close the feeder.  The birds were not going to come with the cat there.  But now I wonder - could the cat have taken a gosling?  I think it would go after something the size of a newly hatched gosling.  That leaves me ambivalent as I don't want either one.

Hot sun

The dam outfall was still a popular fishing spot this morning.   A great blue heron took it over. 

A golden dragonfly ( probably yellow sided skimmer) clung half way up the hanger for the mealworm dish until a skink came along and showed too much interest.

Wasps were out in large numbers but there wasn't much else, just a cabbage white.  But I found a caterpillar on the rue.  The dogwood, azaleas, wood hyacinths, and money plant were all finished blooming.  Irises were the main choice for a pollinator, but the Love rose had dozens of buds.  And the coral honeysuckle was a mass of flowers.  Goslings that were no longer small and cute kept intruding, and pooping.  I saw a hummer, a blue jay, an osprey, and a bluebird.  And I heard a wren that never appeared.

There was some haze in the sky in the late afternoon, but after I came in, a storm blew up.  The first I noticed was that it was getting dark fast.  Around 7:30pm the wind roared and rain slammed the house.  Lightning flashed but I didn't see any strokes.  It slowly diminished through the evening, rumbling and grumbling. The radar map of the storm looked like a Chinese dragon wriggling from central North Carolina across us and up the coast. 

Clearing

At breakfast time, a gull and an egret found something of interest in the water flowing from the dam.  A blue jay was annoyed that I hadn't hurried to get fresh mealworms out.

During lunch I saw a house wren in the fancy new birdhouse.  I hope it will stay but unfortunately the afternoon brought too much activity to its doorstep. 

After lunch, the overcast began to thin and soon it was sunny.  I chased off the geese three times and then there was a huge commotion behind a screen of vegetation.  I think something got a gosling.  One goose hung around for a long time daring whatever it was to come out of the reeds and fight like a goose.

 A yellow crowned night heron paused on the dock bench.  A cloud of little black bugs hovered over the vegetation at the North end of the patio.  They landed on violets and cinquefoil and the rose, but not the rue or the money plant.  They look like miniscule lightning bugs with read head and dark back, but they may be flies, not beetles.

I startled a young skink.  A periwinkle had crawled to the top of a spartina stalk when the sun came out.  A small wasp was fascinated by something deposited on a rose leaf.  Meanwhile the temperature climbed and I came inside.

Gray

The regulars showed up for seeds and the hummer for juice.  An egret fished the dam outflow and a heron watched from a dock.  A damp breeze combined with the overcast to keep it chilly.

An iris but opened between breakfast and lunch.  Downy woodpeckers had not yet finished the last block of suet.  The male bluebird only went half way into the nestbox - it's probably crowded in there. 

Rainy

The rain did stop in the afternoon and the sky was clearing by evening, but still, it was a wet day. I saw the bluebirds and some yellow rujmped warblers.  The hummer(s) appreciated fresh juice as their feeders had flooded. A blue jay and a starling were disgusted to find no mealworms.  I wasn't going to waste them in the rain.

The indigo sprang out of the ground and into bloom in amazingly little time.  The yellow flag irises also shot up and the pinxter flowers opened.  An egret fished in the water rushing out of the dam. 

Wood ducks!

The rain was pounding  at dawn so I went back to sleep.  It was still raining hard when I unbricked the feeder.  During breakfast two pairs of wood ducks moseyed up the hill and puddled around on the pool cover.  Then they headed over to the East side gate and out of my sight.  Since there were no ducklings,I assume their first nests failed and they were looking for new tree cavities.

During a lull in the rain, a female hummer visited. Slugs slid up the glass.  An egret and then a heron fished in the water rushing from the dam. 

The rain quit by lunch time but the day stayed gloomy ant threatening.  Titmice showed up at supper, but so did geese and shooing them away scared off the songbirds.  I glimpsed the yellow rumped warbler in summer plumage.  The feral cat wandered in from wherever it stayed dry. 

White sky

The sun was mostly visible, but neither bright nor hot.  Sometimes the clouds had texture and sometimes the sky was just white.    The air was comfortably room temperature but then a gust of wind would make me chilly.  It also seemed to discourage insects.  The sycamore next door decided this was the day to release its seeds.  They were held in tight balls all year until now when this Spring's fertilized flowers formed new seed balls.  I wasted pixels trying to capture a floating seed. 

Skinks scuttled around and soaked up sunshine in sheltered spots.  There may have been a tussle between males under the leaves.  A squirrel gnawed something up in the oak, maybe a gall? Another squirrel had some difficulty shimmying up the wire to the mealworms, which gave me an idea.  So I wiped the wire with oil. 

 A female hummer was happy with fresh juice and not about to share with a male.  Earlier when I was watering, the male zipped through the spray.

I hung a new birdhouse that was labeled as a decoration, not real.  But wrens are famous for nesting in other decorations that look even less suitable.  So we'll see.  Of course it would be a second nest as most birds' eggs have already hatched.  Certainly the bluebirds were busy bringing food to their nest box.  

I glimpsed ospreys and egrets.   A wren sang loudly, repeatedly, from close by, but I never caught sight of it.  Geese stayed out of the yard for once. Three swallows zipped across the sky, chattering.  I got one fuzzy image.  The light faded early into a long twilight. 

So frustrating!

I have been known to claim that cameras give off warning vibes, because how else to explain a pileated woodpecker who waited while K ran across the house for the camera, waited while I got it turned on, and then flew away as I was focusing?

Using the house as a blind, I was able to get some photos of the bluebirds ferrying bugs to their nestlings.

A large jumping spider hung out on the door screen for a while.

A flock of cormorants perched all over the log in the lake. There were turtles too.  A convoy of goslings with an adult in front and in back went upstream.

Close to a crow

While I was out in the neighborhood, I saw a brown thrasher and a half dozen mockingbirds.  Why don't they visit here?   I bought a birdhouse that may not be practical, but was on sale. 

 Another little skink, maybe the same one, slipped into a crack. More geese with more goslings tried to move in.  The blue-eyed grass and the rue started blooming.  It was windy all day.

The crows want the various bird foods but their size makes it tough.  I had tossed out a peanut I dropped, and a crow loved it.  It wanted more and the fact that I was sitting right there did not faze the bird.

Little to report

Geese kept coming all morning, insisting their young'uns poop in our yard.  K had readied the hose to discourage them, but the spray nozzle blew off in my hand.  Grrrrr.  A couple of skinks visited at lunch.

Bold catbird

 The cat came back.  A finch family ignored their offspring's begging as it hopped around on the feeder cluelessly.  A blue jay was disgusted that I didn't have its breakfast ready, but when I put mealworms out, a squirrel got them all.  Downy woodpeckers were still working on the last suet block.  A pair of goldfinches drank from the pool puddle.  So did a male cardinal who then proceeded to bathe.  A hummingbird paid a very brief visit to the feeder.  And then the catbird appeared.  It hung around all day and ventured out in the bright sunshine.  I tried to get photos of the bluebirds, but they got away again.  So did a couple of ospreys flying upstream, a titmouse, and a wren. 

Insects were everywhere.  A crane fly scrabbled on the window glass.   Yellow jackets searched for a place to nest, paper wasps scraped the wooden bench, and bumblebees fed on the money plant.  Tiny flies sent ripples across the pool puddle, laying eggs or eating larva?  A different paper wasp was attracted to the hackberry, possibly to its tiny flowers. 

One goose family after another invited themselves and their offspring, and had to be sent packing.  For reasons that were not apparent, two adult geese took off flying, leaving their goslings bobbing in the water.  Like a folktale illustration, an egret decked out for mating shared a log with a cormorant that looked ready for a funeral.  They were watched by turtles.  A little green heron rested on top of a dock piling.  It preened and scratched and posed.