overcast

At lunch, a coopers hawk streaked across the yard, closely pursued by the boys in blue, AKA blue jay.  It really did look like a cop chase. 

Something, probably a squirrel, dropped a dozen short branches of oak leaves, mostly into the pool, but a few on the side.  I assume it was remodeling a drey and the mess came apart. 

The pool was not warm, but warmer than the air as the sun struggled to get through a thin overcast.  I saved a few wasps and beetles, but the lacewings never revive.  A small spider seemed to be outraged at my pool cleaning efforts. 

After I gave up and got my chilled body indoors, I saw a bird in the beautyberry bush that I'm guessing was a yellow breasted chat. 

Inside all day

We had a big event that kept me away from morning to dusk.  The creek was glassy in the early light. But something disturbed the surface near the shore 

The sky grew overcast in the afternoon, and the air felt damp.

Green bee or wasp

A black swallowtail hovered around the rue, laying eggs at this time of year?  A very dark skipper fed on one of the portulaca flowers.  And much later a dark butterfly got a drink and left.

I've been hunting one of these for years! But now I'm unsure if it was a cuckoo wasp or a sweat bee. 

A fungus popped out of the leaf litter under the oak in the same spot as previous years.  Birds were scarce, but I saw a kingfisher on a dock piling. 

Sunny

I spent much of the day elsewhere but I finally got some time in the pool.  When I cleaned the skimmer, the biggest frog so far popped out from under the leaves.  It did not jump back into the pool so I didn't catch it. The day wasn't as hot as yesterday so my wet skin chilled in the breeze.

An egret walked down the dock.  A mockingbird snacked on beauty berries.  I found a tiny orb web on a parsley seed head.  A flock of unidentifiable birds flitted around in the trees but when a larger bird landed, I was able to see it was a flicker. 

Red eyed vireo

Hot!   My car claimed 94°F and even the back yard was 89° and sweaty. I saw a red tailed hawk land in a tree on Greenwich Road.  Butterflies and dragonflies flitted around the city streets.  

The pool water was warmer too. The water surface was dusty with tiny insects and powder off leaves. But it was wonderfully refreshing. No critters in the skimmer or the water. A poor squirrel ambled by with a warbled back,  A mallard drake in eclipse plumage paddled downstream.  A dragonfly zipped around over the pool. 

It wasn't till I got out and sat dripping that I saw anything interesting.  The red eyed vireo was in the beauty berry which is where I've see them other years.

Still sunny

A Carolina wren was up at dawn.  I woke up a little after 5am and saw the waning crescent moon through the window, but when I went outside after the sun rose, I had a hard time seeing it in daylight, and then an even harder time getting it in focus!  Out of two dozen shots only three weren't a fuzzy smear,

Nothing removed the drowned mantis, nor did it revive.  A variegated fritillary fluttered around the violets, which were not in bloom.  I would guess laying eggs but I've never seen a caterpillar on the violets.  A Carolina grasshopper (Dissosteira carolina) had gone for a swim even though it was missing a hind leg.  

 Curiously, a lot of fish were jumping in the creek.  I saw one pop free of the surface six or eight times.  But I was always too late for anything but the ripples.   An egret flew over the water.  The first time I just got a blob but my timing was on target for the next.  

A moth or skipper visited the mountain mint.  It looked like a very pale duskywimg.  

Still summery

I was up before dawn so I was puzzled why I couldn't see the waning moon.  By the time I got into Norfolk it was apparent that the sky was overcast.  In fact a handful of rain droplets appeared on the windshield, but soon evaporated.  When the meeting was over, the clouds had broken apart and were dwindling.  By afternoon the sky was clear blue.  But, of course, the moon was long gone.

One or more mockingbirds hung out in the berry patch.  I only saw one at a time, but that's no proof.  A bird with a pale underside and gray-brown back, a down-curved yellow beak, spotted a worm-like critter (presumably a caterpillar) and shot across the intervening space, then shook its prey up and down.  All the while the bird kept its tail pointed down so I never got a good look, but I believe it was a yellow billed cuckoo. Toward evening, a couple of doves showed up. 

There were a few butterflies - a sulphur, a black swallowtail, and maybe a palamedes.  Southern purple mint moths were plentiful.  A large preying mantis was in the skimmer.  It seemed to be dead but sometimes insects revive.  And if not, it will feed something else.

Equinox

It seemed to me that the first day of Fall was rather late this year, though It was a little warmer than the last day of Summer.  I was up early enough to appreciate the waning moon, two days past  the third quarter.  The left side of the moon is less interesting than the right. 

In the afternoon, I discovered a glass snail on the patio.  The sky held more haze and wispy clouds today but the sun was bright. 

I rescued a tiny (half the size of a ladybug) orange beetle with a transparent rim.  The dark underside looked very much like a ladybug beetle but it was actually a golden tortoise beetle (Charidotella sexpunctata). 

A molting Carolina wren snacked on mealworms.  Blue jays were audible but more secretive than yesterday.  I did not see any hummers.  

Frog musings

When I went to empty the pool skimmer, a frog that had been lurking there darted out and swam away.  Eventually I tracked it down and caught it. I congratulated myself on still being able to catch frogs at my age.  Then I wondered if enjoying frog chasing at my age was a bit strange.  It reminded me of Quiddich - I can't fly but I can float and the frog was certainly as lively as a Golden Snitch.  But I was happy to do without an opposing team and so, I suspect, was the frog.

In other news, I saw one dragonfly zip past in the late afternoon.   A swallowtail and a sulphur flitted around earlier, but it was pretty breezy.  Yesterday's hibiscus blossoms were still open, but they looked like the last.  A few leaves had turned, but the wind pulled them off.  It was another cloudless day, though some haze and wisps appeared in time to be colored by the sunset. 

A Carolina wren hunted in the grass.  Several red bellied woodpeckers seemed to be arguing in the oak.  Crows flew off to their roost.  Blue jays made a lot of noise and one visited that mysterious knothole on the oak.  Twilight made the camera cranky, but I could see two mockingbirds in the beautyberry bush.  Then  a dove paced around the pool. 

Beautiful day

I rushed to a meeting in the morning and only had time to look around after lunch.  The hibiscus flowers were smaller and one was misshapen.

A mockingbird gorged on beauty berries.  The Carolina wrens emptied their feeder.  High in an oak tree, a blue jay hammered an acorn while squirrels carried off pecans.  Hammering also came from a red bellied woodpecker on a pine tree trunk. 

I watched as a big bird grasshopper appeared to be laying eggs on the concrete.  The grasshopper's abdomen would swell, arch, and the end would open and close. 

Bracket fungi appeared in the mulch in the front yard, probably living on the roots of the sweet gum we had cut down. 

A female blue dasher perched on the stub of a pine needle.  It was the first dragonfly I'd seen in days at home.  They appear daily at street intersections, riding the thermals from the asphalt.  A few bees and wasps sought nectar. 

A great blue heron hopped onto the dock and paced its length before a passing boat caused it to leave.  The boat also drove off smaller birds that were feeding along the shore.

Millipedes keep dropping into the pool and drowning.  I photographed a live one. It clearly had two legs per segment, proving it was not a centipede.  I was surprised at how high it could lift its head.  The water felt chilly though the air was warm and the sun hot.  The sky was cloudless and the breeze gentle. 

Global Climate Strike.

A hummer came to breakfast.  Then I went to the beach to the Global Climate Strike.  An osprey flew over as the crowd gathered.  It was hard to believe in the danger on such a lovely day.  

Wrens were busy eating and bathing and poking into things.  A skink ran across the step.  A sulphur flitted across the yard, as did a tiger swallowtail.  The water felt colder than the air though they were both about 76°F.  There was a frog in the water but it avoided me.  I rescued a tiger moth. 

A pine warbler discovered the mealworms.  The fresh water I put in the birdbath inspired a Carolina wren.  The brown thrasher chased a bug into the lavender.  K brought the hummer feeder in to clean as the juice apparently went bad during the day. 

No time

The wind drove the tide up into the yard.  It was too much for the fragile hibiscus petals.

A pine warbler came for mealworms.  I also saw hummers, wrens, and a mockingbird.

The garden spider was still hanging out by the church door.

North wind

The sun was bright but it had to dodge between clouds and the wind was cold, so this was another day when the water was warmer than the air.  And the water wasn't all that warm.  It was, however full of more debris than Hurricane Dorian deposited.  All kinds of leaves and lots and lots of pine needles covered the surface.  Most critters stayed away.  I did see someone net something and carry it down hill, but no one told me what.  I found a wheel bug but it was deceased.

At lunch time a skink crossed the steps.  Squirrels stole more pecans but the tree was loaded.  I cut down the fall webworm nest in the pecan.  Wrens visited and I heard blue jays. A bird explored our garage but left before I could identify or photograph it. 

The clouds made a magnificent sunset - the atmosphere seemed suffused with amber and rose and the clouds were gold.  As I passed the 64 - 264 interchange about 6:45pm a flock of crows swirled overhead.  An omen of the mega-murder to come.

Hints of autumn

Despite the waning moon, the wind drove the tide very high.   It also sent dark clouds South.   There was only one frog today.  A red spotted purple rested on the dogwood.

A goldfinch pair visited the seed feeder and they were already shifting to winter plumage and beak color.

Wrens enjoyed mealworms.

A parade of migrant hummers passing through mostly left each other alone. They tried different flowers and parts of the feeder post, showing that they were new to our yard.

One squirrel had a visible warble on its back.

Clouds were dramatic as I drove West. 

Pool party

Hummers acted suspicious toward the feeder.  The creek had that placid Autumn morning look. 

I soaked the mountain mint, the roses, and the hibiscus in neem oil.  We shall see.  A bumblebee enjoyed the zinnias.  Another camellia flower opened.  

A very ungrateful skink did all it could to avoid rescue from the water including running around on my shoulders as though I was a Lyft it had called.  But I won.  There were also two green frogs, one big, one little, that I tried to convince to stay out of the pool.   The water was dusty with tiny flying insects, some of which wanted blood. 

A mockingbird was in the beautyberry bush, then flew to the red cedar and hopped around the branches over me as I floated, camera-less.  Blue jays flew together from one oak to another.  Some of them visited a knot on one limb that I suspect collects water.  I would need a drone with a camera to find out.  A Carolina wren found the mealworms. 

After dark an opossum visited.  It did not pay attention to the mealworms, which surprised me.  It seemed more interested in fallen sunflower seeds.  A green lacewing rested on the window.

Mockingbird

A Carolina wren was disappointed by the empty mealworm dish.  The hummers, however, had plenty, but fought over it.

A black swallowtail hunted for parsley at lunch.  House finches and chickadees imitated the hummingbirds and got into mid-air squabbles.  The winner of an argument with another mockingbird settled in to feast on beauty berries.

I found a swallowtail caterpillar on a stripped stalk of parsley.  Squirrels were stained by pecan hulls.  I got curious about the contents and hammered one open, getting my fingers stained too.  The pecan was fully formed but soft, pale, and tasteless.

There were wisps and contrails to catch pink from the sunset. 

Back home

 After my car battery got jumped and I finally headed home, a pumpkin moon peered over the trees.  It rose and faded from orange to cream to white.  It also went from sharp and clear above the Peninsula to misty at home.

Carolina wrens

At breakfast, the Carolina wrens were still working on their dish of mealworms.  The butterfly milkweed was regenerating for the second time.  The female cardinal, however, was still featherless from the neck up. 

The hummers at lunch were checking out flower instead of the feeder so K brought it in.   While we were preparing fresh, one disappointed hummer landed on the ant moat.  Another taste-tested the rue flowers.  Three wrens shared their dish of food.  Small skinks dashed around the patio. 

I saw a couple of butterflies, one small and brownish, the other larger and orange, but I could not say what species they were.  A mockingbird visited the beauty berries.  The wrens seemed to find something among the diseased leaves on the mountain mint and the morning glories. 

A dead skink and a dead frog needed to be removed from the pool.  I also gave a live frog encouragement to depart.  The water seemed dusty with tiny bugs and leaf detritus. I rescued a honeybee. 

An Argiope had its web just outside the door to the church where it could profit from the nightlight. 

Clear sky

I was up before the sun, but I was working with my back to the window.  The early light reflected in the creek seemed misty and dawn was quite chilly.  When I got to breakfast, so did the Carolina wrens.  One silly wren had a mouthful of mealworms and couldn't figure out what to do next.  The hummers finally showed up as the day warmed.

The morning glories were the same blue as the pool.  And the pool was full of frogs. A large green frog was sitting on the edge of the pool.  There were three frogs in the skimmer along with two huge, dead roaches.  I encountered more frogs swimming and heaved them out of the water.  I also encountered  another drowned roach.  Damselflies alighted on the pool edge but didn't stay.  I think one was a blue fronted dancer. 

In the afternoon, a bird grasshopper landed on the window screen.  I went outside to see it better and found the day had gotten very hot.  But because I was outside, I saw a skink in the water.  I managed to rescue it despite its efforts to escape. 

Frogs

The hibiscus was still putting on a show thanks to the Neem Oil.  Hummers arrived before the dew dried.  After lunch, a black swallowtail flitted around the rue.


I found two frogs in the pool, one alive and one dead.  Pool water would be a better analogy for incremental danger than water in a pot on the stove.  It seems that frogs cannot detect chlorine or whatever it is in the pool water that kills them.  The third frog was sitting outside the front door around 9pm when I got home from a meeting. I walked around it to get a note stuck in the door, which is why I was there to notice it.  For all I know it sits outside the door every night, waiting for the bugs attracted by the porch light.  I went in and got the camera but when I came back, the little frog squeezed into a crevice.  So, no picture. I also saved a skink in the pool and let it go without demanding a picture. 

As I dripped dry, I watched birds in the oak tree.  Most were visible only when they moved, but I identified blue jays and a red bellied woodpecker. A very pale bluebird took a conspicuous perch to preen.  A mockingbird preferred beauty berries.  Later, I saw it in the hackberry tree. 

 Since the frog didn't cooperate, I took some pictures of the moon.  It was nice to have a clear night sky. 

Still clouded

Four wrens were back for breakfast.  I put out a fresh feeder for the hummers.  And then I spent the day rushing around. 

Cloudy

The Carolina wrens were funny at breakfast.  One wanted to perch on the dragonfly's stake. 

There was some light rain at times in the afternoon.  We were gone mpst pf the day. 

Berry nice

As usual, sunshine followed the hurricane.  It didn't seem so very hot and humid, until I started cleaning up the yard mess.  Soon the sweat was dripping off the end of my nose.  The redwood shed tiny, flat needles, about a centimeter long, millions of them. Lots of the oak leaves had been shredded, so it was like being covered in green confetti.  But there was plenty of larger stuff, including small branches. 

At lunch time, a mockingbird enjoyed beautyberries.  Then the blue jays wanted some.  Then they wanted to sunbathe.  The mockingbird and, later, a Carolina wren also sunbathed.  So they had a spa day while I worked in a sauna.

A silly skink dithered on the pool edge.  Later I fished two skinks out of the water.  Titmice were made bold by hunger.  Even cardinals couldn't keep them from the feeder.  Hummers were also less intimidated by bigger birds.  A squirrel created a commotion in the rue, but I've no idea why.

A ted tailed hawk soared in circles over the creek.   The Carolina wrens shared the bark butter with a titmouse and the sunflower seeds with a chickadee.

A couple of butterflies emerged more or less intact from the storm.  I think the first was a red spotted purple and the second a question mark.  I did not see one dragonfly. only a few bees and wasps came around.  The gray weevils were still around.  I couldn't locate the Carolina mantis.

The tide was still high for a first quarter moon, washing over part of the dock.   The dam emerged from the flood without visible harm.  A juvenile yellow crowned night heron paced on the dock. 

There was lots of activity in the oak and I saw what I thought was a fledgling bluebird.  I did see goldfinches

Hurricane Dorian

The windows were a mess of leaf shreds and rain streaks, so photography was difficult.  During lulls in the wind, I saw a hummer hoping the feeder had reappeared.  I tossed some seeds out on the patio and annoyed a mockingbird on the ground by the parsley.  It took off and I withdrew a wet arm.  Cardinals found the seeds but the chickadees kept looking for the feeder.  The wind was gusty but the rain was more steady, not too heavy but never pausing.

The tide was way up in the yard.  Occasionally egrets flew low over the creek.  I had to depend on glimpses when the wind tossed the tree limbs out of the way, but it looked to me like the lake and the creek were meeting on this end of the dam.   I couldn't tell whether the water was that high, or whether the dam washed out.  There were people out looking from both sides - the ones standing on the dam were idiots.

Dorian was down to a Cat 1 after hitting Cape Hatteras which deflected it to the Northeast.  Thus we were only in the tropical storm umbra for wind but right in line for rain and surge.  The wind shifted direction around 3pm which I assume means the eye slid past us. The rain stopped soon after and I went out to see what the storm had left.  The creek was extremely high and downstream it met the water in the lake, covering the nearest portion of the dam.  The same dam that was scraped clean of vegetation this summer.

I worked on cleaning the pool while the birds discussed the lack of dinner. K put the seed feeder and the hummer feeder back out and the wine seemed to be tapering off.  Cardinals, chickadees, and hummingbirds showed up quickly.  The overcast brought on an early twilight and dark. 

Storm prep

The sky was mostly overcast though the sun found gaps in the morning.  Small clouds went racing West under the blanket of stratocumulus.  Though still far to the South, the hurricane pushed water into the Bay and made the tide run high.  In the afternoon and evening there were occasional showers.

The little bloodsucking flying insects were out in force and there weren't any dragonflies.   Early in the day I saw a cloudless sulphur and a palamedes swallowtail.  The hummers were still battling over the feeder.  And the victor guarded her prize from the feeder hanger or the cherry tree.

The Carolina wrens were more collegial, and more varied in their diet.  They hunted bugs in the morning glory in between congregating at the bark butter dish.  Titmice joined the usual trio at the seed feeder.  Blue jays went for acorns. 

The caterpillar I introduced to a new plant ate about half so I guess it really was milkweed.   But the caterpillar was gone, either prey or ready to pupate.  The praying mantis was still on the rosebush.

We took in all the feeders before we left which greatly puzzled the hummers.  They flew all around where the feeder hung, as though a big, red saucer could be hiding.

Humid

The windows ere fogged and the patio chairs dripped with dew.  We started preparing for the  arrival of Hurricane Dorian.  The sky was white but the sheet of cloud was thin enough that the day was sunny.  Fluffy cumulus clouds moved below the overcast. 

Light blue morning glories were blooming all over.  Titmice visited the seed feeder and hummers came for liquid refreshment.  A squirrel's muzzle was stained with pecan hull juice.  The wrens were back.  

I caught a glimpse of a shy red bellied woodpecker before it took off.  While I was taking pictures of a fledgling wren, between one click and the next, its perch was taken by a male house finch.  He almst seemed to be saying, aren't I cute too?

Two skinks a-swimming will live thanks to me.  I found a couple of drowned monarch caterpillars and discovered that the swamp milkweed had been stripped of leaves.  Then I found a live caterpillar hustling along so I relocated it to what may be a milkweed sprout. The mantis continued to haunt the rosebush. 

The beauty berries were all shades of green, red, or purple.  A snake swam downstream but I didn't get the camera refocused before the salt bushes hid it.  Later, a pair of mallards preened along the water's edge.  And a mockingbird feasted on the beauty berries, but by then the light was fading. 

Food

Hummers were hungry, as always.  Squirrels, too.  A red spotted purple, however, was more interested in leaving progeny on the cherry tree.  A tattered skimmer dragonfly rested on one stake perch and a blue dasher on the other. 

I counted nine monarch caterpillars in the morning.  Only one was left in the afternoon because there was nothing left to eat.  I hope the largest ones were ready to pupate, but I fear they just wandered off to starve. Should I have killed half of them so the remaining ones would have enough food?

Fortunately the wren family posed no such ethical dilemma.  It was fun watching their parent show them the feeder and poke food into their gaping beaks.  They investigated nearby plants and seemed to find bugs to catch,  Speaking of which, I presented a beetle to the mantis but all it did was back away.

Scale insects appeared on one stalk of bolted parsley.  My best guess is that they were lecanium scales.  Odd that they were just on the one stalk and odder still that they should appear now after decades of growing parsley.

I caught a glimpse of a skink on the lower patio. A bumblebee loved the lavender flowers.  The sasanqua camellia put out its first flower of the Fall season.  And I finally got some decent shots of the crescent moon. 

Battling hummingbird

Usually one hummer quickly intimidates the other, but not today. One of the two appeared to have a male's red throat, but it might have been a reflection of the red feeder.  A female won the contest. In the late afternoon a hummingbird investigated the zinnias. 

Again, titmice were being coy.  Wrens were a bit wary as well.  But the regulars, chickadees, cardinals, and house finches, just ignored me.  A bluebird fed its child up in the oak.  I got a quick glimpse of a red bellied woodpecker. 

A few dragonflies took advantage of the high humidity that attracted the small flies that bite.  A slaty skimmer used one of the perches.  A yellowish dragonfly flew a pattern over the pool at lunch time, and in the late afternoon a Carolina saddlebags patrolled higher in the air.  A bumblebee enjoyed the lavender

The black swallowtail caterpillars on the rue were doing fine.  It was too early to say  much about the ones on the parsley.  An adult visited the rue to add more eggs.I counted ten monarch caterpillars today.  And an adult monarch laid more eggs.One monarch caterpillar left the milkweed and wandered about.   My guess was that it was looking for a place for its chrysalis, but I lost track of it.  I also saw a cloudless sulphur. 

All the squirrels suddenly had stained mouths, probably from pecan hulls.  One squirrel buried a nut in the flower bed. 

Caterpillar time

There were eight monarch caterpillars ranging from about a centimeter to full grown.  I picked the "cent" off the swamp milkweed which was still recovering from the aphid infestation and added it to the swarm on the butterfly milkweed.  Several of those were chowing down on the flowers.  I don't know if milkweed flowers were tastier or more tender or if this was a strategy to discourage wasps that might be caterpillar hunters.  If the milkweed sets no seed, that seems counterproductive in the long run.

Black swallowtail caterpillars ate a potted parsley down to the roots.  I dou't know what they did when they ran out of parsley - there was no other suitable food plant in the front yard.  In the back yard, I could just barely see some very young caterpillars on a parsley plant.  Four larger caterpillars, but still first instar, were on the rue which can take care of itself.  At least, it has never appeared to suffer from too many caterpillars.

A cloudless sulphur proved too fast for me to capture.  I did get a bird grasshopper.  I rescued another, different grasshopper that was drowning.  It was light brown and mottled like bark.  I also saved a skink that had found the top step of the ladder but was stuck there, cold and wet and looking sad.  Nevertheless, it tried to swim away from me.

A titmouse was unwilling to visit the feeder while we sat outside.  The beauty berries were rapidly turning purple.  The spartina was blooming.  Two days after the new moon, the tide was still quite low.