Warm again

Placid reflections floated on the creek.  The dog rolled in the violets, certainly a better choice than some scents!  I caught the waning crescent moon.  

A skipper found some unblemished mountain mint, then a morning glory.  A few bees still fed on the mountain mint.  A cricket tried to walk on water. 

Brown headed nuthatches joined the chickadees for sunflower seeds.  A downy woodpecker worked on the old suet.  Then a pine warbler had a few bites.  A blue jay teased me from the top of the oak.  It appeared to be practicing ventriloquism.  

Cool

Early morning was cloudy.   One more hibiscus blossom opened.  Meanwhile camellia buds were beginning to fatten.  Carpenter and bumblebees stuck with the mountain mint. A beetle swam back and forth, seeming unable to make up its mid on how to escape the water.

A skink clambered up the wall.  Another slipped over the step.  Then two encountered each other and dashed away in opposite directions. 

I thought I saw a spider at work but it was only chaff caught in a web.   Then I did find a bold jumper hanging out on the chrome railing. 

A mockingbird enjoyed some beautyberries.  A woodpecker landed in the oak and hid.  I could hear it and I think it was a red-bellied.  The last thing I saw was a Carolina wren hopping around the table.  

Goldfinch

Mallards bobbed on the water like bathtub toys.  A poor squirrel had warbles.  It also had a pecan off our tree and was looking for somewhere to hide it.  I caught the thief red mouthed. 

There was a fresh hibiscus blossom.   The male goldfinch was beginning to molt for winter.  He came for a drink and a look around.  A downy woodpecker worked on the suet but birds were mostly scarce.  

Outside

Morning glories caught the early sun.  The creek was a dusty mirror.  A milkweed pod opened but the fluff snagged on the spiderweb remnants.  The beautyberries turned brilliant fuchsia.  

The temperature was lovely so I sneaked out to get some fresh air - first time in nine days.  The variety of bees and wasps was much reduced.  The Argiope egg case looked like a ball of amber. 

The purslane was still a riot of orange.  And the rose kept chugging out blossoms.  I spotted a skink.  

Summer green, Fall temperatures

Morning glowed!  It was followed by a lovely, sunshiny day in the low 70s.  But I didn't get to enjoy much.  

Home

I was so glad to get home!  I plunked down and watched a Carolina wren for a bit.  Toward evening, cardinals, chickadees, and at least one brown headed nuthatch visited the feeders.  Mallards dabbled in the twilight of a beautiful day.  

Cloudy

 Another hibiscus flower.  I saw butterflies but they were too fast.  I think the last Argiope left.  

Bright flowers

 The hibiscus bloomed again, red amid the pale blue of morning glories.  

Beautiful weather

Too bad I was stuck inside.  I saw a dark butterfly visit a rose and then flit around the trees.  Since it ignored the rue and parsley I'm guessing it was a red spotted purple. I could see the spider in the mountain mint, the only one left of the three.  

Missing day

Yesterday was not good.

And today was supposed to be all day rain. Not only didn't it rain, it actually turned sunny.  I saw a mourning dove at lunch.  There were three flowers on the hibiscus. 

Mother spider

Skinks popped up frequently.  A lovely cloudless sulphur was too fast for me but a black swallowtail took her time laying eggs on the rue.  I caught a glimpse of an orange bodied dragonfly.  The web under the hibiscus was still empty.  The spider in the mountain mint waited motionless behind its trap.  But the spider that moved into the nook between windows had been busy - a brown sac of eggs was suspended below the overhang.  

A very fuzzy large blond bee worked on the mountain mint.  I wondered if it was a drone.It was furred like a bumblebee but the size of a carpenter bee.  The great black wasps continued to feed on the mountain mint after the sun sank behind the trees.  The other wasps and bees mostly depart with the sun.  The spider mites enshrouded parts of the mountain mint because I quit trying to control them when the Argiope moved in. 

When I went to empty the skimmer, I could see a tail hanging down so I gently tugged on it and down plopped a skink.  I laid it in the sun to dry and warm and eventually it revived.  Not so the two I found floating in the deep water.  Lots of birds flitted among the trees but I wasn't able to guess their identities.  Chickades and titmice came to the feeders even though I was close.  Small clouds streamed in from the West.  

Missing spider

A fiery skipper pollinated the purslane.  So did tiny halactid bees.  I saw another on a daisy.  A southern purple mint moth moved before the camera shutter clicked.But it had landed by a black swallowtail caterpillar.  When I checked on the three spiders, the web under the hibiscus was intact but the Argiope wasn't there.  Then I fished an Argiope out of the water and left it on the concrete to see if it would revive.  It had been on the surface clinging to a leaf, not like the previous drowning victim that had sunk.  I don't know if it revived. 

I never know what I'll find when I take the lid off the skimmer.  Today it was a small frog.  It just sat there blinking foolishly.  There were crickets as well.  I caught another small frog in the deep end and put it out of the water.  The dogwood tossed colorful leaves into the water.  A female blue dasher perched on a canna flower.  

Brown headed nuthatches came and went before I was ready for them.  A Carolina wren joined a tufted titmouse on the suet. The titmouse wasn't pleased.  

Chasing frogs

I only had the morning and neither the water nor the air were as warm as I would have liked.  But the sunshine was at work heating the day.  All the spiders were where I left them.  As I watched, a little bee dodged around me and smacked into the web.  The spider paid no attention and the bee didn't struggle. When I came back later, the bee was gone, not bundled in silk, so maybe it got loose.  I saw wasps on the mountain mint but not honeybees.  

There were two frogs in the pool, one bigger the other little.I chased the little one first and after I caught it and shooed it away I went after the larger frog.  It was a wily critter but I have bigger flippers.  It's fun to chase them but I worry that the pool chemicals are bad for frogs.  

When I got out up popped a skink.  It had business at the East end of the retaining wall and didn't seem to care if I took pictures.  

I found a well-grown black swallowtail caterpillar and some first instar caterpillars on the parsley.  A monarch caterpillar munched on the butterfly milkweed.  A cloudless sulphur fluttered ove the mountain mint and kept going.  

Squirrel parenting

The wren pair shared suet at breakfast.  They were still untidy from molting.  A furred tail hanging out of a dogwood led to a squirrel eating berries. 

I rescued two skinks, one swimming and one in the skimmer.  While I was swimming, a squirrel came running along the side toward to me.  I wondered what it was carrying and then realized it was a smaller squirrel.  Apparently mama was relocating her baby.  She turned into the vegetation and I didn't see her again so I don't know if there were other babies.  My guess was that her nest fell down.   

All three garden spiders were accounted for.  A blue-green bee moved too fast for me to photograph, especially in the shade  Other bees and wasps ignored the spider in the mountain mint.   There was less variety than a month ago but the great golden digger wasps and great black wasps were plentiful, along with threadwaisted and potter wasps.  Just when i thought the sidewalk tiger beetles were gone for the year, one landed in front of me. The little pink moth flitted around the mint. 

The moon was past crescent but not quite first quarter.  It had a slight reddish cast tonight. 

 

Lovely weather

The water had cooled to 78° and reflections hinted at Fall. Two skinks needed rescue. A big frog didn't think it wanted my help, but I got it out anyway.  

A gray hairstreak sipped from the mountain mint.  The little pink moth did too.  The Argiope in the mint caught a big carpenter bee. I found the wandering spider between windows that are lit till late at night. 

Birds went after the young acorns.  Th3 camera caught a titmouse.

Chilly breeze

Two inches of rain fell yesterday.  Morning glories and a hibiscus bloomed.  Two of the spiders were in the same places, but not the one closest to my window.  The pool skimmer was packed with leaves and FOUR frogs.  After I finished cleaning the pool, a couple of wrens came for suet while I huddled in a towel.  

When the dog was out for his final time before bed, K found a garden spider at the corner of the door.  I wondered if it was the missing third spider but investigation will wait for tomorrow.  

All day rain

During a lull at breakfast, a fledgling cardinal  was fed suet by papa who was in a sadly molted state of grooming.  A male goldfinch popped up beside the fledgling cardinal.  A hummer checked out the morning glories.  I was waiting till after the rain to refill the hummer feeder, which never happened. 

Mysterious rings bubbled up in the creek near shore.  It could be methane from decaying vegetation or fish toughing the surface from below or who knows what?  A wet night heron prospected for crabs along the shoreline.  It too was molting. 

Not a lot to report

A blue jay got away with barkbutter balls, just like it did yesterday.  I thought I saw a bumblebee fly through the web in the mountain mint.  The spiders were all in their places and well fed.  Just one skink was in need of rescue.  I found a caterpillar and an adult black swallowtail, but no sign of the hornworm or the monarch caterpiller. 

 A pine warbler visited in the afternoon but the clouds had dropped the light level and my photos blurred.  When we came inside, birds flocked to the food.  A hummer wasn't willing to look around for a meal.  A downy and a Carolina wren shared the suet.  After sundown a storm arrived with much donner und blitzen.  I tried and failed to photograph the lightning. 

Cooler

The creek had the placid, reflective look of Fall.  A gray hairstreak explored a rose, interrupted by bees and wasps.  The three Argiope spiders had not relocated.  

I rescued four skinks, all bluetails.  One was in the skimmer, sitting on the handle.  The other three were all in the deep water trying to climb the pool wall.  They were so tired I just lifted them out and they lay on the concrete with their sides heaving.  

The hornworm moved to a new plant.  It looked close to pupating.  I found a minuscule jumping spider on a railing and a web under one of the asters.  A tiny orange moth was attracted to the mountain mint.  It reminded me of a Southern purple mint moth and I bet it was a cousin, Pyrausta rubricalis.  The monarch caterpillar was definitely bigger, having consumed an entire milkweed pod.  Bees and wasps seemed unaware of the waiting Argiope, but I didn't see any get caught.  

Three soaring birds were very high up.  They were pale and I wonder if they were Mississippi kites.

Five skinks

All the spiders were safe in their webs, but the one in the mountain mint might outgrow its skin at the rate it was catching meals.  The hornworm was stuffing itself too.  There were some red leaves and berries on the dogwood, and the beauty berries were beginning to turn color.  The spartina was in bloom. 

The sixth skink had drowned, but I rescued four bluetails and one full grown five-lined skink.  I also rescued a cicada and several beetles. 

A couple of great crested flycatchers hopscotched around the trees.  Carolina wrens and a brown thrasher also played hard to see.  A downy woodpecker wanted suet but was anxious about our proximity.  Brown headed nuthatches landed on the suet as soon as we went indoors. 

The dog has chosen a napping spot in the violets right next to the first Argiope.  Today the spider ignored the dog.  

Three spiders!

The Argiope aurantia that I first found was still tucked in between the hibiscus and the rue with a repaired web and a bit of added camouflage.  The one I found last week outside my window by the canna was also in the same place as before.  A third Argiope appeared out of nowhere and built a web in the mountain mint. It most certainly was not there yesterday.  Its web was very effective as proved by four silk-wrapped captures, one of which was a green bee, alas. Other bees and wasps continued to feed on the mountain mint all around the web but I did not see any actually touch it. One carpenter bee hovered in front of the web as though it was aware of the danger. 

Earlier in the day a very orange buckeye butterfly visited the butterfly milkweed and the mountain mint.  And I found a full grown hornworm on a ground cherry plant.  Black swallowtail caterpillars fed on the rue.  I did not see the monarch caterpillar, but the spider was in the way of a thorough look.  But, for the first time I found a camouflaged looper.  The tiny caterpillar fed on mountain mint close to the spider.  I only saw it because it was moving.  A frustrated black swallowtail didn't find parsley where it expected.

The hibiscus bloomed again.  A male amberwing perched on the rue, then on the mountain mint.  I found where a hummer perched to monitor the feeder.  Since it had chased off another, I knew it had to be lurking in a line-of-sight location.  Two molting Carolina wrens visited the feeders together again. 

The hornworm showing its stripes and horn.

The camouflaged looper with its front end emerging from the dead flowers stuck on its body.

June-like day

A raggedy-molt brown thrasher came for breakfast.  Later in the morning while I was slicing green onions for Persian cold yoghurt soup, a pair of goldfinches visited.  Alas, no photo. The sky was intensely blue and the temperature mild with moderate humidity, more like the beginning of summer than the end. 

I saw skinks at lunch and several times in the afternoon.  Brown headed nuthatches also showed up repeatedly.  The hibiscus had a new flower and there were still more buds, thanks to the neem oil!  

The Argiope was still facing the other way on its web.  And the new Argiope was back in its web, so the one that drowned was an unknown.  In the late afternoon, the dog took a notion to have a roll in the violet leaves under the hibiscus and perilously close to the spider.  I checked afterward and found that, while the web had some damage, the spider had wisely hidden behind a dead leaf.  I found myself apologizing.  

The mountain mint continued to draw pollinators despite the spider mites damage and my pruning.  I didn't see the green bee, but there were plenty of honey and bumble bees, and flies.  Lots of digger, thread-waisted, and potter wasps, and today a butterfly!  It appeared to be a tattered summer azure.  The foolish monarch caterpillar found another seedpod to eat. And a hummer sampled the flowers on the butterfly milkweed.  I wish my other milkweeds would bloom, but I guess that's too much to ask when they're trying to survive all the insects.  Curiously, a Guinea paper wasp was sitting on the neem oil sprayer. 

A fly was very interested in a crack in the steps.  I thought it led to a skink lair but I wouldn't expect that to attract flies.  I rescued a spider carrying an egg pearl but I was too late for a big cicada, one of the same kind as I rescued a few days ago.  It may have been finished living before it fell in the water.  I also fished out a skink, an assassin bug that was still swimming, a small brown click beetle, and a big scarab with markings that reminded me of an army tank draped in camouflage.  

I believe I saw a tree swallow land in the oak but I couldn't find it in the foliage.  A downy woodpecker came back for suet.  Three titmice, including the one with no tail, also clustered on the suet.  And as the light began to fade two Carolina wrens sought suet for a bedtime snack.  

Bees

I carried a pitcher outside to brew sun tea and found a "gift."  A dead cicada killer was lying on the patio.  It was nice to have a leisurely look at a wasp that's always on the move in life.  I also saw a ladybird beetle on the milkweed that the monarchs preferred for their eggs.  On closer examination, I could see aphids that the beetle may have been after.  The beetle had many spots so it was probably the imported Asian species that's sold as a "natural" pest control. 

At lunchtime, a black swallowtail dined on butterfly milkweed flowers.  Carolina wrens made the feeder rounds.  The Argiope by the patio switched sides on its web.  A female amberwing hunted from a base in the rue.  For some strange reason, with loads of leaves available, the monarch caterpillar ate a hole in a milkweed seedpod. 

I found a dead frog in the skimmer and a live one sitting on the ladder. I chased that one all over the pool but finally evicted it after it climbed up my suit.  I wouldn't bother but I believe that the pool water poisons them.  I also found a bluetail skink swimming and fished it out.  It was not grateful. Bright sun, low humidity, but a breeze from the North made swimming slightly chilly.  The water was still warm but I felt the breeze as I waited outside till I finished dripping. 

The green bee was back and there may have been two of them,  There were at least two great black wasps and several great golden digger wasps.  No butterflies came to either the mountain mint or the spearmint but I saw an azure fluttering around the trees.  When I looked for the new Argiope, the web was empty but I thought something dropped from it.  But then I found a full grown Argiope drowned on the top pool step. 

I also pursued photos of the dark honeybees.  Later, when I did a little research, I learned that there are two subspecies that look dark gray Apis Mellifera Carnica and Apis Mellifera Caucasica and two more that are much darker than the ones I've seen. And a bigger surprise - the "regular" honeybees on the mountain mint seem to be the Africanized hybrid Apis Mellifera Scutellata.  I suppose that explains why the dark ones give way to the lighter colored bees.  But another source suggests they might all be from the same hive, only with different fathers.

 A full grown skink came very close as I watched the bees.  One of a handful of titmice had no tail. The dock was full of mallards, mostly drakes in eclipse.  

Cooler

The temperature stayed in the 70s and the sky was often cloudy.  At breakfast, a brown thrasher was recovering from a bad molt.  Carolina wrens sampled everything.

Another living shoreline consultant had a long conversation outdoors with K.  The dog was disconsolate at not being invited so I kept him company.   

Hummingbirds were busy with their feeder so it must not have taken on water. An old female great blue skimmer ignored my bamboo stakes and found purchase on a dead gladiolus stalk.  

Windy

The remnants of Hurricane Ida brought more wind than rain, though there was a brief shower in the early afternoon. The palamedes swallowtail frustrated me again.  I caught a couple of small bees pollinating the purslane.  And I found one of the caterpillars I moved to the butterfly milkweed.  It had grown and was apparently feeding on the milkweed pods.  An amberwing flitted off from a perch in the mountain mint.  Some sort of skipper, or other small butterfl7ylooked for flowers around the birdbath, then flew off unsatisfied. 

The green bee also refused to pose.  A very tattered female great blue skimmer used the perch outside my window, and next to the new Argiope web.  A bad neighborhood for insect prey.  And speaking of predators, the mantis was still hiding in the lavender.  A black swallowtail egged the rue where I could see a half dozen caterpillars at various stages of development.  I saw a hummer feed so the rain must not have gotten into the sugar water.  The bracket fungus was round and glossy.  Unfortunately, the yard workers cut off all my parsley before I finished harvesting seeds.  Rain did come well after sunset.