More milkweed

I purchased another milkweed plant to feed the monarch caterpillars.  Today I counted four caterpillars and only one green seedpod.  The kingfisher was on the neighboring dock after lunch but back on our post in the late afternoon..  A great blue heron flew in and hunted along our shoreline.  Though sunny, it was much cooler today.

 
When I woke up, there were little puffy clouds scattered across the sky and tinted peach.  They thinned out by mid day, then thickened in the late afternoon.  The moon was up when I got out of my evening meeting.  Bars of cloud crossed it and it tinted them orange - very tigerish.  By the time I got home, the bars had become formless but the moon was still making them orange.  

 

Still hot

Wind gusts blew down pine needles, leaves, and less identifiable bits of vegetation.  The sky was nearly cloudless and the sun hot.  About eight mallards enjoyed the low tide.  A great blue heron landed downstream.  At mid day, the kingfisher perched on the bench instead of the post The gang of five crows raided the barkbutter balls as soon as I was out of sight.  

I could only find four caterpillars so maybe the other two crawled away to pupate.  Unfortunately the remaining caterpillars ate into one of the seedpods.  I moved them to leaves.  A squirrel buried something under the sakaki and carefully patted down the spot to hide it.  I saw the first yellow leaves on the oak.  The last milkweed seed was tethered to the pod like a parenting metaphor. 

West wind

The six monarch caterpillars will need more leaves soon.  I hope I can buy a plant.  I saw butterflies, dark ones, a sulphur, and the ubiquitous cabbage white.  An American snout perched on a dragonfly stake.  A field cricket hopped around on the concrete.  A paper wasp circled over the pavement.  A blow fly rested on a leaf.  

There were no clouds to show the gusty wind's direction but it brought warm air that emptied out the creek.  A buzzard flew across the intensely blue sky.  The kingfisher was back on the post.  It dived once and caught a small fish.  

Summery

The sky was strongly blue again, the breeze light, the creek a mirror, and the temperature rose to 78°.  Evidence of things unseen: at lunch, the bamboo stake that I'd stuck in the ground near the birdbath began to jerk and swing.  Nothing around it was moving so it wasn't wind.  My guess would be a vole or mole.  The yellow iris seeds were ripe.  The heat persuaded a violet to flower. More camellia flowers opened. 

Today I found six, not five, monarch caterpillars.  There may not be enough leaves for all of them.  I thought I saw a red spotted purple but it disappeared.  A wasp landed on a table with its prey but it seemed dissatisfied and abandoned the morsel.  It looked to me like part of a grub.  After dark, a plume moth landed on the window. 

I saw only the usual feeder birds.  A bit of seed hull got caught in a silk thread and twirled in the breeze.  A boat on the creek startled a great blue heron. A cormorant and a mallard paddled upstream together.  Then a kingfisher alighted on the dock post.  It didn't stay long but I heard it cackle several times after it flew.  

Bright but cool

Reflections lit up the creek before the sun reached the water.  It happened again in the late afternoon.  The sky was a clear blue but the air was quite chilly.  Yesterday, I was on the Internet all day.  I was determined not to miss another day of wildlife so I photographed the five monarch caterpillars again.  They need to eat fast if they are going to make it to Mexico.  The milkweed pod continued to slowly disperse seeds.  A Carolina wren scolded and then flew away.  I relocated the ebony spleenwort fern and found it had grown quite a bit.  There were no clouds to obscure the first quarter moon.  

Sunset spectacle

The first thing I saw in the morning was the black cat getting a drink from the birdbath.  In the background, the creek was aglow.   More milkweed seeds took flight.  I found five young monarch caterpillars and two more seedpods.  A black swallowtail flitted around the rue.  I thought I glimpsed a brown butterfly but between leaves and shadows, I could not be sure.  Another magic leaf fluttered and spun on the end of a silk thread.  A great blue heron moved downstream.  Blue jays remained tantalizingly hidden by vegetation, but very audible. 

At first the sky was intensely blue and cloudless but in the later afternoon clouds flowed in from the West.  Airbrushed wisps were followed by more substantial clouds that gathered for a spectacular sunset.  The moon was faintly visible through the cloud haze.  

Autumn chill

A Carolina wren got away without a picture.  Nuthatches were more cooperative.  Brown headed came in the morning and white breasted in the afternoon.  Blue jays flew across the yard to eat acorns. The North wind shoved clouds across the sky and made the sun come and go.  It shone hot but the wind was chilly.  Dogwood berries were mostly eaten but next Spring's buds stood up proud.  Morning glory seed pods looked ripe.  The saltbush began shedding seed fluff.  

The last milkweed pod opened and seeds rode the wind over the house.  When I looked at photos of the milkweed pod, I saw what might be a caterpillar on a leaf in the background.  A red spotted purple evaded me but its iridescence gave it away.  It shone as bright as a tropical blue morpho. 

Mosquito swarm

I love the way the creek glows at dawn on a sunny day.  If there's wind, it drops at dawn and dusk so the creek can reflect the light.  A brown headed nuthatch was up early and a chickadee waited rather than argue.  The sky was blue again but a little more hazy.  Dogwood leaves took on a bronze hue.  Southern purple mint moths were ubiquitous and I walked into a swarm of mosquitoes, the most I've seen all summer.  My skin no longer reacts to their bites as much as when I was young, but they were in my face and everywhere.  

The Berkley polypore shrank, perhaps from water loss, and turned rust and gray.  I found a few very small mushrooms like orange beads in the grass.  When I picked one, it was just as orange underneath.  It had gills that were well separated, surprisingly thick, and attached to the stalk, no veil ring but maybe a hint of a cup at the base.  My best guess is orange bonnet, Mycena acicula.  

Butterbutt

The sky was the clear blue that suggests low humidity.  Certainly, the sun was very hot though the air was not.  After lunch, I found a little snail lying in the sun and moved it into some vegetation.  The Berkeley's polypore was getting orange.  The bright red juvenile cardinal was camouflaged among the dogwood leaves.  He appeared to like dogwood berries.  They were disappearing fast.  I thought I glimpsed the grosbeak again but this time it was a yellow rumped warbler - first of the season.  Lots of spider threads caught the sun.  This late in the year must mean that they will winter over as hatchlings instead of eggs.  

New bird

A mockingbird came for a wake-up drink from the ant moat.  An Orthoptera nymph (grasshopper/cricket/katydid) wandered around the window.  I based my guess on its hefty thighs.  A monarch wandered around the yard, noticing the milkweed but not stopping.  Maybe it just needed nectar and we lacked flowers.  As a result, I was lucky to get an orange blur.  I also saw a cabbage white, a duskywing, and a dark butterfly, either a red spotted purple or a black swallowtail.  Small wasps or flies and a Guinea paper wasp hunted through the overgrown, gone-to-seed plants. 

The dogwood berries tempted more birds than the barkbutter balls.  Even the juvenile cardinal tried the berries.  However, a mockingbird preferred beautyberries.  I saw a Carolina wren in the dogwood but it was preening, not eating.  A dove foraged under the seed feeder.  Then I saw a bird that was new to me. I took many pictures as it ate many dogwood berries.  According to iNaturalist, it was a rose breasted grosbeak in winter drab. 

A leaf that must have gotten caught in a web fluttered very convincingly and I wasted many pixels.  Some kind of insect had nibbled a bigger leaf into the shape of a smaller which left a lot of stem to snag.  Clouds blew in from the Northeast but only briefly interrupted the sunshine.  Down at ground level the air was warm with a light breeze.  In the late afternoon, the kingfisher returned to a dock post.  A female mallard slept on the back of the bench. 

Warm sun

Initially, the sky had looked gray but it soon brightened.  The female downy breakfasted on seeds.  Below, the immature male cardinal foraged for himself.  His beak color was definitely getting more adult.  At lunch a small flock of doves showed up.  Maybe they were a family having a spa day.  One sunbathed while others preened.  

A Carolina wren popped up and disappeared just as quickly.  Blue jays rushed around but never stopped for barkbutter balls while I was watching.  I thought I saw a nuthatch but it was a chickadee head-down on a pine trunk.  I wonder if it was caching seeds in the rough bark.  

A red spotted purple rested on a hackberry twig.  It was dingy and tattered but in different places from the one I saw yesterday.  Thin clouds like chalk smudges on a blue board were followed by wispy jellyfish, then a cumulus cloud all from the West.  I came inside for a meeting and never got back.  By evening the sky had clouded over.  And when I wasn't looking, a whole dish of barkbutter balls disappeared.  

Bright sunshine

At breakfast, the creek was a glowing mirror.  A mockingbird scowled from the hummingbird feeder hanger.  Maybe its loose feathers itched.  I did not see a hummer this week.  The feeder might attract a migrant but the local nesters must have have gone South.  The adolescent male cardinal was still begging food from his poor tired mother.  

A cloudless sulphur flew past and a red spotted purple landed on a dogwood branch.  The purple had a notch bit out of one wing.  A kingfisher rested atop one of the posts on the neighbor's floating dock.  I accidentally caught a fish jumping as I photographed the bird!  

Summer's end

The pool was closed today.  Te workers frightened the birds away and made me very sad.  

Dark

Thick cloud cover kept the light low.  Overnight rain never really dried off and then we got more rain.  The dark of the moon was abetted by the wind to push the tide over the dock.  Southern purple mint moths flew anyway.  Because of the rain I left the barkbutter dish empty.  The female downy had seeds along with chickadees and titmice.  Toward evening, a great blue heron surveyed the creek from a post.