Humid

While not especially hot, today was stuffy with humidity.  The hibiscus had another flower today, the third in a row.  Lots of cherries were on the ground and in the water, but I didn't see as many birds eating them.  I spotted a downy woodpecker doing chin-ups in the tree.  A catbird popped up on the fence.  Something that I think was the kingbird perched atop the redwood, briefly.  A hummer visited the feeder but didn't feed, so I will replace the sugar water tomorrow.  A Carolina wren was more satisfied with barkbutter balls and a brown headed nuthatch with seeds.  A crow hesitated, but finally ate K's peanuts.  A songbird chased a bigger bird into the trees too fast for me to react. 

I rescued three mama spiders and a very big scarab beetle, also smaller scarab and ground beetles.  The humidity brought dragonflies.  A female blue dasher used one of my perches.  A female great blue skimmer used another perch.  And prince baskettails zoomed overhead.  A tiger swallowtail and a small pale butterfly moved too fast for a picture.  I found a firefly under a gladiolus leaf.  A snail floated in the water but I suspect it was a land snail so I rescued it, maybe. 

Green Junebug

A crow joined the cherry eaters.  It landed almost on top of a mockingbird.  Chickadees and titmice liked the cherries too.   A brown headed nuthatch was only interested in seeds.  Something ate the sunflower petals then broke the stalk. 

While in the pool, I fished out a spider I thought had drowned, but it recovered as soon as it was in the air.  The usual beetles needed help but a green June beetle, Cotinus nitida, had rescued itself.  It was the first I'd seen this year.  Later a tiger swallowtail flitted through the trees.  A thread-waisted wasp enjoyed the mountain mint.  And underneath, I found an infant Argiope in its web. 

In the front yard, a rainlily bloomed.  Skippers fed on the lantana. And in an arc around where the oak used to be, white mushrooms the size of saucers spread their parasols.   The stalk had a ring but I didn't see a cup and I thought the gills bruised blue.  However, the best fit I could find online was Chlorophyllum molybdites which is poisonous.  By evening the sky was clear except for fiery clouds on the Western horizon.  

 

Hibiscus blossom

The crow perched on the railing and thought about the food in the hanging dishes.  I think this was early for the hibiscus to bloom, and the plant was quite small so far this year - only two stalks instead of a half dozen and not very tall.  I didn't see the flower until I was in the water.  The usual beetles were swimming along with things I don't rescue.  Something eating cherries dropped some in the water.  The mockingbird I saw cherry picking was careful.  A Carolina wren was only interested in barkbutter and mealworms.  A brown headed nuthatch wanted seeds.  A hummer disdained the sugarwater so I discarded it.  I glimpsed butterflies and prince baskettail dragonflies.  The milkweed had more buds.  The noon sky was full of wispy patterns.  A shower in the afternoon kept me inside. 

Cherry pickers

A pair of Carolina wrens showed up at breakfast.  Because of the weather forecast and the evil fly I swam in the morning.  There were a good many May beetles needing rescue and one very small mama spider.  I glimpsed a butterfly but, surprisingly, no Odonata.  A skipper found the first flowers on the mountain mint.  An egret stalked along the bullkhead.  The crow came looking for treats.  

In the afternoon, birds feasted on the wild cherry.  I saw mockingbirds, chickadees, cardinals, and some I wasn't sure about, maybe an Eastern kingbird?  A bluebird looked around before joining the cherry pickers.  The recent rains plumped up the cherries which had been wizened and tough in the drought.  The blueberries seemed to be waiting for more encouragement.  Scientific American reported that there is a structure in plant cells that reacts to the sound of falling rain.  DEQ had not lifted the drought warning despite the recent rain. It still only accumulated to 2/3 of the average for the first half of the year.  Today's rain arrived around 3pm.  

!@#$% fly

For various reasons I didn't swim till late in the day.  There was still a lot of tree trash in the water but also some interesting critters.  I rescued a bumblebee, a mama spider, a robber fly, and numerous scarabs.  The twig I propped on the ladder gave escape to a beetle and a spider.  I found an odd-looking insect on a floating leaf.  It appeared to be a small yellow-green fly but the hind legs were splayed like a frog.  It didn't move and its wings may have been stuck to the leaf.  But as I was looking at it, a tabanid fly came at me.  It chased me dripping all the way to the house and I left puddles inside.  I have no trouble understanding why Beelzebub is demon.  And that is why I got no pictures.

Rodent robbery

The squirrel continued to raid the blue dish.  In fact, the last I saw, it had been overturned.  Meanwhile, a Carolina wren  stayed above on the glass dish.  I saw cardinals and finches on the seed feeder.  It was a nice day though cloudy but when I got home I wasn't feeling well enough to go outside.  

 

The tale of squirrel and crow

After the storm it was much cooler and very nice.  The crow came looking for a handout.  The squirrel helped itself to the birds' food in the hanging dishes.  The crow watched and thought about trying to do the same but didn't quite figure out how.  At one point they were nearly nose to beak and the squirrel was feeling feisty.   The pool was full of water and detritus.  I helped a bumblebee and a wasp and a few beetles.   A skink rushed across the steps faster than I could focus.  

Donner und Blitzen

A small sunflower bloomed yesterday.  Then it rained substantially overnight.  More was predicted so I swam in the morning.  Beetles, ants, wasps, and roaches were afloat but I only rescued beetles.  Afterward, I glimpsed a dragonfly and a cabbage white.  The New England aster was blooming.  So was the beautyberry.  At lunch, crows and squirrels ate mealworms.  Carolina wrens and bluebirds were unhappy that the dishes were covered against future rain.  A blown leaf fragment fooled me into thinking it was a mantis.  

A thunderstorm arrived around 2:30pm  and rain hammered the pavement.  By 3pm the thunder was loud and the lightning close, while the light was very low.  We lost Internet connectivity for about 22 hours.

Solstice

I swam in the morning while there was still some shade and rescued a handful of brown scarab Phyllophaga May beetles and one ladybug.  I think the ladybug was dead though.  A tiger swallowtail tried to wrestle nourishment out of a fancy daylily.   The beautyberry started to blom.  We went to a sunset vigil and a mockingbird circled overhead.  The first quarter moon had a faint halo.  

 

Hot

The day was sunny and hot.  I had a morning meeting so I waited till late afternoon to swim. Wasps were active and one head-butted my foot.  Another climbed a dragonfly perch.  I rescued many scarab beetles, some were plain brown and others were bronze flecked.  A damselfly watched for small fliers.  I glimpsed a yellow butterfly but couldn't say what it was.  

Rain

I woke up to rain which was welcome because this year has been too dry.  A female pileated woodpecker pecked at the suet during a lull.  The rain stopped  before lunch and a family of awkward fledgling titmice came for seeds.  The sun came out in the late afternoon.  A skink ambled along a timber.  

Widow skimmer

I first saw the dragonfly in the front yard yesterday as I drove in.  But when I took the camera to look for it, I couldn't find it.  This morning as I dripped after swimming, it was in the back yard fighting a strong, gusty wind.  I picked the first blueberries, only a small handful. A brightly colored stinkbug flew off of the bush.  A largus bordered plant bug was drowned.  Lots of scarab beetles and one black ground beetle survived dunking.  I had hoped the wind would keep biting bugs away but one got in my face and I may have drowned it.  Birds were scarce.  

Too much running around

Yesterday the money plant pods were fully dried and ready to disperse seeds.  A green pod appeared on the milkweed.  The sky was mostly cloudy.  I saw a young rabbit on my way home. Today, instead, I saw an egret perched on something sticking up out of Pretty Lake.  

At home, a Carolina wren visited the glass dish.  A mockingbird followed but the crow stuck to the easy pickings off the patio.  I rescued many beetles but left alone a yellow fly, a bit bigger than a housefly but the same shape.  The New England aster began to bloom and there were tiny pink buds on the beautyberry and the mountain mint.  I saw a skink but it hid behind foliage.  Wasps were busy.  

Pleasant

Today was cooler, sunny, and very nice.  Nevertheless I waited till late to swim because biting flies terrorize me.  I saw damselflies and rescued very large ants.  Spiders took care of themselves.  Dragonflies patrolled the sky.  

Flies and other fliers

In the morning a brown thrasher visited.  A bluebird investigated the blue dish and found a tidbit.  The furnace heat returned.  I was tabling again, this time mid afternoon on a hilltop.  Fortunately we had a tent.  An ambulance came for someone a few tents away.  Thunderheads crowded the horizon, but nothing happened before I left.  The car thermometer crept up to 100 on the way home.  

K said I looked bedraggled.  I got into the water and soon felt better.  And I rescued a damselfly.  It perched on my finger and used its long abdomen to unstick its wet wings.  Then it flew.  A beetle I rescued also flew away.  Other rescuees may not have made it.  There were more beetles, flying ants or sweat bees, and of course spiders. A blue dasher kept watch from a low perch.  As I sat to drip off, I was attacked by a Tabanid fly, a deer fly, I think, as I didn't see green eyes.  So I dashed dripping indoors.  Not too long after that, we had a short rain shower.  

Pileated woodpecker

Temperatures in the 80s were a relief.  A female pileated woodpecker visited and hopped on the patio.  They are not built for walking.  I wonder if it was the fledgling?  At lunch a mockingbird visited.  Afterward, I had a swim and evicted a few beetles and an indignant spider.  A tiger swallowtail flitted overhead.

Then I went off to help table at an event at the zoo.  I didn't visit the zoo's animals but watched an aerial ballet of dragonflies.  Crows gathered on the dead top of conifer, maybe a spruce.  As we left at twilight, a rabbit dashed across the walkway.  I saw some swifts picking up the insect patrol as the dragonflies retired.  But I was plagued with fleas or noseeums out in the grassy field where the tables were.  I had forgotten to spray myself before leaving home.  

 

102°F

After waiting to swim till late in the afternoon, I rescued a lot of beetles and a few spiders, including one woodlouse hunter.  The beetles were mostly black ground beetles along with one scarab.  A damselfly watched from the pool edge but paid no attention to a fly.  A squirrel drank from the ant moat.  A crow bathed on the top step of the pool.  

 

Fierce heat

A crow got breakfast where K had scattered barkbutter balls on the patio.  I noticed it had some white spots on its right wing.  A mockingbird ate from the dish which I refilled.  So did a bluebird.  There was water in the birdbath from yesterday's rain and enough humidity to keep it from evaporating.  

The temperature rose so fast that I went swimming in the morning while there was still shade.  Storm winds had re-trashed the water with leaves, needles, catkins, bark, and unidentified tree fragments.  I rescued a bumblebee, a huge black ant, and three black beetles, but mostly I just kept sweeping up armloads of vegetative detritus.  

The thermometer registered 98°.  Only chickadees and titmice came out in the midday sun.  I also saw a few wasps and one tiger swallowtail, but no dragonflies.  Later in the afternoon, a fledgling crow begged outside my window.  Its parent was refusing to feed it but keeping an eye on it.  

At supper, a brown headed nuthatch joined the queue for seeds.  A Carolina wren shopped around the feeders.  

 

Rain

A brown thrasher showed up early.  Goldfinches paid a brief visit. A mockingbird inspected the barkbutter balls.  A brown headed nuthatch got a turn at the feeder and then dropped its seed.  A bluebird watched.  The day was warmer than I expected under a mostly cloudy sky with a strong West wind.  One source predicted a thunderstorm but another said no rain.  

When I swam, there was even a little sunshine.  I rescued a spider and the biggest camel cricket I've seen.  It stupidly jumped back into the water so I rescued it twice.  I regret not having the camera.  The wind dumped a lot of tree detritus into the water, mostly from the red cedar.  After I got out and was dripping off, the light suddenly dropped and I hurried inside.  We got measurable rain, some lightning, and high winds.  A mockingbird ventured out but the barkbutter was soup.  

 

Dragonflies

I woke up at dawn to a red gold sky but turned over and went back to sleep.  By lunch, a beautiful, sunny, breezy day had warmed into the mid 80s.  The sky was hazy with contrails unraveling into ribbons of white fuzz.  I saw an osprey but wasn't quick enough for a photo.  A Carolina wren, a mockingbird or two, cardinals, chickadees, titmice, a crow, and an extended family of house finches all wanted to be fed.  A downy was too wary while I was outside.  

I saw a little butterfly (again) and a tiger swallowtail.  Prince baskettails patrolled at treetop height and a blue dasher monitored ground level from a perch.  Wasps were plentiful.  I rescued a spider and a beetle.  A bluetailed skink dashed across the patio from mountain mint to azalea.  The haze became a white sky by 5pm and the temperature dropped into the 70s.  

Goldfinch pair

The temperature dropped overnight and only rose into the low 70s during the day.  I stayed out of the water.  K put a fresh feeder out and a female hummer visited.  I poured some barkbutter balls on the ground for crows.  There were white flecks on one crow's right wing.  A crow took a bath but I don't know if it was the same one..  

A pair of goldfinches checked out the dishes but not the seeds.  Bluebirds, mockingbirds, and a blue jay came for barkbutter balls.  The tallest mountain mint stalks began to turn whitish.  

Still hot

 A Carolina wren came for lunch.  So dis the mama squirrel with the odd fur patch.  I waited to swim till the trees shaded the water.  A damselfly was in the usual place.  A small crab spider scuttled along the pool edge.  A lacewing was stuck to the wall but it did not seem to be alive.  A moth afloat looked very battered.  I rescued several black beetles.  A mockingbird visited several times.  An assassin nymph lurked on the mountain mint.  A brown thrasher skulked under the sakaki.  

 

Scorcher

Bluebirds got away before I was ready but a Carolina wren, a blue jay, and a mockingbird were more cooperative.  The male cardinals continued their routine of stealing seeds and hot pursuit.  The afternoon temperature was in the upper 90s and, despite haze, the sun felt like a furnace.  I waited for shade before getting in the water.  A spider with a load of babies was willing to be rescued but a male was  suspicious.  I didn't see much else in the water.  After sunset I saw fireflies. 

 

Pileated females

A Carolina wren greeted sunshine under a hazy sky.  A nervous cardinal grabbed a seed but son the dominant male chased him off.  The dominant pair then kissed beaks.  A house finch landed on the hummer feeder for no good reason.  Another squirrel misjudged its jump and fell, this time out of the redwood so at least thirty feet, but I didn't see a corpse.  A crow felt the need of another bath.  

I saw a tiger swallowtail and the little butterfly I guessed was an azure.  Four spiders needed to be evicted from the skimmer.  I also removed a couple of scarabs from the water.  A mosquito (or something with an interest in my blood) was annoying till I managed to splash it.  As I dripped afterward, a female squirrel - the one with the odd patch of pale fur - came close  in order to forage under the feeder.  A brown thrasher was more cautious.  

Two apparently female pileated woodpeckers landed.  One ate suet while the other sat on the roof and watched.  I guessed the one of the roof was a fledgling, no longer being fed by mama.  Sunset turned rose and purple but I didn't bestir myself for any pictures.  

 

Towhee

The morning creek was flat and shiny. Squirrels were play-chasing and one fell. It disappeared behind dogwood foliage and there was some thrashing so I guess that broke its fall.  But I never saw it emerge.  Another squirrel began eating barkbutter balls.  So much for "hot pepper!"  A gladiolus stalk in the front yard bloomed, as did two different daylily plants along the pool.  

Bluebirds appeared at lunchtime.  A mockingbird followed on the barkbutter dish.  And then a male towhee popped up in the mulch!  It was excessively camera-shy.  Because of meetings scheduled later, I went swimming in the early afternoon with no shade from the sun.  There was nothing but beetles, spiders, a mosquito, and little wasps in the water.  I glimpsed a tiger swallowtail.  

Bright sunshine

A bluebird appeared before lunch.  I hadn't seen any for a while.  He had some trouble with the perch rolling over.  A Carolina wren persisted despite a cranky cardinal.  Something landed on the hummer feeder but it wasn't a hummingbird.  Maybe that wren?  The crow had its beak open but it was sitting in the sun.  I saw a tiger swallowtail, a smaller yellow butterfly, and a little pale butterfly.  None of them posed.  The coral honeysuckle continued to flower as a backup for the feeder.  I went swimming and pool cleaning but only found one scarab beetle.  

 

Pairs

I didn't even try to get wet today.  The temperature barely rose into the 70s and the wind was harsh.  A Carolina wren made several visits.  The wind blew up its skirts like Marilyn Monroe.  A squirrel sat on the feeder keeping the birds away.  Then it ate more "hot pepper" suet.  Later a downy had some suet too.  

The mockingbird pair came for barkbutter balls.  The cardinals courted.  An osprey plunged into the creek but I couldn't tell if it caught anything.   

 

Chilly water

The brown thrasher pair nibbled at the barkbutter balls K put out for the crow.  The crow did get some to.  Mockingbirds and blue jays preferred to eat from the hanging dishes but the mockingbird also ate some on the ground.  When the food on the ground was gone a brown thrasher protested.  When I got in the water, the sky had become clouded and the wind had grown stronger.  I rescued an assassin bug, a crane fly, a robber fly, a scarab beetle, a spider, and something that looked like a sawfly.  None of them hung around for a portrait.