De gustibus non est disputandum

I caught two frogs this morning but neither offered to eat the mosquito that was bugging me.  I also, gingerly, fished out some small wasps.  Something has been eating green dogwood berries and dropping bits around the skimmer.  As I came dripping up the steps, I saw a small monarch caterpillar on the butterfly milkweed.  Looking closer, I found three more.  They seemed to prefer eating flowers instead of leaves.  I suppose that could be because their mouths are still small and the petals are thinner.  Or, maybe there is some advantage to stopping the milkweed from blooming?  

A robber fly lurked on the railing.  The Argiope was missing again.  K refilled the seed feeder, changed the ant moat water, and took down the suet cage.  We could hang a second hummer feeder but that has to be changed a lot more often than suet and I'm no longer surefooted enough. 

 

Pleasant

Sunshine was reflected by the quiet creek.  K put peanuts for the crow but two squirrels squabbled over them till they were all gone.  Titmice came early for seeds.  Then, at lunch, a mockingbird was determined to get barkbutter balls, even while K was outside at the grill.  A bumblebee staggered across the patio - too much mountain mint?  I saw hummers at the feeder several times throughout the day.  Also, a monarch and a tiger swallowtail flitted past but only the fiery skippers posed.  

In the afternoon, fluffy cumulus blew past from the WNW.   A skink lay on the step wall mostly in the shade.  I discovered that the Argiope was not missing.  It had simply moved to the other side of its web.  A hummer guarded the feeder from an old hibiscus stalk.  A robber fly and a lacewing did not revive after I fished them out of the water.  I twice caught a frog but I think it was the same frog.  

 

Sunny

The sky was hazy with fuzzy cumulus coming from the West.  It was a little too warm and humid to be pleasant, unless in a swimsuit.  I caught three frogs and sent them away.  One seemed to be in poor shape so I carried it to the birdbath in the hope that rainwater would wash off the pool chemicals.  Other than that, there were beetles.  On the mountain mint there were the usual bees and wasps and a skipper.  A Yellow-legged Mud-dauber Wasp found something interesting in the patio surface.  Some other wasps and bees were acting oddly too.  

I saw an orange butterfly (monarch?) and a yellow (tiger swallowtail?), neither of which cooperated.  Little skinks teased the camera.  I could not find the Argiope.  A great egret rested on the dock.  A very high-flying bird might have been a swallow.  A mockingbird looked grumpy from molting.  It dined on barkbutter balls.  

Cloudy

I planted the seed from the daylily pod before swimming.  The water was full of beetles and frogs.  I lost count of the beetles but there were three frogs, one dead, one that was none too lively, and one that seemed OK.  Of course there was a mosquito.  Back on terra firma I found the Argiope doing well, bees and wasps enjoying the mountain mint and milkweed.  A fiery skipper preferred the mountain mint even though it would have been camouflaged on the milkweed.  Then I noticed a common whitetail dragonfly on the top of the retaining wall.  A little later, a skimmer claimed the garden stake.  A skink crept out of the vegetation over by the hummer feeder.  Chickadees came for seeds despite my presence, but other birds stayed away.

In the front yard, a rainlily popped up at the end of the dry creek bed.   And a second crop of fairy ring mushrooms appeared like mourners around the spot where the oak died from emerald ash borers.  We got a tornado warning after dark but we didn't get any high winds here.  

 

Tiger, tiger, beetle bright

Rain was predicted so I got outside early.  The mountain mint was busy with bees and wasps.  I wanted to see the camera trap and also to collect a seedpod from one of the daylilies so I walked around the pool.  Frog legs were sticking out from under the coping. Then the frog noticed me and dived.  Slowly, without moving, it drifted back to the surface, but I was waiting.  

I found another in the skimmer and two while I was swimming.  I also found a damselfly that I fear was beyond revival and a metallic green tiger beetle that did revive.  The pair of Carolina wrens visited the dish feeders.  A light rain started right after I came inside.  It didn't amount to much but the day was mostly gloomy from then on.

First frog

The sun was back and the North wind blew fluffy clouds across a blue sky.  Naturally that kept the temperature lower.  Despite all the recent rain, July was still below average and the year five inches below - 21" to 26".  Two hummers were attracted to the hibiscus blossom and the feeder, so one chased the other and neither fed.  Squirrel hanky-panky shook the cherry tree.  I saw a tiger swallowtail and a blue dasher and, of course, bees and wasps.  A great blue heron sat on a piling and a gull flew past.  Magnified by its shadow, a tiny skink crossed the wall of the house.  

The Argiope was still in the azalea and getting to look more adult.  Later when there was some shade, I worked on cleaning the tree scraps out of the water, There were lots of beetles, ants, a drowned stinkbug, and I rescued a small wasp.  Mosquitoes were annoying.  I saw something larger floating in the deep end and thought at first it might be a big moth on its back.  Instead, it was a small frog, right side up and arms spread wide.  It was fairly naive and I had no trouble evicting it.  I'd have liked to have kept it around to eat mosquitoes but I worried that the pool chemicals would poison it.  

Afterward, as I dripped and watched the bees and a skipper in the milkweed, a hummer joined them.  She also sampled the mountain mint.  Alas, she was far too close for the camera to focus.  When she flew off, I turned around and surprised another skink that darted under the azalea.  A fledgling cardinal lurked in the dogwood.  

Dank

The hibiscus picked a poor day to bloom.  Rain slowly turned into drizzle.  The air was cool and damp and still.  Chickadees and titmice and occasional cardinals came for seeds.  The dish feeders stayed covered.  A hummingbird cussed out a chickadee.  The hummer visited both the milkweed and its feeder throughout the day.  A great blue heron landed up in the trees with a raspy honk.  A parade of squirrels leapt between the redwood and the hickory.  Some squirrels fed on either the immature seeds or the flower buds in the dogwood.  The Argiope was still hanging out in the azalea, but no sign of the orchard spider.  I didn't see any insects.  

Camera trap

The rain really lowered temperatures.  Apparently, it also caused the orchard spider to disappear.  Instead, I found an Argiope in the azalea and a messy funnel web in the camellia.  A skipper joined the bees and wasps.  Female slaty skimmer and blue dasher dragonflies kept watch.  A tiger swallowtail sailed around the trees.  A hummer discovered that I'd put out fresh sugar water.  A Carolina wren was hard to see in the dogwood.  

In the afternoon, a guy from the gray fox research project showed up to place a camera trap.  After reading about the project, I had filled out their form inviting them to do so.  The last time I saw a fox in the yard was before COVID, but we can hope.  The pool water was full of beetles and tree trash.  All week, I'd been seeing hackberry leaves attached to shattered galls.  Today an intact one was floating so I fetched it out for a photo.  There were actually two different galls by two different species of Pachypsylla, psyllids, a large brown ball and a small green nipple.   A widow skimmer stood guard on a garden stake.  The day was mostly sunny with a breeze from the Northeast that felt chilly on wet skin.  I saw a swallow flying but wasn't fast enough with the camera.  A heron watched me from atop a piling.  

De-tree-tus

The rain finally stopped mid day.  It had reached flood stage in the pool.  And when I went for a late afternoon swim, leaves and seeds and needles and less identifiable tree trash were afloat or sunk to the bottom.  All I saw was May beetles and a pesky mosquito.  There was no sign of the orchard spider and the mountain mint had few visitors.  And there were no photos.

More rain

The hibiscus bloomed and a titmouse came for breakfast.  A hummer fed from the milkweed and the feeder. At lunch, the sun came out and a tiny skink appeared.  The squirrel raided the seed feeder again.  A skipper drank mountain mint nectar.  

Hornets

I got a swim but not much else on a day full of disruption.  Many beetles were also swimming and there were lots of leaves in the water.  One insect was kicking up tiny waves so I approached it carefully with a twig.  It was a bald faced hornet and after some preening it took off.  I found another afloat that was clearly dead.  I've no idea where they might be nesting.  bees and wasps enjoyed the mountain mint.  

 

Dragonfly rescue

Yesterday's rain filled the birdbath.  A hummer visited the milkweed again and then moved on to the feeder.  As I started to get into the water I was attacked by a tabinid fly.  I retreated and came back with bug spray.  When it came for me again, I gave it a dose.  I didn't see it after that but swimming was kind of stressful.  When I started to clean the skimmer, I found a dragonfly afloat and fished it out.  I assumed it was dead but it slowly revived and flew away after a couple of hours, around the time the rain started.  iNaturalist suggested it was a Two-striped Forceptail Aphylla williamsoni.  Other than that, there were just a few beetles swimming.  

A tiny skink emerged from the step wall.  It was so small that at first I thought it was a worm.  The orchard spider and the bees and wasps on the mountain mint were about the same.  K decided to pick figs despite them being rain-soaked and got quite a haul.

Figs

In the morning, the sun spotlighted the orchard spider.  I checked out the fig trees because I wondered about the effects of the drought.  They were ripening and then drying right on the branches.  Neither birds not insects seemed to have paid them much attention, though something I couldn't see was moving around in the higher foliage. And I startled a large insect in a nearby (not fig) bush.  My picking was well-timed as rain fell in the afternoon and evening.  Probably the ripe figs I couldn't reach will rot.  

Judging from paw prints and sand, a raccoon had been washing its supper on the pool step.  My only rescues from the water were a couple of beetles and a spider.  I saw egrets flying and a blue jay that may have been headed for the figs.  A skink came out and basked on the step.  During lunch we saw a hummer visit the milkweed and a palamedes swallowtail fly quickly across the patio.  Titmice squabbled over the feeder.  

Wind shift

The wind swung around to the Southwest which cleared the air, but heated it.  I got my swim in the morning.  Several May beetles needed rescue.  I also fished out drowned camel and field crickets and a big mulch roach.  A small brown diamond clung to the wall.  When I touched it with a twig, legs popped out and it transformed into a spider..  (Always use a twig!)  Bees and wasps worked on the milkweed and mountain mint.  The orchard spider worked on its  web.  A late daylily bloomed behind where the primroses had been.  I fear it's getting too little sunlight there.  There was a hibiscue blossom as well.  

Smoke

Code red air quality alert issued in Hampton Roads due to wildfires.  The wildfires are more than a thousand miles away but the thick haze was very apparent beginning yesterday.  While I couldn't smell anything, I coughed and my eyes felt irritated while I was outside.  A widow skimmer stood guard on one of the perches but something bit me anyway.  I rescued a brown click beetle that had wedged itself into a crevice and would have starved or fallen into the water.  A mama spider hid behind a stick I had placed to help insects crawl out of the water.  I also fished out an acorn weevil.  

A hummer got a good, long drink.  There seemed to be fewer bees and wasps on the mountain mint today.  The orchard spider's web was a mess but the spider seemed fine.  The drought had leaves turning.  

Arthropoda

I got in a nice, early swim which was fortunate for a crane fly, a tiny moth, camel and field cricket nymphs, and a big May beetle.  A larger moth and a robber fly were, alas, defunct.  I did not rescue a Japanese beetle.  More interesting insects feasted on the mountain mint and the butterfly milkweed.  The green bee was back along with several other kinds of small bee.  A feather-legged scoliid wasp joined the thread-waisted wasps.  A Macrosiagon dimidiata beetle also fed there.  The orchard spider prospered but I fear the Argiope must have been eaten.  

The fallen cherries were fewer but instead there were hackberry leaves with what looked like shattered galls.  The beautyberry was finished blooming and was making little green berries. Two blossoms opened on the hibiscus.  As I ate supper, I could see a dragonfly in each stake, except when they dashed after prey.  The blue dasher took the shorter stake and the slaty skimmer the larger.   I took that as testimony that it was buggy outside.  Besides, it was very hot and we are at the edge of the smoke hazard from Canadian wildfires.  

Green bee

I thought I would have no pictures today, but then I saw a little green bee at work on the butterfly milkweed.  The orchard spider was still in roughly the same spot.  There wasn't anything of interest in the water.  The usual bees and wasps fed on the mountain mint.  A hummer visited the feeder and K fed the crow.  

 

Ultraviolet sky

The sun burned in a clear ultra-blue sky, but a breeze from the North kept the temperature pleasant. The squirrel Einstein was back.  A tiger swallowtail stayed a flit ahead of the camera.  A cabbage white was more willing to pose.  A hummer visited the milkweed.  Its feeder was dry so I put out fresh but I don't know if it noticed.  Chickadees and titmice were very busy at the seed feeder.  A titmouse that was molting looked very untidy.  

I had a mixed-up schedule that put me in the water with little shade.  A few beetles needed rescue.  A dragonfly zigzagged inches above the water.  Meanwhile, the bees and wasps made drama on the mountain mint.  Thread-waisted wasps were mating.  The common whitetail zoomed across the patio and out of sight.  All was well with the orchard spider but I couldn't see the Argiope.  

Dragonflies

I was gone in the morning.  At lunch, a male widow skimmer used one of the bamboo stake perches.  Then I had an afternoon meeting so my swim was late.  More beetles, including a weevil, to rescue but not much else.  After I got out, I saw one or more dragonflies hunting over the pool. It (or they) zipped erratically at about dogwood height, apparently seeing lots of prey, but I never saw a dragonfly land.  I just had an impression of a pale tan body with no markings.  The sky had clouded over so the light level wasn't very high.  

I went outside hoping to get a picture of the dragonfly, but no luck.  Instead, a hummingbird visited the milkweed, then came and gave me a thorough examination, and moved on to the feeder.  I didn't see what happened next as I was staying still in the hope of not spooking it.  There were honeybees and leaf-cutter bees on the mountain mint.  At supper time, a male goldfinch visited. 

 

A genius among squirrels

Crows cam looking for peanuts at breakfast.  Birds, and squirrels, continued to eat cherries, though fewer remain on the tree.  A very athletic squirrel hung by its toes from the feeder roof so that only part of its weight rested on the perch and thus did not trip the counterweight that closes access to the seed trough.  At least once, the toes lost their grip and the squirrel landed in the mulch.  But back up it went for another try.  Toward evening, a great blue heron perched on a dock piling.  

 

Shower

I got caught in a downpour while returning from a meeting and it followed me home.  As a result, I was late swimming.  There were more May beetles, a green stink bug nymph, and a greenhouse millipede.  And mosquitoes, of course.  The usual insects fed on the mountain mint and milkweed.  The spiders were in about the same spots.  I was frustrated by a common whitetail dragonfly that refused to let me get any pictures.  I got flashes of the black patches on its wings but mostly identified it by behavior.  There aren't many dragonflies that perch on the ground.  

 

Steamy

Another steamy day brought the same bugs and not many birds.  I checked that all was well with the garden and orchard spiders.  Bees, wasps, and skippers enjoyed the mountain mint.  In the pool skimmer, I found a cluster of May beetles on top of each other clinging to a pine needle.  It appeared they weighted it down and all drowned.  There's probably a moral there.  A sprinkle fell around 6pm.  

Buggy

The heat returned, this time with humid, sticky air.  We picked blueberries and it was not pleasant.  I was very glad to get into the water and cool off.  The little Argiope seemed settled in among the mountain mint stalks.  The orchard spider also seemed quite settled.  I rescued a small spider that looked like it might grow up to be a marbled orbweaver, or something in the Araneus genus.  Also, I fished out a planthopper, Acanalonia conica, and the usual batch of May beetles.  I tried to get the planthopper to come up to the house for a photo shoot but instead I got to see it fly away.  

The same insects were back on the mountain mint: leafcutter bees, carpenter bees, the hairstreak and the duskywing, and thread-waisted wasps.  A blue dasher obelisked on a twig.   A woodpecker went after cherries.  All I got was blurs, but it might have been a flicker.  Birds were not plentiful.  

Humid

Light rain fell in the morning and the temperature was moderate.  I glimpsed a goldfinch but bigger birds scared it off.  At lunch, K fed the mother and child crows.  A brown thrasher was interested in the leftovers as well as what fell from the seed feeder.  A brown headed nuthatch sneaked around bigger birds to get seeds.  A molting titmouse was more easily intimidated.  

Mist collected on the orchard spider's web. I waited to swim till mid afternoon when surfaces were drier.  The usual beetles were swimming too including a green June beetle.  A duskywing fed on the mountain mint alongside bees and wasps.  They were joined by a gray hairstreak.  The sun began to find loopholes in the cloudcover but mosquitoes were beginning to fine me.  

More birds

Yesterday's thunderstorm brought little water but did moderate the temperature.  A Carolina wren inspected the cinquefoil for anything tasty.  Mockingbirds continued to harvest wild cherries.  A section of the oldest dogwood appeared to be dying. It looked fine all through Spring and early Summer.  Another section died a few years ago.  The mountain mint was stressed by the drought but seems to be recovering.  

The pool yielded nothing but scarab beetles, roaches, and itty-bitty wasps/bees/ants.  A fresh load of cherries were sunk on the bottom.  I did evict one spider.  A duskywing joined the bees ans wasps on the mountain mint.   One funny, little bee did its best to intimidate me.  I found the Argiope which was quite cleverly camouflaged as a stem.  The orchard spider was in the same place as before but the light was wrong to see the web.  A female hummer visited that feeder.  

Then a male pine warbler considered the hanging dishes.  The brown thrasher returned for more cherries.  A white breasted nuthatch was frustrated by a house finch.  Then when it finally got on the feeder perch, a chickadee landed on top of it and the finch attacked them both.  

Thunder

I had a lot of running around town before I could swim.  In the water with me were beetles, tiny bees and wasps, two bumblebees, and too many spiders.  One soon-to-be-mother perched on the twig I had propped on the ladder as an escape route.  She clutched her pearl of eggs with her back legs.  As I dripped off, a hummer visited the feeder.  A brown thrasher, a mockingbird, and other birds visited the cherry tree.  Another hummer tested the milkweed and the roses for nectar.  

The mountain mint hosted carpenter bees and leaf-cutter bees, thread-waisted and scoliid wasps, and skippers.  The orchard spider was still above the azalea.  We had a flower on the hibiscus.  Thunder began in the late afternoon but the sky was blue to the North.  So I looked out the front windows and that was another story.  But the rain didn't reach us till 6pm.  A wren hurried to get some supper.

Butterflies

There was no hibiscus flower today but there was a bud.  The aster was about finished blooming.  The day was still very hot.  A very large bird with dark wings and yellow feet swooped across the yard so fast that those were the only details that registered on my brain.  My first thought was a heron, but it was too dark and the only wading bird with yellow feet that I know of is a snowy egret.  So now my guess is a young eagle.  

In the water, I rescued a bunch of beetles but was too late for a wheelbug nymph and a robber fly.  A mama spider I fished out of the skimmer jumped back in.  The second time I was not gentle and her babies ran in every direction.  Speaking of spiders, the infant Argiope disappeared.  While swimming I saw a monarch descend upon the butterfly milkweed.  Later a black swallowtail wandered from bush to tree around the yard, perhaps wondering why there was no parsley this year.  A duskywing skipper nectared on the mountain mint.  

A dragonfly watched from the top of the cherry tree.  It was silhouetted so all I can say is that it had unmarked wings.  Wasps and bees worked on the mountain mint.  I was particularly happy to see the first great golden digger wasp of the season.  

 

Hottest 4th

A Carolina wren visited before it got too hot.  It hopped, rather than flying, from the lower dish to the upper.  An venusta orchard orbweaver spider constructed an intricate web over the azalea next to the window.  That should work excellently after dark with a light in the kitchen.  For identification, on the Internet I found lots of pictures of the spider but none of the web.

Because of the predicted heat, I went swimming earlier than on previous days.  I fished out two crane flies but only one recovered.  Also, one of the water-walking spiders, but this one had no babies.  Many more May beetles (southern masked chafer Cyclocephala lurida) plus some black ground beetles, a yellow jacket alive and a honeybee dead.  An interesting moth, possibly a tulip-tree beauty Epimecis hortaria secreted itself just below the coping where it was safe from anything not in the water.  Wasps were active but the only other insect I saw was a tiger swallowtail.  

The outdoor thermometer showed 104 at 4pm.  The sky was hazy with thicker patches so the sun was intermittent.  I had changed the hummer feeder in the morning and I thought I glimpsed a hummer, but I'm not sure.  A mockingbird flew into the cherry tree.  A squirrel found K's peanuts but took the last one into the shade to eat.  

Hummingbird

The holiday weekend began today.  By 9am, the air was already hot and stuffy with humidity.  A mockingbird landed on the patio and flashed its wings repeatedly.  It was a youngster - freckled breast, no yellow eye - but flashing is not food begging.  I could not see what set it off and it did not seem fearful as it paused to eat something.  Maybe it was just practicing?  Finally it scared a cardinal off the feeder.  

Then a female hummer visited its feeder and actually fed.  That was a relief because I was beginning to think I needed to toss the whole batch of sugar water.  She looked disheveled and tired.  The pool was full of May beetles.  I stopped counting after I rescued a dozen.  I also very carefully rescued some wasps.  The spider was more of an eviction than a rescue but I am twitchy about swimming with them.  I fished a two-lined spittlebug out multiple times.  Sadly, I found ladybug elytra (the hard wing covers) floating.  A leafcutter bee fed on the mountain mint.  

K experimented and we learned that the crows like peanuts better than barkbutter balls.  Carolina wrens, however, want their barkbutter, so it all works out, except for the squirrels.   A mockingbird took exception to the crow on the roof and buzzed it repeatedly between visits to the cherry tree.  A squirrel also enjoyed the cherries.  There were fireflies after sunset and the air still felt like an oven.  

Pine warbler

There were two hibiscus blossoms today.  A pine warbler came to breakfast.  Then we had a brief shower.  On my way to swim, I saw a tiny green bee on the mountain mint but, alas, didn't go back for the camera. There were many scarab beetles and a few spiders in the water. Afterward, the bee was gone and I only saw a thread-waisted wasp on the mountain mint.  The Argiope had graduated to a zigzag web.  

At lunch I tried to feed a squirrel peanuts but a crow got there first.  K put more out and the crow brought its offspring!  Seeing a bird that big begging was really funny.  And the fledgling knew how to feed itself, it just wanted mama to do it.  A mockingbird flew up into the wild cherry tree.