Autumn chill

The creek glowed at dawn.  Lots of clouds kept the temperature down, or maybe it was the North wind that shoved them along.  I saw a few wasps.  Birds harvested dogwood berries but they were hard to see.  Titmice and chickadees kept the sunflower feeder busy.  There were cardinals too, and the downy was back.  The black cat sat by the pool cover until the dog noticed, then there was a mad dash around the back of the house.  As I drove to a meeting, the sun (when it wasn't blinding motorists) focused golden beams on the underside of a massive cloud.  But I didn't have the camera or a good place to stop.  It was dark when I came home with a bright planet, probably Jupiter, rising in the East and clouds visible from reflected lights.  

Warm and windy

The afternoon was in the low 70s under a clear sky, but the wind thrashed the leaves off trees.  The only birds were ducks and when I looked closely, they were all mallards.  On my way home from a meeting, the moon rose big and round as the sunset after glow faded on the opposite side of the sky.  I waited an hour for the moon to clear the trees, then went out with the camera.  Two planets were bright, Jupiter high and South, Venus low in the West.  The wind drove tattered clouds across them and the moon.  I found a new website for identifying planets. 

Morning rain

The sky cleared earlier than predicted and the afternoon was fine.  A downy woodpecker had serious intentions with regard to the suet.  Other birds flitted through the trees but I couldn't identify them or get a picture. 

After dark the waxing moon was sharp and clear.  A planet was just far enough West of the moon to make it difficult to get both in the frame.  I tried to find out which planet it was and my best guess is Jupiter, but apparently other planets were also in the moon's vicinity.  I didn't see any others.  

Warm sun

More morning reflections under a warm sun.  After lunch a female cardinal stuffed herself with seeds but never lowered her crest.  I couldn't tell if she was alarmed or if her feathers just got stuck in the UP position.  I haven't seen any Fall migrants thus far

The breeze sent leaves fluttering down, each of which looked briefly like a bird.  A grasshopper, I think, glittered in the sunlight as it flew across my view and disappeared somewhere in the vicinity of a dogwood.  Wasps were active though they had given up on the mountain mint.  Yellow jackets were among them.  Lots of butterfly milkweed seeds were nearly ready to float away.  I think they were waiting for lower humidity. 

After dark the first quarter moon was bright despite some haze and a couple of contrails.  Jupiter was trailing the moon.  I really need to use a tripod after dark.  

Solstice

Overnight rain and a gray sky gave no indication that there was such a thing as sun.  But directionless illumination can be good for photography, as long as there is enough light.  Mostly the light was poor today - birds moved faster than the shutter.  

The white throated sparrow showed up first.  Warblers and Carolina wrens attacked the suet.  Then the mockingbird came back for another try.  

Blue jays tried foraging in the mulch.  The feeder counterweight is set too low for them.  The male red bellied woodpecker was soon followed by a downy woodpecker.  And then the cat.  

At lunch, a brown thrasher discovered the fresh bark butter balls. The mockingbird was not impressed.  Pine warblers were getting really bold and challenging larger birds on the suet.  I think a couple of birds were pine siskins.  I wonder if I've been seeing them all along and thinking they were female house finches?

The song sparrow scouted the seed feeder.  I discovered goldfinches up in the sweet gum plucking seeds from the gumballs.  (Gumballs look eerily like diagrams of coronavirus.)  There were flickers of sunlight in the afternoon, but too much cloud cover to think of seeing the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn.  Maybe tomorrow night.  

Hawk attack

The hibiscus was covered with flowers and a daisy decided to bloom again.  A skimmer perched and two yellow-bodied dragonflies darted back and forth about ten feet up in the air.  I had no hope of photographing them.  All kinds of wasps and bees gathered on the mountain mint.

I spent too much of the day inside on video-conferences.  A Coopers hawk crashed into the window behind me. I turned and saw it fly off with empty talons, so no harm done.  Shortly after that I escaped outside to a hot sun in a cloudless sky.  A couple of small butterflies were attracted to the mountain mint.  One was a snout and the other a red-banded hairstreak (Calycopis cecrops).  A black swallowtail laid eggs but a monarch just kept going - male? 

A cricket rescued itself from the water using one of my escape sticks.  I rescued a millipede but it wouldn't wait for a photo.  Huge carpenter bees fed on the tiny mountain mint flowers.  A full grown wheelbug flew in to a landing on a hibiscus bug.  More caterpillars ate rue.

Several skinks were around.  A disheveled bluebird rested on the fence.  A blue jay sampled the melted bark butter.  And then I went back to more meetings.  I did sneak out after dark and catch the moon and Jupiter. 

Rare visitors

We picked the last (probably) of the blueberries and a big bowl of figs.  A spinyback orbweaver protected the figs though it was far to small to catch the wasps and hornets I saw.

I rescued a firefly, so they were still around even though I hadn't seen any flashing in the evening.   A brown thrasher hunted under the sakaki.  A blue dasher used one of my perches while a Halloween pennant rode the top of the hackberry.  A tattered skimmer made short forays from its bamboo perch. 

A zebra swallowtail feasted on the butterfly milkweed until it disappeared in a flurry of hungry birds.  The blue jays and bluebirds wanted bark butter balls so I hope the butterfly just fled. A while later, a monarch arrived on the butterfly milkweed. 

Titmice were content with seeds.  A few hummers visited.  A great crested flycatcher darted around the trees.  A red bellied woodpecker sunbathed up in the oak.

The waxing moon was gradually enveloped in clouds.  A bright Jupiter trailed behind.

Time slipped by

I took pictures but I didn't make time to look at them till now.

July 2: A black swallowtail found the parsley despite the dragon(fly) guarding it.  Mallards had their vacay on the dock.  The sakaki bloomed and hummed with bees and rained spent flowers.  Gladiolus sent up more spears to replace the flowers broken by the rain.  Some wild cherries were ripe.  I think I saw a brown thrasher feeding on them.  The male bluebird posed in the late afternoon sunlight.  I did not get a picture of the two little green herons along the shoreline that K flushed. 

July 3: I went out a little after midnight to look at the night sky.  Jupiter trailed the moon.  At lunch, I saw a blue jay preening.The butterfly milkweed started blooming.  No sign of a bud on any of the other milkweeds.  Papa bluebird was hanging around again.  I rescued what I thought were a couple of assassin bug nymphs but was to late for several more, also for two skinklets.  Matching photos suggests the bugs were leaf-footed bugs, Acanthocephala terminalis.  To me they look like qheuens, an alien species in David Brin's Uplift series.  I also saved a firefly.  A squirrel got into the wild cherries and I found a patch of eggs on a cherry leaf.   

July 4: Another hot, sunny day brought out a few butterflies.  I saw a tiger swallowtail, a cabbage white, and a red admiral.  Blue jays came for bark butter balls.  The orange double daylilies joined the daisies.  While in the pool, I noticed an orange bluet damselfly on the concrete.  A blue jay left a small, bright feather. Illegal fireworks reigned from dusk to about 10:30pm.  I did see the rising moon and Jupiter.  

Predators

The bald male cardinal appeared to be hunting for caterpillars on the butterfly weed.  I hope that they were not all eaten, but I didn't see any.  The usual wasps fed on the mountain mint.  Hummer wars were frequent.  I surprised an night heron and a crow (I think) at the water's edge.  Then I went off to staff a voter registration drive in a hot downtown park with teens performing, loudly.  

After I got home, I went out to check on my favorite spider.  At first all I could see was a moth in the web.   Then the Argiope came climbing up to wrap its prize.  I  could see a planet, presumably Jupiter, in the Southern sky but the moon was waning and in hiding till morning.  I finally found a website for planets with daily updates like the one for the moon.

Blue sky

A very loud thunderstorm struck in the middle of the night and filled all containers with rainwater..  But the wind soon dried things out.  Nevertheless, I was able to pull up some leucojum bulbs.and work up a sweat.  A female hummer tackled the cheap feeder which was swinging in the wind.  It wore her out. 

A night heron waded at low tide. Roses and a day lily opened. I saw bluebirds and dragonflies but got no pictures.  After my evening meeting the sky was very clear.  I tried photographing planets as well as the first quarter moon.  Jupiter was distinctly a disk, not just a point.