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.

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.  

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.  

 

Skinks and squirrels

It was a beautiful day in the shade.  The sun was intense but a nice breeze cooled the air and kept the bugs down.  Clouds floated out of the East.  I swam in the morning to have shade on the water.  The only critters I rescued were some ants, mainly so they wouldn't bite me.  The Argiope spider was in the same spot.  The widow skimmer and other dragonflies hunted from the perches I provided.   Note the pruinose abdomen on this male widow.  A female showed up later.  

A monarch battled with bees and wasps to lay eggs on the butterfly milkweed.  A black swallowtail flitted around but didn't try to lay eggs, so I suspect it was a male cruising for a girlfriend.  Fiery skippers also had to compete with the bees and wasps.  A tiger swallowtail was impossible to catch in a photo.  

I think I saw six skinks of various sizes.  One hungry skink dashed out of cover to snatch something off the concrete practically in front of me.  Another moseyed out from under my chair.  This one had a recent narrow escape.  The squirrels were all tracking their lady love through the trees. 

Cardinals, titmice and one blue jay enjoyed barkbutter balls.   A hummer hunted for a source of nectar in the rosemary.  Then it came for the feeder but I was sitting beside it at that time.  I froze and couldn't roll my eyes far enough so I don't know if it drank from the feeder or not.  Most of the hummer-friendly flowers were done blooming.  In fact, the only flowers left were canna, milkweed, and mountain mint.  A hawk swooped through the yard and I didn't have the presence of mind to take a picture.  I think I caught a barn swallow in flight.  

Pileated family

Wasps enjoyed the mountain mint.  I rescued yet another oriental beetle and some queen ants, but I left the spider on the pool ladder alone.  Mud wasps worked on their nests under the roof overhang.  A bluebird felt that I was too close to the feeder.   The hunchback squirrel I was worried about was afflicted with a warble -- painful but not permanent.  It seems early in the year for that.  

In the afternoon a widow skimmer used a perch in between keeping the patio bug-free.  A blue dasher obelisked on a different stake.  A female great blue skimmer perched half way up the stake.  Different dragonfly species have strong preferences for different heights above ground. 

A Carolina wren pecked at the suet, then was followed by a downy woodpecker.  A brown headed nuthatch scared a cardinal off the seed feeder!  Then the pileated woodpeckers arrived.  I saw one male and two females for certain but there may have been a fourth bird as they moved in and out of view.  A titmouse also visited.  The ground cherry plants,Physalis virginiana, were in bloom.

Elusive butterflies

It was another scorcher so I swam in the morning.  Floating in the water were a queen ant,  a robber fly, a firefly, a woodlouse hunter spider, a largus bug, and many more ants, flies, little wasps, and mulch roaches.  I thought the spider was a goner but when I next checked it had disappeared.  I complained because there weren't any butterflies or dragonflies, but they appeared in the afternoon.  I think I captured a wasp killing another insect, but it might have been mating.  

A blue jay came for barkbutter balls and brown headed nuthatches for seeds.  The sakaki was nearly finished blooming.  A great crested flycatcher made a commotion chasing something through the oak leaves.  A skink wanted to get behind my chair and made a detour through the grass.  A female downy had a go at the suet.  A pair of geese with three half-grown goslings paddled upstream while a fish jumped in the background. 

A tiger swallowtail and a dark butterfly proved impossible to photograph.  Wasps and bees were more cooperative.  A very dark skipper visited the mountain mint.  I could see insects going to the asters but I couldn't tell what they were.  One might have been a Southern purple mint moth and another some kind of beetle.  Prince baskettail dragonflies patrolled the hazy sky.  A different dragonfly perched on a dead twig at the top of the wild cherry.  And a Needham's skimmer used one of the perches.  

Pool rescues

The dew was heavy when I got up but the temperature rose and the humidity dropped.  A brown headed nuthatch, a bluebird, a blue jay, and a Carolina wren visited. I glimpsed egrets flying down the creek.  The nuthatch argued with a titmouse.  A hummer investigated the gladiolus buds and the feeder but didn't stay.  A downy had some suet.  Something dug a tunnel under the grass next to the patio.  In the evening, an egret flew upstream. 

During this morning's swim I saved an ant queen, a two-lined spittlebug, a May beetle, a largus bordered plant bug, and a bumblebee.  Two bumblebees appeared to be clutching each other while drowning.  Using an oak leaf, I fished them out and one revived.  The spittlebug had a tiny ant gripping one of its legs which threw it off balance so it fell in again.  I had never seen a largus bug Largus succinctus before last year.  Wasps and a cabbage white flitted around but I didn't see any other butterflies.  A looper caterpillar drowned.  The baby Argiope spiders continued to lurk under the mountain mint. 

Triple digits

Again, I swam before the heat of the day.  More beetles clung to windblown debris in the water.  I also fished out a living queen ant, very carefully.  I'd been seeing drowned queens but this one was still swimming.  All three Argiope spiders were thriving.  The purple asters were gorgeous.  The lichens on the bench enjoyed the rain and sun.  An Asiatic dayflower bloomed.  Coral lilies made red bead-like seeds.  The ruffled daylily continued to bloom.  The sakaki flowers emitted a wonderful fragrance.  

Whatever the National Weather Service recorded, our outdoor thermometer read 100°.  The wind made it bearable, barely.  The butterfly milkweed stopped blooming.  Its foliage looked lush and not chewed by any caterpillars, alas.  The mountain mint attracted wasps but thus far no butterflies.  Money plant pods looked about ready to disperse seeds.  I thought I saw something on a floating leaf and, sure enough, a damselfly perched there.  My best guess was an immature female Eastern forktail Ischnura verticalis. 

Scorcher

The wind was very strong.  I decided it was safest to swim early before the heat brought out bloodsuckers.  I rescued two bumblebees from the water, very carefully.  Queen ants fell in, drowned, and bloated so their abdominal segments were visible.  Sad but interesting.  I also fished out another oriental beetle.  

When I got out, an Eastern amberwing dragonfly was clinging to the mountain mint, but it didn't wait for me to get the camera.  I found another infant Argiope spider, this one on the aster.  The reddish slime mold looked shriveled.  A larger dragonfly with dark eyes used a garden stake.  It might have been a bar-winged skimmer but I didn't get a good look at the wings.  A skink headed across the patio toward me, then noticed me.  The thermometer registered 97° but the wind made it bearable.  

In the evening, I wasted pixels trying to capture a firefly.  I finally got a golden streak.  

Hazy sky

In the morning, there was a pair of goldfinches. The male took over the feeder and I didn't see the female get anything.  A downy woodpecker returned to the suet.  A monarch butterfly was elusive even though it craved the milkweed.  The orange daylily looked like it was down to its last two flowers, but the ruffled bi-color daylily was still going strong. 

The pool was empty of any living thing but ants.  After I got out, I was sitting beside the hummer feeder when I saw a male hummer on a dead twig at the top of the wild cherry.  Meanwhile, a prince baskettail (Epitheca princeps) and maybe a saddlebags dragonfly were cruising overhead.  And high aloft several birds floated past that were just silhouettes.  The camera developed a problem and I lost the pictures of the soaring birds. 

Brown headed nuthatches paid no attention to me.  Two Carolina wrens arrived later during supper.  A squirrel found where I dumped the hummer juice.  

Delayed post

A male cardinal carried on at breakfast.  Bluebirds came in the late morning.  I saw a Carolina wren earlier but didn't get any pictures till mid afternoon.  Something turned some mountain mint leaves yellow and something snapped one of the hibiscus stalks..  The sky was overcast and the air sticky.  

An egret landed on the dock then changed its mind.  At least three brown headed nuthatches tried to get past a cardinal to the seeds.  A hoard of tiny black ants found the kitchen.  Then the Internet went out in the evening. 

Still chilly

The day looked lovely but the breeze was chilly.  A female bluebird was torn between seeds and mealworms but the male knew what he wanted. Brown headed nuthatches tidied the seed feeder of anything they didn't want.  That made the squirrels happy.  A nuthatch considered the mealworms, but decided against them.  A Carolina wren worked on the suet and flew down to get a dropped crumb.  Chickadees also spent more time with the suet than the seeds. 

A snout butterfly flew in and out of the sakaki but it was very hard to see edge-on.  A very red faced skink cautiously approached me on its way to the shrubbery.  A big oak limb was deeply excavated by woodpeckers.  The tree tried to heal the area but I suspect it will break there one day.    A reddish ant lugged a bit of mealworm some bird dropped.  A stink bug occupied the railing which was an odd location.  A mosquito followed me indoors and I took revenge for the welt on my back. 

Rain at last

The chrysalis I had accidentally pruned eclosed today.  So did another in the mountain mint.  I found tiny ants carting off fragments of what I hope was a third and not either of the two I watched.  Maybe I pruned another and didn't notice?  I was sad the butterfly didn't make it but intrigued that the ants carved up even the wings to carry off. 

The chipping sparrow came back.  It was definitely a juvenile.  (Unless it was a song sparrow that was missing its chest spot?)  A great blue heron flew up into a pine behind the oak and hackberry.  I couldn't see it there but I could hear it grumbling.  Nuthatches visited the feeder and mckingbirds came for a drink, but I didn't see many birds beside the sparrow.  Of course, I didn't put out any barkbutter balls because I expected rain. 

Clouds gathered and dissipated and the temperature reached 90°.   I swam in the morning fearing an afternoon thunderstorm.  There were two frogs to entertain me.  And I extracted that stupid caterpillar from the skimmer again.  I didn't wait around to see if it revived again.  I also fished out a honeybee. 

A tiger, two black and, I think, a palamedes swallowtail all flew past.  So did a cloudless sulphur and a sleepy orange and some smaller lepidoptera I couldn't identify except for a fiery skipper.  The overexposed and blurred photo I got of the Palamedes might have been a giant swallowtail.  No dragonflies, however, and only a few wasps and the Argiope were around as predators.  

After 6pm the light got very low.  Finally rain fell for about half an hour.  Then the sky lightened and the rain slackened but didn't stop. 

Cooler

A female goldfinch visited the seed feeder at breakfast.  Then a hummer arrived.  I was glad to see that the feeder contents had not been diluted in yesterday's rain showers.  At least two hummers were after sugar water - one defended the source and one tried to sneak a drink.  The hibiscus opened a flower with two buds ready for tomorrow.  A slaty skimmer perched briefly but, despite the humidity, the middle of the day was windy which kept the bloodsuckers away.  K dumped two frogs out of the skimmer.  One was back in the pool later so I caught it and evicted it again.  I also rescued a mama spider. 

I counted four monarch caterpillars, each a different stage.  And I found more camouflage loopers.  Southern purple mint moths were on the mountain mint but also in the grass and elsewhere.  A monarch and a red spotted purple crossed the yard without stopping.  One of the Argiope spiders had relocated much higher.  The other two were about the same places as yesterday.  And I finally found the fourth which had been below the hibiscus but had moved up to the wall beside it.  A closer look at the brown caterpillar on the butterfly milkweed made me wonder if it had been zombie-fied by a fungus.  It appeared deflated and there were a tangle of threads all around it.  An ant was investigating.  Other small ants were carrying off sunflower hulls.  In the late afternoon the wind dropped but, from the Southwest, clouds moved to cover the sky.  The no-see-ums came after me so I went inside. 

Still sunny and breezy

The creek was flat and reflective but obscured by leaves so I pay less attention than in the winter.   A hummer came for breakfast.  The juvenile cardinal returned and I was glad to see that the cat hadn't killed it.  At lunch time a pine warbler noticed there were barkbutter balls.  There seemed to be damage to the bird's left eye.  The cardinal that loses his head feathers each summer was bald again. 

A monarch passed through but didn't linger.  Fiery skippers enjoyed the mountain mint alongside the wasps and bees.  A red spotted purple flew straight to the wild cherry.  A black swallowtail went for the rue.  Dragonflies patrolled the upper air and stood watch on the bamboo stakes.  I saw a slaty skimmer and a Needham's skimmer perched. 

While in the pool, I saw a small black wasp dragging a legless cricket.  I saw the same thing yesterday and forgot to mention it.  Today's incident was about 6' from yesterday's, but I'd hate to think it was the same wasp and cricket with so little progress.  I also saw an ant with orange wings which on closer inspection was an ant carrying part of an amberwing dragonfly.  A frog was in the skimmer.  I caught it and made it pose.  As usual, there were beetles needing rescue and spiders resisting it. 

Skink love

A female bluebird came hunting breakfast.  Everything except the seeds was soggy from the overnight rain.  The bird looked to me like it might have been this year's hatching.  I went outside but the humidity was overpowering so I turned right around.  Later when the temperature had risen it was not so bad.  Clouds flowed from the Southwest.  The New England aster put out a second crop of blooms.  

In the pool, I rescued a couple of winged queen ants and a leaf-footed bug.  A sidewalk tiger beetle watched without getting wet.  Dragonflies hunted the little biters that the humidity encouraged.  The mountain mint was covered by the usual bees and wasps, and a blue mud wasp.  A tiny skink climbed the post which wasn't very smart.  A couple of grown up skinks appeared to be courting.  

The white breasted nuthatch was back and I thought I caught sight of a brown headed nuthatch.  Later, the bluebird argued with a cardinal over access to seeds.  The bigger cardinal won.  Meanwhile, the hummer was sadly disappointed in the diluted sugar water.  Later, a wet Carolina wren wanted a turn at the seeds but the cardinal wasn't having that.  Eventually the goldfinch got an opening. 

The clouds thickened and I headed inside but on the door was a black bug outlined in red.  The closest match seems to be the largus bug, Largus succinctus.  Around 3:45pm the rain finally arrived.  It was quite heavy for about ten minutes and continued off-and-on into the evening.  My mother would have called it "raining stair rods," which is so archaic it might as well be ancient Greek. 

Stand-off over suet

A mockingbird tried to nibble on the last of the suet.  A blue jay had the same idea so there was a stand-off.  Later one of the mockingbirds flashed repeatedly.  During a brief moment of sunlight, a female bluebird visited the barkbutter balls.  K rigged a chain to lower the suet cage which I'll soon replace with a hummingbird feeder.  I've had a hummer feeder out for a month but all it attracted were ants.  Vegetation obscured the turtle log so I probably won't see them again till Fall. Overall, this was a gray day with the temperature slowly falling.  Rain finally arrived around 7pm.  

Hummingbird wars

I got up late and the mockingbird and blue jays were already eating.  One of the blue jays was getting bald.  A great crested flycatcher hunted through the trees.  The camera did not want to focus on that bird.  

The hummer feeder was empty. When I refilled it, a male swooped in, but the juice was still refrigerator cold to his disgust.  A little later it was warm enough for females to fight over.  The hibiscus made a second flower and the canna also put out a spike of flowers, as if to advertise the hummer feeder.  One hummer found the hibiscus to be a convenient perch for guarding the feeder.

Again there was no rain nor thunderstorm though the afternoon clouded over.  In the pool, I rescued one mama spider with countless babies, two winged female Camponotus pennsylvanicus ants, a skink, and a green frog.  A little skink crossed the patio one way and a cricket went the other.  A bar-winged skimmer used one of the dragonfly perches. 

One or more white breasted nuthatches made regular visits from mid day on.  Carolina wrens ate whatever wasn't being eaten by a different bird.  Both found the house finches annoying.  The tux cat took up bird-watching again. 

Gusty wind

A monarch visited in the morning.   For some reason is landed on the chewed up hibiscus leaves.  Eventually it relocated to the butterfly milkweed.  I couldn't find the monarch caterpillar so I suppose it is pupating.  

A mockingbird noticed that I had put food out.  It was in the midst of a ragged molt.  The fledgling bluebirds soon followed.  Seeing two of them share strikes me as very uncharacteristic since altricial baby birds are each others' worst competitors.  Adult bluebirds seemed to be keeping watch on the fledglings.  

Again, a female goldfinch visited.  The juvenile cardinal tried to get mama to fetch dinner.  A molting blue jay was late to the party and found the dishes empty again.  I glimpsed a hummer on feeder I replaced. Ants had gotten in the other one.  

In the afternoon, a mostly overcast sky admitted occasional sunshine but on other occasions looked about to rain. Despite a temperature in the low 80s, the wind was cold on wet skin.  The pool was full of pine needles and leaves, but nothing of interest.  Butterflies were undeterred bu the wind.  A couple of tiger swallowtails were actually slow enough that I got photos.  A red spotted purple drank from the pool, but my photos were over exposed.  

 

Ouch!

Goldfinches came to check on the progress of their sunflower.   A mockingbird had suet.  (The barkbutter balls were rain mush.)  I saw a brown thrasher while I was swimming.  A Carolina wren shared suet with a downy woodpecker.  The woodpecker wasn't a gracious host but the wren didn't care. 

Skippers and other butterflies found the mountain mint.  Bees and wasps went for both rue and mountain mint.  I wonder how they will flavor the honey?  Some of the wasps looked like great golden digger wasps but were too small to be called great.  Red ants dragged a deceased bumblebee across the patio.  They had some trouble when they got to the vegetation.

When I was clearing tree debris from the water, I picked up a handful of pine needles and pecan catkins and got stung.  I didn't see the culprit, but I suspect it was a really small wasp or bee. The cool water eventually soothed the sting.  Two kinds of scarab beetle seem to fall into the water constantly.  One kind are what I call May beetles, and I think the other are shining leaf chafers, though they don't look particularly shiny to me. 

While I was in the pool, the clouds thickened and looked more threatening. It was a god thing that I picked blueberries before swimming.  The rain started shortly after I came inside and continued in waves into the evening.