Song sparrow

A blue jay noticed the fresh barkbutter balls and proclaimed its delight.  The sun caught a belated moonflower.  A stream of titmice came to the seed feeder.  Then a song sparrow landed on the bench but soon left.  A Carolina wren poked at the seeds and was joined by a chickadee.  

In the afternoon I walked around the pool.  Some small insects thrashed on the water.  The orchard spider was still in the same spot, just below the black swallowtail chrysalis.  The canna put out an impressive bloom.  Too bad the hummingbirds weren't here to appreciate it.  Two moonflowers opened.  I wish the air would warm up so I could get in a final swim.  

 

Monarchs emerged

The creek reflected a gray day.  At lunchtime, a pine warbler visited the barkbutter dish.  I didn't realize at the time that a fine drizzle was falling.  A Carolina wren ate suet until a downy woodpecker pulled rank.  Today was much cooler and I did not venture into the water.  

Both monarchs eclosed today, which makes me wonder if the black swallowtail pupa died.  It's been 33 days, but then I read that it might be set to overwinter..  It also crossed my mind that the monarchs I saw last week might have been from more of the caterpillars that fed on the butterfly milkweed.  Curiously, the chrysalis remnants looked white, not jade green.  More accurately, the casing appeared to have been clear before being torn open.  Anyway, it was nice watching them pump up their wings.  I sup[pose they are all headed to Mexico.  

I checked on the mabel orchard spider as well as the black swallowtail chrysalis.   The spider seemed fine.  The canna bloomed again.  The Carolina returned for barkbutter but ignored the butterfly inches away.  The monarch held quite still.  Three moonflowers opened and a few moments of sunshine followed.  

Buggy

The first daylily flower appeared.  Hibiscus and cannas popped up.  I had a morning meeting.  After lunch, the air was muggy, hot and humid, and the sky was hazy.  Thankfully, there was wind.  I glimpsed dragonflies, cabbage whites, and an orange butterfly.  A hummer checked to see if the milkweed buds had opened.  They hadn't.  A seven-spotted ladybird beetle rested on a cinquefoil leaf.  Wasps lurked around the rue.  Tiny bugs and mites kept walking on me which was unwise of them.  I tried to just flick them away but I think some did not survive it.  What we thought was a turtle was just a black trash bag floating on the creek.  It rained again in the evening.  We are rapidly catching up after a dry April. 

Buggy

A couple of seedling sunflowers popped up.  The hibiscus put on a real show with six flowers.  The fungus under the oak was visibly bigger.  The canna was blooming as though inspired by the nearby hibiscus.   Only two seedpods survived on the stripped butterfly milkweed.  Some dogwood leaves turned red or yellow, marking approaching Fall.

Although the monarch caterpillars departed, the black swallowtail caterpillars were visible all over the rue.  I rescued two blue tailed skinks from the water and evicted a frog.  I was too late for a bumblebee.  A glass snail floated on the surface but I put it out of the water too.  A busy honeybee was one of the few insects on the mountain mint.  The spiders hadn't moved since yesterday. A mosquito followed me into the house and feasted as I took off my wet suit. 

Bluebirds came for seeds.  A brown thrasher slipped into the mountain mint stalks.  The red bellied woodpecker was back.  Blue jays were happy about the barkbutter balls.  

 

Two days

Ooops, Sunday slipped away.  It dawned with lovely reflections.  A mockingbird escaped the camera but a Carolina wren posed.  Passing clouds didn't stop the sunshine.  But I didn't take many pictures.  

Monday also began with a placid creek mirroring the far bank.  Blue jays visited early.  I went outside in the late morning but I guess I was too late for the moon.  The giant fungus, as best I could tell is a polypore.  It was still a little soft and bendable but I couldn't see underneath.  I couldn't feel anything like gills or teeth so the most likely spore-producing surface would be pores.  The red aster and the beautyberries were both magenta but the canna was more orange.  Another saltbush toppled over. 

There was a commotion in the grass but I only got a brown blur.  I think two birds were fighting.  One flew into the dogwood and began to sing.  I thought it was some exotic warbler but the photos convinced me it was a Carolina wren.  The tail would have been a giveaway had it not been hidden by a leaf.  

I checked out the venusta orchard spider without a window between us.  It glowed like sun shining through glass.  This time I noticed the small loops of silk in the hub where the spider waits.  

One skink a-swimming

Brown headed nuthatches came for seeds for breakfast.  Little puffs of cumulus didn't last and the sky was a clear blue in the afternoon.  The temperature came up but a breeze kept it from feeling really warm.  Clumps of dogwood leaves turned yellow and red but everything else was still green.  The canna started another flower and the red aster was blooming.  The fungus by the oak got very big.  A couple of butterfly milkweed pods opened but the seed parachutes weren't quite ready to take off.  Between the beautyberry bush and the dogwood trees, migrating birds should think they've arrived at Berryland. 

I saw ripples in the water and discovered a skink had fallen in.  A little wasp tried to hitch a ride on the skink's tail.  I tried to lift the skink out with a brush, but that scared it and I was forced to use a net.  When I set the net down for it to escape, I saw a skink dash into the vegetation.  But that skink lacked a tail, so I was afraid I'd pinched it off.  I put the net back and went back up the steps to let the dog inside.  When I looked back, the skink I'd rescued emerged from the net with all its tail intact.  

A Carolina wren nibbled at the barkbutter balls.  Chickadees and cardinals ate seeds all day.  I heard blue jays but none came to a feeder while I was watching.  But a bluebird landed on the seed feeder, figured out its mistake, and flew to the barkbutter balls.  I thought I'd spotted something exotic in the trees, but it was just another cardinal fledgling.  

The orchard spider's web caught the afternoon sun again.  Backlighting made the Leucauge venusta spider's legs look like green glass attached to a dark gray striped lozenge.  It makes a web that's almost horizontal compared to other orb weavers.  

Green heron

A Carolina wren popped up at breakfast.   The canna put out a fresh flower spike.  Two squirrels streaked across the gap between the redwood and the hickory. 

I spent the day in virtual meetings and didn't get outside till after 5pm. Two baby skinks were in the water, one alive, one not.  I also rescued another mama wolf spider.  The mosquitoes were still hungry.  I looked for the hornworm caterpillars with no luck, though I did find a spider web trap.  Instead, I spotted a little green heron on the dock bench.  On my way back, I found another Argiope garden spider.  

At supper, an adult and a fledgling bluebird visited.  A hummer turned up its beak at the juice so I'll put out fresh tomorrow.  A Carolina wren bustled around under the feeders.  

Insects

A white breasted nuthatch showed up after breakfast.  The canna decided to try another blossom.  I found a big swallowtail caterpillar on the gone-to-seed parsley, but no sign of the monarch caterpillar, so I hope there is a chrysalis somewhere.  I blew another shot at a great golden digger wasp.  In addition to all the beetles that I fished out of the water, there was an insect I didn't recognize that looked midway between a beetle and a wasp.  The mountain mint was full of many kinds of bees. 

A four spotted pennant rode the topmost twig of the wild cherry.  Something denuded all the highest branches on the wild cherry.  I suspect tiger swallowtail caterpillars.  I saw an orange fritillary butterfly that appeared to be laying eggs on violet leaves.  A black butterfly showed no interest in either parsley or rue so I wondered if it was a dark tiger swallowtail or a red spotted purple.  A fiery skipper popped around the mountain mint. 

Toward evening, a green heron landed on a post in the creek.  It didn't stay long, but I was grateful to have seen it.  Great egrets were also in flight.  It had been a very hot day and was still in the 90s at supper. 

Dragonflies

The sky dripped a little at breakfast and that was all there rain there was.  A white breasted nuthatch joined the chickadees and titmice, cardinals and house finches at the seed feeder.  A mockingbird and later a blue jay, bluebirds, and a pine warbler visited the dish of barkbutter balls.  Goldfinches couldn't leave the sunflower alone.  The mockingbird harassed a couple of crows on the roof. 

The pool was full of beetles - a few black ground beetles, lots of brown May beetles, and of course Japanese beetles.  And the mountain mint was full of bees and wasps.  The hibiscus attracted a grasshopper nymph, a tiger swallowtail, and of course Japanese beetles.  A duskywing skipper visited the mountain mint.  The canna bloomed.  One lone turtle occupied the log on the lake. 

The humidity was higher which brought out the little biting bugs and that brought dragonflies.  I saw one outside the library i think was a wandering glider, Pantala flavescens.  A four spotted pennant, Brachymesia gravida, perched at the top of the cherry tree on a twig that something had stripped of leaves.  Something else zipped back and forth too fast for identification.  An amberwing, Perithemis tenera, lurked in the mountain mint. 

On the way home I spotted a rabbit.  As I sat outside around 5pm, the goldfinches, a mockingbird, a pine warbler, the female pileated woodpecker, and the male hummingbird fed cautiously.  They didn't like it if I moved to aim the camera.  

Male hummingbird

A Carolina wren had breakfast with us on what remained of the suet.   At lunch there were three hummingbird visits and at least two were a male.  It may have been the same bird.  

The hibiscus was covered with blooms but I also saw a Japanese beetle and a sawfly attacking the plant.  The canna also started blooming.  A blue dasher monitored the pool from the tip of a daylily bud.  T saw a new kind of wasp among the honeybees on the mountain mint.  The great golden digger wasp was back.  Thank goodness the greenhead was not!  

Hot!

It got up over 80°F, 83° according to the National Weather Service, which broke the record set in 2002.  Paperwhites and the canna bloomed.  Wasps zipped through the air but I didn't see any other insects.  The fungus seemed a little bigger and a little browner.  Groundsel (saltbush) fluff was everywhere. 

I sat on the dock bench for a while.  Three hoodies dived for fish.  They spooked as they were getting closer to me.  After I got up to leave, I glimpsed the kingfisher, but he noticed me too.

Blue sky

The fog was back at breakfast. I missed shots at a brown thrasher and a blue jay that came for bark butter balls.  A titmouse and the red breasted nuthatch preferred sunflower seeds.  A couple of crows appeared to be very close friends but I don't think they were mating.  Dew-dotted spiderwebs festooned the rose but I didn't see them till I looked at the photos.  The feral cat prowled across the yard.  

By 10am the fog was gone.  The cloudless blue sky healed immediately when scratched by a passing jet.   A downy woodpecker went to work on the suet.  The nuthatch came back and posed very nicely.  

Lots of birds flew over, but aside from gulls and cormorants I'm not sure what they were.  The warmth of the last few days persuaded the canna to bloom, though I think its usual pollinators have left.  Two peppers are just about ready to pick.  I hope the green ones survive the transition indoors.  The slime mold fungus had grown and taken an imprint from a fallen leaf.  As an experiment, I gave it a bit of parsley to see if fresh greens would appeal.  

The late afternoon sun lit up the trees that were turning color.  The wind had been pruning the colored leaves so the trees seemed to stay green.  The last two days were relatively still so leaves didn't come down immediately. 

Cool for now

Yesterday, the temperature dropped below 70 after being stuck above 80 for days.  Clouds and wind reinforced the cool temperature. A house wren mooned me from the feeder.

At lunch, a female Eastern pondhawk took possession of the birdbath.  A black swallowtail flitted around the rue.   Titmice visited the feeder.  The butterfly milkweed was overrun with caterpillars. 

The pondhawk was still around when I went out to swim.  I also saw a male blue dasher and a female slaty skimmer   A pearl crescent butterfly Phyciodes tharos fed on the mint.  I cannot imagine how it got that name. Later, a monarch fed on the butterfly weed flowers and laid eggs on it. A fiery skipper preferred mint.  At least two great golden digger wasps found the mountain mint irresistible.  So did a multitude of wasps and a few bees. 

The canna bloomed and a hummer tried it out.   Blue jays were busy with the wild cherries.  An egret perched in a downstream tree.  A great crested flycatcher joined the festivities in the cherry.  The cardinals were courting again.  I have not seen a fledgling for several years. 

Cold front

It wasn't too bad in the morning - overcast, humid, and still.  Rain overnight was apparently light but had not evaporated.  An egret paced under the bulkhead as I ate breakfast.  There was not a lot of floating debris in the pool, but quite a few beetles.  I rescued two green and one gray tiger beetles, ground beetles, and brown June beetles. Also spiders, but no mamas.  Because the sky looked untrustworthy, I left the camera indoors.  Otherwise I'd have gotten some nice shots of a little green heron on a piling. 

A mockingbird was up in the cherry and blue jays streaked across the yard calling each other.  A cardinal checked out the beautyberries, but they were still quite green.  At the feeders, it was the usual trio, plus a family of young titmice.  I saw hummers feed but I think they weren't happy.  Speaking of which, the Mexican sage and the canna did not bloom very much thus far, and the scarlet runner bean I planted had not so much as a bud to offer as feeder substitutes.  Only the coral honeysuckle came through. 

In the early afternoon while I was still in the pool, a misty rain commenced.  Around 1pm it strengthened enough that I gave up and came indoors.  The afternoon gradually grew wilder with harder rain and wind picking up.  The temperature dropped and so did the light.  Wind pushed the first quarter tide much higher.  Rain overflowed the ant moat. 

Windy

Juvenile titmice were everywhere all day, acting naive and silly.  An egret hunted in the dam outfall.  A blue tailed skink ran from the rosemary to the azalea, then back, then across the step to the birdbath, then who knows where.

The hibiscus was loaded with flowers and the canna began blooming.  The calendula was gone to seed, making me think its a biennial.  Gladiolus and the sakaki bush were finished blooming.  The double orange day lilies were taking their turn. The beautyberry was in flower.  And it looked like the blueberries came and went while I was away.

I husked corn I picked up from the farm stand at the library and dislodged a corn ear worm that appeared about ready to pupate.  There were dragonflies and butterflies, but they struggled with the wind.  It was hot enough to make the dragonflies obelisk.  Something left a nasty sploge of vomit or feces on the lower patio which engaged the attention of a cloud of flies.  I rescued the usual spiders and beetles and saw a water strider and a bristletail in the act of molting.  I caught aglimpse of a damselfly with a blue thorax in the mulch beyond the deep end.  A golden digger wasp was too late to get much from the rue, but bumblebees were even later. 

A cardinal landed on the windowsill and gawked at me but I wasn't fast enough with the camera.  A little green heron alerted me by squawking and I saw it fly to the bulkhead across the creek.  A brown thrasher picked wild cherries, as did a squirrel.  Hummers made regular visits.  Both male and female bluebirds came for mealworms but wouldn't wait for a picture.  Even more shy was a red bellied woodpecker that landed on the maple. 

The wind piled up clouds in a thin layer, then blew them away.  They made herringbone patterns that looked fractal.  More clouds arrived at dusk.