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.

Still warm

Thick fog cloaked the trees in the morning.  The yellow cat sheltered under a too small plastic table.  A mockingbird protested that we hadn't uncovered the glass dish of barkbutter balls or the jelly.  Well, it was wet from the fog.  A red belly ate seeds.  A white throat was disappointed that it had to forage but a song sparrow preferred to find its own food.  A Carolina wren just looked for the feeders that were open.  

The fog finally cleared by lunchtime (which was earlier than last week because we are saving daylight).  While I was outside a big carpenter bee buzzed around.  A myrtle warbler noticed that the barkbutter balls were now available.  But so did the blue jays and bluebirds.  I spotted the brown thrasher foraging under the oak.  A sparrow took a bath in the pool puddle.  

 

H O T

A crow poked around under the suet.  Its beak was open like it was panting.  Then a chipping sparrow landed on the seed feeder roof but it didn't have anything to eat.  A bluebird claimed the top of the post again before getting seeds.  A red belly landed on the post but didn't stay.   Blue jays got their barkbutter balls.  The female pileated learned a new trick and clung to the suet cage instead of the post.  White throats were tempted by the barkbutter balls. 

While I was weeding around the birdbath, a damselfly glided past me.  Of course I didn't have the camera, but I probably couldn't have got it if I did.  A black swallowtail danced around the plants before discovering the rue.  I thought I glimpsed a yellow swallowtail too, and I definitely saw cabbage whites.  Lots of big bees bumbled around and fed on the money plant.  A big mulch roach scuttled under the grill. 

The thermometer showed 91 after lunch but the SW wind was really strong so it didn't feel that hot.  The wind blew the tide down to full moon low even though we just passed the first quarter.  The heat rushed the bulbs and the daffodils were nearly all gone.  Hickory buds popped open.  The blue sky grew hazy, then cloudy, as the day went on.   I cooked hummer juice and put a feeder out.  That meant rearranging the hanging dishes but I was reluctant to give up on the jelly just yet.  Toward evening the temperature had dropped almost 30 degrees.. 

Hot

The thermometer showed 88° again but the sky was more hazy.  We ate lunch outside which frustrated birds that wanted their lunch.  I glimpsed several butterflies, a dragonfly, and a persistent carpenter bee.  Skinks hustled across the concrete on important business.  An infant jumping spider rode my finger, but I couldn't get it in focus so I dropped the spider on the concrete. 

The female pileated devoured suet while clinging to the cage.  A blue jay settled for crumbs.  A bluebird stayed in the trees. 

Hotter and humid

A female goldfinch was back but she couldn't find anything edible on the sunflower so she went off to try the wild cherries.  I wonder what's become of the males and whether there are young ones.  A Carolina wren was obscured by vegetation.  

The butterfly milkweed bloomed again and also had seed pods.  I checked the milkweed in the front yard - no flowers, pods, or caterpillars.  A swallowtail fussed around the rue.  A carpenter bee dangled from a morning glory tendril as though it were ensnared.  I evicted the frog again. 

At least four blue jays came after barkbutter balls.  They must be sibling fledglings, the way they behave together.  The fledgling cardinal was becoming quite red.  A female hummer fed but I suspect I should put out fresh juice tomorrow.  A Carolina wren poked through the trough of the seed feeder.  A dove foraged beneath.  Then the wren was joined by another on the barkbutter dish.  

Hot, hazy, humid

I was out early with the neem oil sprayer when I encountered a tiny damselfly.  Already the sun burned, but the flowers seemed happy.  After lunch it was too hot for me even in the shade.  Bees and wasps fed on the rue.  I saw a bluebird, a brown thrasher, and a blue jay, but none of them posed.  Toward evening, geese came to graze and I had to give them a fierce glare to keep them at the bottom of the hill.  The goslings had doubled in size.  

Chilly

The haze continued to block the sun's warmth.  A North wind didn't help.  And the feral cat paid an early visit.  A female bluebird checked out the back yard, then sampled the bark butter.  She was followed by a male downy woodpecker. 

A monarch found the regrowth of leaves on the butterfly milkweed.  It must have laid a dozen eggs.  The poor plant could barely feed one caterpillar.  I also saw a buckeye, several sulphurs, and I think a red spotted purple. 

Skinks dashed around.  One paused to soak up the thin sunlight. A younger skink popped up near the adult and froze.  I thought I saw a white breasted nuthatch, but I definitely saw a brown headed nuthatch on the seed feeder.  Hummers came around but did not like our sugar water.  Carolina wrens seemed to be everywhere.  

A gray hairstreak nectared first on the mountain mint then on the herb mint.  At least four of the huge carpenter bees stuffed themselves on nectar.  A fiery skipper found the asters.  A yellow-legged mud dauber (Sceliphron caementarium) rode a leaf on the water. 

A great egret waited on the dock bench.  The beautyberry was getting visibly purple. 

 

Firefly!

The truce among bees and wasps on the mountain mint frayed and big carpenter bees rose above the plant to glare at each other.  Digger wasps did it too.  A huge blue mud wasp ignored it all.  The beauty berries turned color and the dogwood berries looked ripe.  

A small frog and a skink were both in the water.  I rescued that skink and later another.  The first skink ran off only to my towel in the way.  The frog didn't want to be rescued but I insisted. 

I don't remember ever seeing a firefly this late in the Summer.  

Fireflies

Blue jay greed is bottomless.  They took far more than their fair share of bark butter.  A mockingbird posed on the pool railing.  I think it had come for hackberries.

Clouds looked threatening at times and kept the temperature down somewhat.  One of the three monarch chrysalises had a tear that I hope was a sign of the butterfly about to emerge.  I could see faint wing markings inside the chrysalis of the other two. The big carpenter bees got into aerial battles. 

Skinks enjoyed the afternoon heat.  A male goldfinch came for a drink.  I expect the female was incubating eggs.  A brown thrasher hunted in the grass, then went to the trees for berries.  The mockingbird came back.  A female downy woodpecker preferred bark butter.

When I walked down to the dock I surprised a lot of scurrying on the mud but everything quickly disappeared.  Several male amberwings found perches barely above water.  A female jumped on the male I was photographing.  She then dotted the water with eggs which minnows promptly gobbled.  A great blue heron flew past and landed on the dam.

I spotted a mahogany green jumper on a canna leaf.  A couple of Carolina wrens made a fuss over the bark butter.  The sand wasp was back.  I took pity on a monarch caterpillar and moved it to a fresh plant.  In the middle of a zoom meeting I realized there was a male kingfisher on a dock piling.  After the meeting, I went outside in the warm twilight and discovered that there were still plenty of fireflies.  I couldn't see them from indoors.

Afternoon thunderstorm

A titmouse sampled the bark butter while a hummer breakfasted on sugar water.  I saw a black swallowtail and a blue dasher. Two orange furred carpenter bees visited the mountain mint.  I saw a lovely silver spotted skipper, but it got away.  A sprinkle began after lunch as I harvested more figs and by 2:30pm thunder was cracking overhead and rain was coming down like a waterfall. Rain fell more or less heavily for the rest of the day and toward evening lightning was almost continuous.  Thunder growled like a hungry belly. 

Not so hot

Titmice were hungry for breakfast.  So was a hummer.  Then the blue jays came. 

A gloriously golden Needham's skimmer was perched on a bamboo stake at lunch time.  The twig atop the hackberry was unoccupied.  In the afternoon there were blue dashers everywhere.  A great golden digger wasp, a  carpenter bee, and a little leaf cutter bee worked on the mountain mint. 

I picked blueberries till the sweat ran.  This annoyed the birds.  What annoyed me was all the berries with just one peck.  I don't begrudge the birds eating whole berries, but why ruin so many?  A male bluebird visited the bark butter balls. 

The setting sun blushed the clouds and made a lovely reflection in the creek. 

Blood temperature

A Carolina wren came for breakfast.  The cardinal looked silly on the hummer feeder.  A pair of goldfinches dropped in. 

The male downy woodpecker worked on the bark butter at lunch time.  A hot South wind blew us up to 98.6°F.  The humidity was higher as well.  At some point in the afternoon, the bark butter melted and spilled on the hibiscus leaves. 

I saw my favorite wasp, the great golden digger, amongst many other kinds of insect on the rue.  There were hover flies, greenbottle flies, and one big dark fly, honeybees, bumblebees, carpenter, leafcutter, and tiny sweat bees, paper, mason, and blue mud wasps, and a yellow jacket.

A Canada goose family relaxed in the mouth of a drain pipe downstream.  A blue jay flew at the BBB feeder instead of landing.  It did not end well. 

After dark, the moon rose round and bright behind the trees. 

Rare June day

Lowell's verses tend to pop into my head around this time of year, a legacy of my mother.  Nevertheless, this was a lovely day with an intensely blue sky. Too bad I missed the whole morning, except for seeing a skink outside of the medical building and finding an earwig in my coat after two hours in the waiting room.  But the afternoon made up for it, beginning with blue jays.  At least three were raiding the bark butter balls except one still could not manage it.  A squirrel watched the commotion with a very doubtful eye.  Bluebirds soon arrived. 

A pile of oak branches with dried  but not yet brown leaves were a clue that a squirrel's drey overhead had not been well engineered.  Honeybees, carpenter bees, and paper wasps were still nectaring on the rue.  Little gray Megachile rotundata leafcutter bees were loving the lavender.  So was a bumblebee with huge orange pollen bags.   Another very yellow bumblebee looked like a golden snitch.

Soldier beetles preferred the parsley as a sort of singles bar.  Because it's still Spring, they were probably margined leatherwings, Chauliognathus marginatus.  Later in the year the goldenrod soldier beetle takes over.  And that, at last, solves the mystery of the little velvety black "caterpillars" I see every summer.  No wonder I couldn't find a beetle larva in a butterfly book.  I located the orange inchworm again, but my focus was off and the battery died just then. 

The coral honeysuckle was blooming again.  I wonder if the hummer found it?  The white breasted nuthatch returned but I think I made it nervous.  I spotted a wren but the camera couldn't get the focus. A skink ventured out onto the patio when a little cloud cast some shade. 

The waxing gibbous moon was very bright but it has a hazy halo. 

Birds and bees

The creek was a sheet of glass and every surface glittered in the sunlight.  Three blue jays visited and one perched conspicuously on the post while another sneaked to the bark butter balls.  I don't think they planned it, but they are smart. 

Other birds kept flying off just as I got them in focus. The brown thrasher had a tough time reaching the remnant of suet.  Bluebirds were active and curious. When the suet was all gone, a male downy hung under the suet cage hoping to find a scrap.  The wretched starlings made it disappear so fast that I'm of two minds whether to put another out right away.

An American lady butterfly nectared on a dandelion but furniture was in the way and I couldn't get it in focus.  A little spider ran in circles around the rim of a tomato cage.  Huge carpenter bees fed on the money plant.  The lake turtles spread out from their favorite log to occupy all the fallen trees.  We had a thunderstorm at dusk but later the full moon was visible. 

Hot!

My car claimed it was 72 when I went to vote. The blueberry bushes had flower buds.  The Carolina jessamine attracted carpenter bees.

Rain began in the late afternoon.  There was a pine warbler on the suet at dusk again. Sunset was very rosy. 

Very warm

It was humid under a gray sky that did not completely block the sun.  The South wind brought the temperature up to the sweat zone. Last night three slugs crawled on the glass.  This morning a small one headed back down to safer spaces.  A white throated sparrow breakfasted on the seed feeder. A downy woodpecker hid in the dogwood.  When a blue jay visited the bark butter, a female cardinal shot out of the camellia and drove the jay away.  It was all to fast for me to get a picture. 

Pollen puddled on leaves and marbleized the surface of the creek.  It also coated the shore and made it look like a sandy beach.  I wonder if it adds nutrients to the water?  Skinks were out at lunchtime.  A couple of buzzards circled. 

The wind tore petals off the dogwood that was first to bloom.  Egrets fished around the dam.  A dragonfly landed on the patio, possibly because of the wine.  A single crow chased an osprey downstream.  Perhaps it was defending a nest.

Queen yellow jackets hinted suitable nesting sites.  The coral honeysuckle was a mass of flowers.  Beetles mated on the trunk of the cedar.  The rust-colored fungus was back on the cedar.  Mammoth carpenter bees also scouted suitable ground for nests. Buttercups, vetch, and bedstraw took over the front grass.  I planted cilantro and a very odd violet I found with just four petals. 

Still summery

The creek was glassy under a bright sun in the morning.  The white and yellow narcissus I call fried eggs popped open today.  A half dozen white throats scurried around under the feeder and drank from the birdbath.  Downy woodpeckers worked on the suet.  Egrets congregated at the dam outfall. 

A crow came calling, seeking bark butter balls, but another chased it away.  I gardened a bit, planted the lavender, threw seeds around. Yellow kneed wasps and huge carpenter bees flew uncomfortably close.  Maybe they were frustrated because the blueberry lowers weren't quite open.  Twice, I startled a skink but got no photo.  Turtles lined up on the log in the lake.  The dogwood by the pool steps started to flower but the petals didn't let go of each other and the result looks like a tiny box. 

Two blue jays up in the redwood appeared to be courting.  By then the sky was white, the water rough, and the wind came in gusts.  The resident myrtle warbler watched from the trees.  Speaking of which, the fungus disease in the cedar came back. 

Warming

An osprey landed in the pines at breakfast.  Unfortunately, the window screen was in the way and diffracted the image.  The creek beneath was quite placid and sunlit.

Squirrels were still eating buds and shoots and new leaves.  Blue jays were still eating the bark butter balls.

Azalea buds were showing color.  I saw a polistes wasp in addition to all the carpenter bees. 

Warm and sunny

The tide was extremely low, morning and evening.  I startled a couple of wrens when I got the paper at breakfast.  I suppose they want to nest in the hanging planter again. Blue jays teased me all morning but finally came for lunch.  One bumped a cardinal off the bark butter.  A downy woodpecker ignored the bad behavior and focused on suet. 

The dogwood flowers started to open.  The myrtle warbler stayed screened by twigs in the wild cherry.  Carpenter bees pollinated the Carolina jessamine. 

Toward evening, the sky went white with a thin cloud layer.  Crows and ospreys had an aerial chase.  Meanwhile an egret stalked along the mud exposed by the low tide. 

First butterfly

At breakfast, the myrtle warbler was back, but none of the other warblers.  Carpenter bees feasted on the Carolina jessamine.   A crow checked out the bird buffet.  The very warm and very windy day kept most birds away.

The black swallowtail butterfly was only about half as big as normal and the wind was almost too much for it. Meanwhile, the wind also brought moist clouds that obscured the sun.  Some turtles were out on their favorite logs.  A very gentle rain fell sometime before 6pm. But when I went outside after dark the rain had stopped and I could see a blurry moon.