Humid

While not especially hot, today was stuffy with humidity.  The hibiscus had another flower today, the third in a row.  Lots of cherries were on the ground and in the water, but I didn't see as many birds eating them.  I spotted a downy woodpecker doing chin-ups in the tree.  A catbird popped up on the fence.  Something that I think was the kingbird perched atop the redwood, briefly.  A hummer visited the feeder but didn't feed, so I will replace the sugar water tomorrow.  A Carolina wren was more satisfied with barkbutter balls and a brown headed nuthatch with seeds.  A crow hesitated, but finally ate K's peanuts.  A songbird chased a bigger bird into the trees too fast for me to react. 

I rescued three mama spiders and a very big scarab beetle, also smaller scarab and ground beetles.  The humidity brought dragonflies.  A female blue dasher used one of my perches.  A female great blue skimmer used another perch.  And prince baskettails zoomed overhead.  A tiger swallowtail and a small pale butterfly moved too fast for a picture.  I found a firefly under a gladiolus leaf.  A snail floated in the water but I suspect it was a land snail so I rescued it, maybe. 

Dragonfly

Today became sunny, quite warm, and very windy.  I was focused on getting photo proof that the white throats were still here and didn't realize I had chopped the head off a brown thrasher - I never saw it was there in the background.  A Carolina wren ate seeds and a bluebird ate what she found in the glass dish.  A blue jay picked at the barkbutter dust.  The bluebirds also ate seeds and the seed feeder perch kept rolling which flustered them.  The catbird was back.  So was the crow.  

A yellow dragonfly with rusty striped wings and matching eyes perched on a garden stake.   It was a painted skimmer, Libellula semifasciata, the first I've ever seen.  A very small butterfly kept circling the yard, never stopping for a photo.  I wasted many pixels.  My best guess would be a spring azure.  Wasps were flying around.  The male red bellied woodpecker ate mealworms while I was outside, a first.  A titmouse picked through the seeds.  

Migration map

Cornell says this week is the migration peak for our area.  Here is their map.  Meanwhile, the white throats have not left yet.  A crow paid several visits to the area where I sometimes spill food.  A mockingbird also joined the feeder crowd.  Blue jays were right behind.  A catbird returned.  Bluebirds were in a hurry.  

A tiger swallowtail flew around the trees, despite the wind.  The sunshine must have compensated for the cool air.   A cabbage white stayed lower in its flight.  

 

Light rain

The rain fell all morning and off-and-on through the afternoon.  I hope it soaked in, even though it was light, because the year has been very dry so far.  At breakfast, the catbird returned with another.  I think this is the second bird.  They didn't seem very fond of each other, at least, I couldn't get them both in one photo.  A mockingbird was next.  It checked out the fresh suet.  I saw a Carolina wren but it was faster than my fingers.  

Mallard drakes paddled on the creek, leaving all the incubation to the females.  Bluebirds visited the seed feeder in the rain.  (K had covered the dishes.)   They hurried to grab a seed and go back to whatever they were doing.  Cardinals continued their courtship.  

 

Catbird!

The catbird chowed down on the aged, desiccated grape jelly.  I had no idea that jelly would interest a catbird.  Then an actual cat sauntered past.  It was the yellow long hair.  After it was gone, a mockingbird fed from the dish of barkbutter & mealworms.  A blue jay, and the male red belly stuck to the barkbutter mealworm mix.  Later the catbird returned and tossed mealworms everywhere.  A squirrel thought about raiding the dish but decided to go elsewhere.  Bluebirds showed up at mid day.  

Something sat in the top of the hackberry and preened.  It turned out to be a freshly bathed blue jay which really fooled me.  Lots of butterflies came out even though it wasn't quite 70°.  I saw a tiger swallowtail, a silver spotted skipper, and some I couldn't identify.  A downy rejoiced in a fresh suet block.  

Warmer

The moon was full overnight so I went out to see it.  At breakfast, the creek was a mirror for sun-painted trees.  Later it had a matte surface of tiny ripples.  The catbird was back hiding in the beautyberry bush again. I found a black swallowtail caterpillar on the rue.  A southern purple mint moth flitted around the steps.  I learned they are responsible for the webbing on the mountain mint.  The great blue heron was ready on the downstream dock to defend its position but there was no sign of the other heron.  

The duel of the docks

The dog insisted he had to go ooooooout and the next thing I knew he was barking like mad at the neighbor's yard.  And I, who had been about to shower, gathered up my hastily assumed robe and went to see who was being murdered.  I think he was offended by the neighbor's flag that cast running shadows as it flapped in the cold breeze. 

Later, a wren explored the vegetation around the patio, staying half hidden, but I'm pretty sure it was a house wren headed South.  The catbird was back for more beautyberries.  Blue jays hunted acorns.  

In the afternoon, I saw a great blue heron on the neighbor's dock displaying pride of ownership again.  Then I saw the other heron near the shore.  That one walked slowly toward me as though paying no attention to the other.  Then it flew up to a post, then down to our dock.  I suspect they were name-calling the whole time.  

Goldenrod bloomed on the earth dam that separates the lake from the creek.  Turtles were basking on their log.  The sun felt delightfully hot but any shadow was cold.  

Spotted birds

Thanks to the drop in temperature, there was a lot of activity in the beautyberry bush, the dogwoods, cherry, and hackberry.  A thrush and a catbird were busy eating beautyberries.  A mockingbird ate dogwood berries.  I think something was even after the redwood cones, but I'm not sure what species were working on the others.  And there was enough cold North wind that sometimes I couldn't be sure if the movement was bird or breeze.  I think the blue jays were after acorns.

A squirrel showed up with a warble, just when I thought they'd escaped that misery this year.  Nuthatches were loyal to the sunflower seeds.  A flicker flew from the closest dogwood across the pool to the cherry but I saw no sign of snacking.  Its pompom rump displayed in flight and its yellow shafted tail at rest.  And it was the second spotted bird I spotted. 

A great egret perched on a dock piling while two drakes and a female mallard dabbled.  Mysterious ring ripples popped out of nothing and spread across the creek.  I think the fallen pine shifted because it looked like more of it was on the dock.  A great blue heron landed on the neighbor's floating dock, claimed ownership, then went stalking downstream. 

The now moldy fungus looked sinister and skull-like - triceratops skull, that is.  Apparently the weather was right for milkweed seed dispersal.  I collected some.  The camellia opened its first flower.  The saltbush was frosted with feathery white flowers.  

Tropical Storm Elsa

The peppers were getting ripe  I moved some potted plants in preparation for the storm.  I suppose all the flowers will be shredded.  A new variety popped up from the fairy garden seeds.  I sneaked in a swim just before the storm arrived - nothing but brown scarab beetles.  Oh, and a mama spider rafting on a curled leaf. 

A female hummer and a male came separately to their feeder..   As the rain began, a house wren poked around but didn't find anything satisfying.  The brown thrashers visited and one went to work on the suet.  A squirrel sat on the feeder and washed itself.  Birds ate the wild cherries.  A female bluebird sampled the suet and then a catbird did the same. 

As the light failed fireflies came swirling into the wind.  Around 8pm my phone  let out a screech and said to hide from a tornado that was on its way but, fortunately, nothing happened.  Those winds were still howling as I typed this. 

Still windy

The feeders were quiet at breakfast, then I was gone all morning, shopping for bird food. Temperatures fell back to the typical range for this time of year, thanks to the wind shifting around to the Northwest.  The sky was the crystalline blue of low humidity but the wind was still fierce.  Big green dragonflies didn't care and I still didn't get a picture of one. Or of a wren for that matter.  Right after the camera battery ran down, I saw movement by the fence which turned out to be the catbird, again out in the open.  It even visited the patio at suppertime, very unusual behavior for a catbird.  I saw an orange-brown butterfly, tiger swallowtails, and a red spotted purple. 

The pink evening primrose started blooming.  I had one sickly-looking stalk last year but a couple dozen sprouted up this Spring.  I read that it can be invasive so I hope the spot is confined enough.  Nothing else wanted to grow there anyway.  I'd rather have the yellow native but no one sells that.  I finally got a skink.  The odd little black bee with what I assume were yellow pollen packs explored a different expansion joint in the concrete.   I hunted for other bugs and found what appeared to be a small tattered roach.  A black wasp rafted on a cluster of leaves.  An earthworm was out in the sun on the concrete seemingly headed for the water.  I dumped it back on the dirt.  It did not behave with gratitude. 

Blue jays were glad I replenished the barkbutter balls.  Bluebirds seemed more interested in the last of the suet block.  The pileated woodpecker returned to the suet in the afternoon.  She wiped her beak on the post then seemed to rub her cheek there too.  The cardinal on the seed feeder was dwarfed by the woodpecker and seemed a little alarmed.  After the pileated was gone, the red bellied woodpecker took a turn on the suet.  We'll see what they think of the cheaper suet I bought today. 

City Nature Challenge

The City Nature Challenge is a bioblitz using iNaturalist and running April 30-May 3.  So I went overboard and took 275 photos today.  But I also got lucky a couple of times.  The first was the pileated woodpecker, Dryocopus pileatus.  Cardinals, bluebirds, and blue jays also showed up for breakfast.  I didn't notice at the time that the bluebird had a partly white tail.  The pileated female came back while I was outside and let me take more pictures.  I believe she has become more tolerant of us over the last several months. 

It was another hot, windy day with an intensely blue sky.  There were quite a few dragonflies but the big darners never stopped flying.  I got a single shot of what I think was a female blue dasher.  A damselfly was more cooperative.  It appears to be some kind of pond spreadwings.  There were lots of paper wasps and carpenter bees.  Finally, I found a narcissus bulb fly.  They were thick last year. 

I saw several tiger swallowtails but only one let me get a photo.  And I found a couple of first instar black swallowtail caterpillars.  I took a lot of plant photos, many of which I discarded because I wasn't sure if domestics counted. I went around to the fig to take pictures of the moss but I will have to do that another day.  

A gray catbird, Dumetella carolinensis, was foraging in the moss.  Usually they are quite skittish, but this one let me take many photos.  I didn't hear any catlike sounds but the wind was awfully loud.  I never got a picture of the Carolina wren though it made many visits to the feeders.  I saw a downy but no red bellied woodpecker.  There were crows and starlings, of course.  An egret landed but I guess I was too close for comfort.  The hummer did not return while I was watching. Nor did any skinks. 

Catbird seat

A rather shredded red spotted purple visited the wild cherry leaves.  I found a cicada shell in the mulch.  A few wasps were hungry enough to ignore the breeze.  A few magnolia seed pods were splitting to show the red seeds.  Since it was too cold to swim, I pruned the witch hazel that was obscuring the view of the bluebird house.  K continued to cut away arbor vita.  

An egret took up residence on one of our pilings while mallards paddled past.  It is very hard to photograph a white bird in the sun.  The crows got upset about something, presumably a hawk.  I was annoyed at them because something carried off a nearly full tub of bark butter. 

I missed shots at a Carolina wren and a brown thrasher, but a pine warbler was kinder to me.  Then I spied a catbird in the beautyberry bush.  

Summer-like

Lots of birds!  House finches and doves kept fooling me into thinking I'd glimpsed something more interesting.  At least two mockingbirds were hanging around because they got into a fight, chasing and screeching.  One mockingbird was quite the connoisseur of beauty berries. 

And then, when I thought the mockingbird had come back, it was a catbird.  The red eyed vireo popped up, then a male oriole.  I rushed some jelly out to bribe him, and while I was at it, I hung some suet up to see if yesterday's pileated woodpecker would return. 

The warmth lured a skink across the steps.  A mockingbird ate dogwood berries.  A blue jay hid to enjoy its berry. 

A monarch butterfly flew around in the trees, ignoring the milkweed which, admittedly, was not blooming.  But neither were the trees.  A Carolina wren fussed at me from the sakaki where it seemed to think it was hidden. 

After dark, I took some moon pictures and got it passing behind a band of clouds. 

Bold catbird

 The cat came back.  A finch family ignored their offspring's begging as it hopped around on the feeder cluelessly.  A blue jay was disgusted that I didn't have its breakfast ready, but when I put mealworms out, a squirrel got them all.  Downy woodpeckers were still working on the last suet block.  A pair of goldfinches drank from the pool puddle.  So did a male cardinal who then proceeded to bathe.  A hummingbird paid a very brief visit to the feeder.  And then the catbird appeared.  It hung around all day and ventured out in the bright sunshine.  I tried to get photos of the bluebirds, but they got away again.  So did a couple of ospreys flying upstream, a titmouse, and a wren. 

Insects were everywhere.  A crane fly scrabbled on the window glass.   Yellow jackets searched for a place to nest, paper wasps scraped the wooden bench, and bumblebees fed on the money plant.  Tiny flies sent ripples across the pool puddle, laying eggs or eating larva?  A different paper wasp was attracted to the hackberry, possibly to its tiny flowers. 

One goose family after another invited themselves and their offspring, and had to be sent packing.  For reasons that were not apparent, two adult geese took off flying, leaving their goslings bobbing in the water.  Like a folktale illustration, an egret decked out for mating shared a log with a cormorant that looked ready for a funeral.  They were watched by turtles.  A little green heron rested on top of a dock piling.  It preened and scratched and posed. 

Damp, gray day

A white breasted nuthatch and a pair of downy woodpeckers joined the regulars and the titmice at the seed feeder.  As I snapped th nuthatch, from one click to the next it turned into a chickadee!  Hummers acted famished.  A mockingbird chased a catbird out of the beautyberries.  I glimpsed and heard a kingfisher and a snowy egret watched the dam outfall.  A couple of wrens pecked at the rosemary. 

Only one dead frog and no skinks was an improvement.  Jumping spiders took an interest in the doorway and I had to carry one back outside.  The Argiope and the Araneus maintained their webs.  A swallowtail flitted across the yard and did not return.  A light sprinkle of rain fell mid afternoon despite meteorologists predictions.

Clearing

The day began as dreary and wet as the last few.  An egret fished below the dam.  A slug crawled on the window.  A female hummingbird indicated the feeder in back was still good - K brought in the one in front to clean.  The short-tailed squirrel visited.  I also saw white throats, blue jays, and a Carolina wren.

A hummer watched the feeder.  Two chickadees got into a spat beneath the hummer in the dogwood. A male cardinal took mealworms that it only eyed askance a month ago - must be feeding babies.  Then a catbird landed on the bench!

By late afternoon the sky was blue.

Warmer

Summer blew out to sea with Matthew but the North wind finally abated.  It was still coming from the North, but only as a breeze.  Cardinals fussed at each other.  There were at least three of each sex trying to gain dominance.  Turbulent water continued to pour down the dam outfall but the creek upstream was glassy in the dawn light.

At least one catbird was hanging around, along with blue jays.  Chickadees joined the cardinals at the feeder but I didn't see any other birds there.  Carolina wrens fussed in the junipers by the trash cans but I couldn't find out what upset them.  A flicker hunted in the grass.  Egrets fished in the dam outfall where the tide was down to a normal level though lake water was still pouring out. 

The rain hadn't brought out any new mushrooms yet.  Some of the birds nest fungus had disappeared while others had matured.  A skink used the edge of the pool cover as a refuge. 

A spinyback orbweaver set up its web in the front shrubbery but I could not find the Argiope.  Another spinyback web was in place on the West side of the house with an orb above it.  I couldn't find a spider to go with the orb but it had a small patch of whiter threads in the center.  I saw a cloudless sulphur, maybe a tiger swallowtail, and a monarch. Bees visited the herbs and I saw a paper wasp. 

The sun was right in my eyes as I started toward my evening meeting.  It made a brilliant rainbow sundog on the North side, but I wasn't able to stop when I had a clear view.  The clouds got very colorful and then I saw the massing of the crows.  When I got home the waxing gibbous moon was overhead, flaunting its scars.

Windy

The wind pushed the high tide over the dock.  Gusts shook all the colored leaves down.  The sky stayed overcast.   A squirrel was fascinated by something just below the pool coping, but wary of falling in.

The seed eaters were out in force: more than a half dozen cardinals plus finches and chickadees.  Doves poked around on the ground.  The migrants flitted through the shrubbery.  I got a glimpse of yellow on the beauty berry which I believe was a yellow breasted chat.  Cardinals came for the berries and so did a catbird.  A vireo was everywhere but I never saw it eat.  Blue jays stuck to acorns.  A red bellied woodpecker landed on a dogwood trunk briefly at lunch.  I saw a bumblebee and a few tiny moths but no other flying insects.  The lawnmower took out the spinyback orbweaver but the argiopes seemed OK. 

While I was outside cleaning debris out of the pool, a kingfisher flew overhead screeching.  It patrolled up and down the creek with it's rattling screech as though the wind was great fun.  It drowned out the blue jays.  Meanwhile the feeder birds kept stuffing themselves.  I heard other birds but didn't see them.  Yesterday's caterpillar found a new leaf to roll up in.  When I got out and came in, somewhat pink from the cold, a couple of Carolina wrens showed up for mealworms.  Then a light rain began and streaked the glass so I got no photos of all this. 

Breezy

Sunshine competed with cloud cover and the wind seemed stronger than the weather service reported.  The catbird and the house wren were up early, or perhaps I was up late.  Lots of egrets were out fishing and a great blue heron battled a headwind going upstream.  Squirrels were getting into trouble.  Downy woodpeckers, titmice, Carolina wrens, and hummingbirds visited the various feeders.

This was the second day I saw small, pale birds fling fast and low, and acrobatically over the creek.  I don't know if they were terns or swallows or what.  I saw a couple of skinks, but got no photos.  Butterflies flitted around but I'm not sure what all of them were, besides a cabbage white and a palamedes swallowtail.    A female common whitetail dragonfly landed on the patio. 

I believe I heard a mockingbird pretending to be a host of other birds.  A male hummer tasted the flowers outside my window, then whizzed away.  Goldfinches found something interesting in the salt bush.  A yellow crowned night heron stalked along the bank. Yesterday, someone said they heard a blackpoll warbler, and today I believe I saw it. The house and Carolina wrens and the catbird hung out together in the late afternoon.  The sky went from hazy to white but there were flashes of sun from the West. 

While we ate supper, a tufted titmouse and a downy woodpecker had a claws out fight over the feeder perch.  And the titmouse won!  Heretofore, titmice have given way to every other species, even smaller birds like chickadees.  A small egret fished below the dam around sunset.  I could not tell if it was a snowy. 

Wet morning

Some sun and some rain but mostly clouds filled the morning sky.  The creek was placid.  Downy woodpeckers and tufted titmice joined the regular seed eaters.  A couple Carolina wrens picked re-hydrated mealworms out of the rainwater in the glass feeder.  A catbird flitted through the shrubbery.  And a male towhee foraged in the mulch.  A mourning dove would have liked to, but the squirrels chased it off.

Two egrets disputed over who got to fish in the dam outfall.  The Canada geese with four goslings put in an appearance.  And the wretched husky got loose for the first time in several years and shook water all over our party preparations. 

We ate lunch outside and I had left the camera at the other end of the house so I wouldn't be tempted to take photos instead of talking to company.  A white breasted nuthatch came to the feeder at least five times while we ate.  So frustrating!  Woodpeckers and titmice were also hungry enough to come despite our presence. After we went inside, the towhee came back. About the time people began to arrive, a male goldfinch landed on the feeder post, but it didn't stay.  Downy woodpeckers got up the courage to visit while the party was in full swing.  The afternoon stayed dry with passing clouds.  It got a bit buggy toward evening.