Dark butterflies

The sun shone.  Two female hummers showed up at their feeder and the chase was on.  A Carolina wren craved suet and a titmouse did too.  

I did glimpse an orange butterfly and later a monarch, but the dark ones stole the show.  A spicebush swallowtail tried to get nectar from a rose.  A black swallowtail made the rounds, returning to the rue where I found the caterpillars and the chrysalis again.  I found the monarch caterpillar as well.  Red spotted purples danced over the water, dipping down to touch it, then hanging off the side, resting on the concrete, decorating the trees, and fluttering every which way.  

All three spiders were prospering.  I fished a centipede and a couple of millipedes out of the water.  One millipede revived immediately and hustled away.  The centipede moved so I assume it survived, unless the hot concrete killed it.  The other millipede rolled itself up and I don't know if that was a good or bad sign.  In the evening, a great blue heron fished from the neighbors' floating dock as ours was upended by Erin.  

 

Oh, the noise!

The Argiope's web was twisted by the rain overnight.  A bluebird came early for the party mix in the dish feeders and a brown headed nuthatch came for seeds.  The nuthatch ran into a territorial finch but it persisted and eventually got breakfast.  Later a Carolina wren wanted suet.  Titmice also got seeds.  A goldfinch just wanted a drink. 

A monarch butterfly found the butterfly milkweed.  I got just a glimpse of a tiger swallowtail and maybe another butterfly, and of course duskywing skippers.  Dragonflies were plentiful.  A female great blue skimmer, a blue dasher, and a widow skimmer used perches.  Cruising overhead were a prince baskettail and a saddlebags.  Honeybees, bumblebees, carpenter bees, leafcutter bees and those megachili bees with the furry pantaloons converged on the mountain mint along with wasps. 

I fished a centipede out of the water but ants decided it was a corpse.  A horntail was luckier and revived.  It stuck its horn up in the air like a dragonfly obelisking but it certainly wasn't too warm, so maybe that was a way to get rid of water.  iNaturalist said it's an Asian horntail Eriotremex formosanus.  Several brown scarab beetles and a bumblebee also got a reprieve from a watery grave.  After swimming with the bugs, I picked blueberries.  A couple of small organisms flew across the yard too fast for identification.  My first guess was hummers, but they could have been large insects.  A bluebird hid in the dogwood.  

A little before 9pm, I went outside to see if there were any visible sparkles from all the booming and banging.  Only a flicker showed through the trees occasionally.  So I watched the fireflies and pretended they were the sparks.  The moon was past first quarter and overhead, but blurred by haze.  When I came inside, I noticed a longhorn beetle (I think) on the window by the camellia.  

Arthropod day

Two female pileated woodpeckers started the morning.  It appeared that the one eating suet was feeding the other, but behind the post so I couldn't be sure.  Later the nuthatches slipped between the cardinals and house finches to get seeds.  Chickadees and titmice also visited the feeders and a titmouse asserted its status.  A female bluebird noticed that I had put out fresh barkbutter balls.  A juvenile bluebird visited the seed feeder.  A crow found the mealworms that the bluebirds tossed out.  A blue jay also got into the mealworms. 

The largest Argiope spider refurbished its web in the window.  All three of the smaller ones seemed to be doing well, though the web in the aster was still fingerprint shaped, not a straight stripe like the other three made.  A dragonfly hunted from one of the perches.  It might have been a bar-winged skimmer.  Later a prince baskettail flew loops over the pool.  Pool rescues included a centipede, a mama wolf spider and babies, and a bumblebee.  I don't know if the centipede revived of became someone's lunch, but it disappeared.  When I got out of the pool, a robber fly landed on my arm.  I persuaded it to move to my left hand but that was still too close for the camera.  After a moment it flew off and I have no idea what my attraction was.  

Two duskywing skippers fed with the wasps and bees on the mountain mint.  There was at least one honeybee.  I think one bee might be a two-spotted longhorn bee.  It certainly had hairy hind legs.  A large wasp with a striped abdomen That I think was a horse guard wasp Stictia carolina also fed on the mountain mint.  While I'm delighted that they attack biting flies, it is concerning that one expects to find prey here. 

This year, the gladiolus flowering has been more sporadic than I remember from other years.  A few fresh flowers opened on the butterfly milkweed but there was still no sign of caterpillars.  I just noticed that the blueberries ripened before the wild cherries.  The temperature peaked at 93° then yo-yoed with the clouds and sun.  Twice, raindrops spattered me when I went outside but didn't wet anything for more than a minute.  

Insects

The goldfinches were our wake-up birds again.  Hummers were right behind after K hung a fresh feeder.  A lovely female slaty skimmer was posted on the lookout for annoying bugs.  Later a blue dasher took up the post and obelisked in the heat.  Fiery and dusky skippers were not dissuaded from the mountain mint by rude wasps and bees.  I also saw a variegated fritillary, a tiger swallowtail, and I think a cloudless sulphur. 

I was determined to get photos of leaf-cutter bees which wasn't easy as they kept moving.  The all-black bee, Megachile xylocopoides, was particularly elusive but I finally got it, dusted with pollen.  I also got the little grayish ones.  Great golden digger wasps posed nicely. 

A dog-day cicada, Neotibicen caniculariscicada, was in the skimmer.  It appeared to have drowned but I've seen insects revive so I left it on a table next to the house.  I also fished out a centipede and a shooter (a kind of leafhopper).  Along with May beetles I rescued a metallic green six spotted tiger beetle, Cicindela sexguttata.  A grasshopper came inside and my butterfly net was useful in returning it to the great outdoors.  My best guess is pine tree spur-throat grasshopper, Melanoplus punctulatus.  

With all these insects, skinks were out and about.  One headed right at me so I moved my foot and it darted off to the side.  But then it was curious and turned around to peek at me.  

Lovely day

Bright sun, low 80s, breezy - perfect weather!  I was online in the morning but got outside in the afternoon.  There were lots of butterflies, a sulphur, tiger and black swallowtails, something orange I think was a fritillary, and an orange skipper I think might be a dion skipper. Euphyes dion.  A female common whitetail dragonfly hunted low to the ground.  A cicada killer prowled the dogwood.  A dead skink floated in the pool, as did a live green frog.  A live skink rushed across the patio.  I also found a drowned centipede. 

Blue jays were so silly I'm convinced they were fledglings. They were very curious about the inside of the house.  A Carolina wren, a female goldfinch, and a mockingbird visited.  The molting mockingbird looked like a zombie.  A fledgling bluebird wanted barkbutter balls.  Through a window screen I saw a hummer feeding. 

 

Dragonflies

A goldfinch pair visited but only for a drink of water.  It surprises me that they will drink from the ant moat but turn up their beaks if the sunflower seeds aren't a fresh refill of the feeder. 

A damselfly dodged me again.  I rescued more ground beetles and avoided spiders, though a little one bit me when I picked up the leaf hiding it.  A quite large centipede had drowned.  I'd intended to photograph it but a biting fly drove me away.  A black swallowtail flitted all over the rue, always in blurry motion.  A female great blue skimmer used one of my perches in the late afternoon.  A female common whitetail was attracted to the white circle of DE that K had spread around the strawberries.  The strawberry planter was up on a table so the dragonfly had full use of the circle.  Bees and wasps were everywhere.  

Dramatic-looking cumulus clouds cast shadows across the sky.  An exotic daylily began to open.  Andy helped K chase mallards away from the pool.  I really couldn't blame the ducks, it was a very hot day.. Again.  

Balmy

Lots of bluebirds and warblers visited throughout the day.  In the morning I saw more yellow rumped warblers.Occasionally a mockingbird sneaked in for a barkbutter ball.  Sparrows scurried around but never posed.  The red bellied woodpecker played hard to get.  Blue jays got stuffed.

The temperature was 60°F for several afternoon hours with mostly blue sky and a breeze..  I saw more pine warblers after lunch though there were still butterbutts around.  A female red-winged blackbird popped up but I only got one bad picture before she scooted back down to the shoreline.  Two turtles took advantage of the sunshine. 

I had hopes of taking pictures from the dock but the missing planks convinced me to turn back.  There were still a few colorful leaves on the blueberry bushes and the sweet gum.  I surprised a magnolia green jumper and a centipede but neither stayed for a photo.  The yellow rose, the paperwhite narcissus and, of course, the camellia were in bloom for insects lured out by the warmth.  

Rinse and repeat

Today followed the same pattern as yesterday except that it was not unpleasantly hot.  Rain had ruined the hummer juice and the barkbutter balls.  The bluebird fledglings made many visits to the remaining morsel of suet, as did chickadees and titmice.   I saw a male goldfinch and a brown thrasher but they were too quick for me.  A disheveled, molting mockingbird was also interested.  Then three brown headed nuthatches took a turn.  

I spent most of my time in the pool cleaning up debris.  The only animals were a defunct centipede, a frog I evicted, and a few wasps, including a Polistes exclamans.   We ate lunch outside since the temperature was nice, but unfortunately, flies found our food irresistible.  Hummers were frequent visitors during and after lunch but some continued to look where the feeder used to be.  They also found the red hibiscus flowers attractive.  Blue jays flew among the trees but I was too close to the food so they stayed away. 

The temperature was just right for skinks, which found reasons to repeatedly cross the patio.  One crossed the step only to encounter another who was uninterested in company.  A duskywing and a fiery skipper joined the hymenoptera on the mountain mint.  I also saw a monarch and a tiger swallowtail.  The clouds thickened and covered the sky by mid afternoon again, but the rain didn't start for several more hours.  

Windy

Hummers and egrets showed up as usual at breakfast.  A hummer visited the canna.  Titmice did not get up early. 

A big cross spider took up residence outside my window where it captured an ample meal.  The argiope spider was bouncing on its web in the wind.  While the clouds consistently sped East, the wind on the ground came from all directions. 

A blue tailed skink crossed the patio to the azalea.  I got curious and discovered it sunning on the far side.  Another lurked around the pool steps.  Later I found two in the skipper, one alive and one drowned.  There was also a much-decayed and very gross frog but I saw no others, living or dead, and dared hope the plague of frogs was ended. 

A few small butterflies and an intrepid blue dasher battled the wind.  I rescued two centipedes, by accident, as they bite. The wheel bug, or another just like it, was floating, dead i the water.  A flock of crows milled around in the air. 

Around 6pm one of the big clouds that had been sailing out of the West let loose.  It didn't last long, but it was not supposed to rain at all.  "10% chance."  When it started up again around 7:30pm, I dashed out and shut the feeder.  No sooner had I got inside than a male cardinal landed on the feeder and seemed stunned at the thought of no bedtime snack.  Then another male chased the first one off.  The cross spider was back at work as the light faded.