Mostly rain

The rain started during my morning meeting while I had my back to the window and kept arriving in waves till late afternoon.  Since I hadn't put any food out the birds stayed away, except the seed eaters.  I saw a couple of wrens in the dogwood while I was in the pool.  Wild cherries were getting red so they will soon attract birds without my help.  The chaste tree began blooming.  The red ruffled daylily put out a strangely pale flower.  The mountain mint attracted wasps and bees and soldier beetles.  Perhaps they attracted the lovely widow skimmer that came and sat on my chair arm.  

Still hot

Morning rain didn't last.  Birds ignored it to reach the suet.  A Carolina wren alternated suet and sunflower seeds.  As usual, a brown thrasher preferred to clean up what fell.  

The sun was out by lunch time, driving up the temperature.  Wasps and hover flies enjoyed the mountain mint.  A great blue skimmer dragonfly kept watch outside my window and later a blue dasher chose the perch by the pool.  I caught a glimpse of a damselfly.  The sky was intensely blue with fluffy clouds.  A yellow kneed wasp nibbled on the bench.  

The leatherleaf clematis Clematis pitcheri continued to bloom on the front porch but the flowers were more white than purple.  The crocosima was spectacular.  And the chaste tree was blooming already.  Goslings by the shoreline were half grown and beginning to get adult colors.  Fireflies blinked while the geese grazed.  

Extreme UV

A hummer got up early and breakfasted with us.  At lunch, the Carolina saddlebags was back on its treetop perch.  By 5pm it was joined in the air by 12-spotted skimmers. I went out to swim during the fiercest sun in the afternoon and I may have overdone it.  I didn't bring the camera because of the sun, so naturally I saw interesting wildlife.  A minuscule green katydid (or something similar) sat on the edge of the steps.  Spiders ran around on the water, none with babies.   

Fresh growth was visible at the top of the oak.  A branch of the chaste tree drooped with the weight of blossoms and bumblebees.  A mockingbird checked to see of the wild cherries were ripe. 

Skinks enjoyed the heat and none went for a swim.  A tiger swallowtail liked the mountain mint.  So did a great golden digger wasp.  To my disgust, I discovered that Japanese beetles were using the hibiscus as a singles bar.  I gunked 'em good with neem oil. 

In the late afternoon while I was attempting to photograph dragonflies on the wing, two swallows, or one twice, zipped past me at roof height.  I'm not used to them flying so low.  Twilight glowed rose without clouds.  Fireflies went off like silent fireworks over the grass.  Crows and herons flew home.  I believe I heard a tentative cicada.  The waxing gibbous moon was sharply detailed. 

Hot sun

I went swimming in the morning because I was busy in the afternoon.  Snails and spiders floated but a bumblebee need rescuing.  As I was getting out of the pool, a tiger swallowtail had a long drink at a daisy.  But it wasn't long enough for me to get the camera.  Later, I saw a very small butterfly, maybe a spring azure, that never alighted.  From my seat at the computer in the afternoon, I saw dragonflies and a night heron.  The chaste tree had begun to bloom.

Back to gray

The blue sky didn't last.  I saw the first four spotted pennant of the season.  Bar winged skimmers were  the only other dragonflies around.  The black swallowtail was back. Flower buds appeared on the spearmint and on the chaste tree.  Up on the lake there were five turtles on the logs. 

More arrivals

Hooded mergansers appeared on the creek.  They soon flew off though.  Blue jays breakfasted on the bark butter balls but eluded me. Doves loitered but I ignored them.  I snapped a shot at something in the cherry which turned out to be a flicker. 

The white throats stayed under the shrubbery and never came close.  But a yellow rumped warbler and a pine warbler were tempted by the suet.  Then a squirrel ran up the post and the pine warbler took off. 

Parachute-equipped seeds were dispersing on the chilly breeze.  The chaste tree had a flower spike amid its seeds.  Witch hazel was in flower as well.  The camellia by my window had exactly one bud, on the wrong side.  A single leaf clung to the fig.

Showers and firecrackers

The house finch was totally over his parental duties.  The fledgling vibrated and screamed "feed me" and dad snarled "get a job, kid."  The male towhee was still feeding his fledgling. The wrens were busy at the entrance to their birdhouse, feeding nestlings, I think.  I caught a bluebird at the entrance to its nestbox but didn't see what it had brought. 

A downy woodpecker came for the bit of suet remaining in the cage.  Later I saw it or another in the cherry.  Hummers almost drank the feeder dry.  A male goldfinch came to drink from the ant moat.  I saw a Carolina wren I think was a fledgling, and a couple of blue jays, but didn't get photos.  Even a titmouse showed up. 

A bluebird was in the cherry tree along with the house finches and woodpeckers.  I glimpsed a female red bellied woodpecker on the cherry trunk. Then the rain began and lasted about five minutes. 

A tiny black bee worked on the portulaca.  The two caterpillars had nearly run out of parsley.  A black swallowtail appeared to lay eggs on the skeletal parsley.  A jumping spider prowled on the door screen. 

A silver spotted skipper, and later a duskywing, visited the mint. So did several great golden digger wasps and a multitude of smaller wasps.  Soldier beetles seemed more into mating than feeding on the mint. 

There were dragonflies perching both high and low.  A Halloween pennant perched on top of the pine tree.  Closer to the ground were blue dashers and a skimmer of some sort. 

Clouds gathered and blew West during the afternoon but there were no more showers.  The chaste tree was beginning to bloom.  Well before twilight the amateurs were at their pyrotechnics. 

Chilly

Gray sky and a brisk wind put most bugs under cover.  Hummers and blue jays, courtin' cardinals and chickadees were about all I saw.  I think a wren flashed past and an egret monitored the dam outflow. There were buds on the chaste tree. 

Rain finally began to fall about 5pm.  I saw the juvenile cardinal looking for a handout, but it saw me.

Empty thunder

It was very hot and humid, but windy. Around mid morning I saw something moving in the expansion joint in the pool patio.  A skink emerged and peered into the water, then disappeared.  But I saw no ripples.

A tiger swallowtail laid eggs all over the cherry tree.  A male widow skimmer made forays from the bamboo perch.  Tiny, foolish skinks were everywhere - eggs must have hatched. 

In the afternoon, huge cumulus clouds raced out of the Southwest, thundering as they passed, but I saw no lightning, and about five drops of rain.   I spent a lot of pixels on the sunbeams and shadows the clouds made.  An osprey in the opposite direction under the clouds. 

The chaste tree had begun to bloom.  I inspected the figs and found a couple that looked edible.  There were still a lot of small green figs, but I've no idea if the wasps that fertilize figs linger into August.  However,it was good that I looked because I found a spiny orbweaver inside the curtain of leaves.

A damselfly watched from the edge of the pool as I rescued a honeybee.  A very dead frog was in the pool skimmer and a small dead skink on the bottom of the pool.  It wasn't the one I saw peering into the pool in the morning.  A tattered slaty skimmer replaced the widow skimmer. 

As I was dripping off, I saw a second argiope in the spartina.  It was wrapping up dinner at the center of an immense web.  A dragonfly patrolled the water's edge, but I couldn't be sure what kind it was.  It had spotted wings and might by a twelve spotted skimmer.  A yellow crowned night heron lurked by the dock.

The last cloud sailed over about 5pm but the wind didn't cease.  Hummers had a hard time between the wind and the feeder without perches. Not to mention all the chickadees that flew too close.  One gave up and tried to find a flower, but the roses were too chewed up.  A Carolina wren poked around in the rosemary but ignored the mealworms. It was still hot after dark.  I saw a few firefly flashes but nothing like June.  After midnight, we finally got a thunderstorm. 

Hot and sticky

I nearly melted while picking figs. After that I headed for the water, and saw a damselfly that looked like a male blue-fronted dancer resting on the concrete.  The water was full of goose feathers and June beetles.  I also rescued a cricket and a grasshopper.

There were lots of busy wasps and dragonflies and sidewalk tiger beetles.  The chaste tree looked like it could bloom any time. Crows set up a fuss.  A hummer came to the fresh feeder.  A mockingbird called from the hackberry and then four birds moved off West into the pines. 

A Carolina saddlebage patrolled the patio as we ate lunch.  Blue dashers occupied every vertical perch.  The black skipper returned to the mint as did a pearl crescent butterfly. Around 2pm, I saw a widow skimmer.

Clouds returned

Hummers breakfasted despite the coming and going of the seed eaters.  When I returned in the late morning, a female goldfinch was drinking from the ant moat in the hummingbird feeder.  A young skink crossed the patio in no hurry. After lunch a hummer settled into the dead dogwood twigs.

A blue dasher used one of the perches.  A butterfly sat on the orange beachball but it flew before I got a good look.  Others flitted around including one cloudless sulphur.  I saw eggs on the parsley, but no caterpillars there or on the rue.  The usual bees and wasps visited the herbs.  A flock of winged ants had landed on a leaf raft while others floated in the water.  A dead caterpillar also floated.  I don't know what it was, but it was long and slender, not swallowtail or monarch.

The spartina started to bloom.  And the chaste tree continued to put out the occasional spike of flowers.  The milkweed recovered amazingly fast - leaves were almost full grown.  The cloud cover broke apart at sunset and turned colors.  Fireflies came out before it was fully dark.  I do not remember seeing them this late in the year before. 

Clouds and wind

There were white wisps when I got up and half an hour later the sky was overcast, then that too swept off to the West.  A male goldfinch got a drink from the hummer feeder moat.  Hummers sucked up juice every couple of minutes.  I had glimpses of egrets on the creek. 

A rap on the window alerted me in time to see (but not photograph) a cicada killer in hot pursuit of a cicada.  Wow!  The wind discouraged birds and bugs for the most part.  However, an aerial battle between hummers passed right over my head.  A titmouse was unwilling to land on the feeder with me near.

The black swallowtail caterpillars are just as voracious, but they have more rue than the monarchs have milkweed.  The swallowtail is on the left and the monarch on the right.


Altogether it was not much of a photography day - just flowers and caterpillars.  There were flowers on the trumpet vine and the chaste tree.  The fern fronds were dark with spores.  The saltmarsh fleabane had buds, though there was only one plant this year. 

Drippy dawn

Either there was light rain or heavy dew overnight which left drops dangling from leaves.  Sometimes the sky had fish-scale clouds and sometimes it cleared.  At times it looked like a storm was coming but then the clouds passed or dissipated. 

A titmouse came for breakfast.  A hummer rejected the feeder juice.  The sunflowers began to unwrap.  The beautyberry and the chaste tree began to bloom while the sakaki was about finished.  Wild cherries were turning red.  Some of the stale barley I tossed out for squirrels germinated and even went to seed. 

An assassin bug nymph walked on me so I took its picture.  I fished a queen ant, a robber fly, and an ichneumon wasp out of the water, but too late for all of them.  I did save other wasps, a zelotes spider, a tiny caterpillar, and beetles, including ground, scarab, and gray sidewalk tiger beetles.  Dragonflies perched all over, though one turned out to be another robber fly.  Blue dashers, a saddlebags, and amberwing, and others I couldn't identify hunted the air over the pool.  

A yellow-kneed wasp found the yellow milkweed, as did a load of aphids.  The stalks were bare, whether from caterpillars or something else, however, seedpods were forming.  A few butterflies appeared, including a cabbage white. The orchard spider was gone from the azalea. I found a large glass snail and an almost microscopic one. Skinks enjoyed the heat. 

Crows chased something over the yard, screaming all the way.  Whatever it was it was the same size as the crows.  Egrets and night herons flew up and down the creek.  A cardinal pair hunted bugs in the grass for their offspring.  I also glimpsed a fledgling.  Blue jays evaded the camera.  Three osprey circled very high up.  A white breasted nuthatch competed with house finches and chickadees at the seed feeder.

Cooler and very pleasant

The sun shone on wet surfaces.  The blueberry plants were dripping.  A Carolina wren visited the feeder early.  At least two and I think more titmice came for seeds.  A female house finch hunkered down and drove off chickadees and titmice till the cardinals showed up.  Another mud wasp obsessed over the glass door and a yellow kneed wasp landed on the screen. K hung fresh hummer juice. 

A buzzard circled at lunch.  The hummer appeared pleased with the fresh juice.  A brown thrasher was busy all afternoon all over the yard, as though it had started another family in the camellia.  A yellow crowned night heron rested on the dock.  A white breasted nuthatch scurried around a dogwood.  A male goldfinch checked out the progress of the sunflowers while a dove poked around underneath. House wrens sang and scolded and investigated the pool skimmings. 

I rescued two June bugs and saw a small gray tiger beetle hot-footing it on the concrete.  An immature male widow skimmer took up post by the steps while a black saddlebags patrolled overhead.  Female widow skimmers hung out in the bushes.  Earlier, a blue dasher perched on another pole, and later I saw a twelve-spotted skimmer.  A tiger swallowtail made a few passes through the yard.  A painted (or American) lady turned up its proboscis at the roses.  I saw a hairstreak or something like it on the chaste tree flowers.  Bees and a few wasps enjoyed the sunflowers, except when they landed on the same one.  A large blue-tailed skink showed up on the patio. 

At first the clouds were coming from the South, then lower clouds began to come in from the East.  Late in the afternoon, a bit of rainbow appeared high in the West in advance of thick cloud cover.  I think it must have been a sort of mist because no rain fell out of that blue sky.  Rain did begin after sunset.

Summer heat

Though this is no hotter than the last couple of weeks of Spring.  The first sunflower opened overnight.  The sakaki began blooming to the delight of bees and fireflies.  I noticed the chaste tree was blooming too, as I watered the transplanted azaleas. 

A black swallowtail took an interest in the rue and a tiger flitted through.  Saddlebags appeared in the late morning and a red Carolina saddlebags found a perch on a dead twig in a dogwood.

While in the pool rescuing beetles and a wasp, I found a pinkish caterpillar floating limply.  I wonder if it was the wasp's prey?  Also, while floating I observed papa cardinal feeding a fuzzy gray youngster in a cedar.  Mama cardinal carried nesting into a different cedar.  And the house wrens were all around.

Four twelve-spotted skimmers took over the airspace.  Appropriately for the first day after the solstice, I heard cicadas.  Three goldfinches (two were females) visited but wouldn't let me take a photo.  Big cumulus clouds sailed East in the middle of the afternoon, then the sky cleared, then it got hazy with faint pressure ridges.  Meanwhile the crescent moon moved from overhead to behind the roof.

In the twilight, as the sky went silver and the fireflies began to flash, the cardinals were still feeding at the sunflower cafe.