Hibiscus blossom

I forgot to make an entry yesterday but it wasn't a dull day.  The male goldfinch seemed to be getting a drink every time I looked.  I camera-chased a tiger swallowtail.  Also I've been noticing wild cherry leaves carefully sculpted by caterpillars to hide that they've been partly eaten.  A spider was rafting on a sculpted leaf so I brought it to land.  It spun a bit of web then launched itself up into the dogwood, at least six feet up and away.  I thought it was one of the heptagonal orbweavers, but it was more brown with a butterfly shape marked in beige.  Turns out it is a butterfly orbweaver Araneus pegnia.  I also got pictures of the floating pine needles making occult symbols in the breeze.  A buzzard flew over and a hummer visited the fresh feeder.  

The morning looked nice but I had a meeting.  I think this may be the latest in the year that the hibiscus has bloomed.  There was a hummer and a goldfinch.  In the afternoon, I waited for some shade but almost waited too long and got sprinkled upon.  A cicada was submerged on the top step so I fished it out. Later I carried it up the steps for a photo and it began to revive!  iNaturalist identified it as a Northern dusk-singing cicada Megatibicen grossus.  

A frog in the skimmer seemed dead so I disposed of it.  Another in the pool was bigger and fairly lively, but I caught it. A determined mosquito bit me on my face since that was all it could reach.  I did my best to drown it.  I saw a monarch and a little skink as I dripped off.  I couldn't find any monarch caterpillars but the parsley plant I bought had a first instar black swallowtail caterpillar.  There were flashes of sunshine between the thunderheads while I was outside, but thunder and real rain began before 6pm.  It cleared after about half an hour.  

 

Beautiful weather

The day was sunny and warm enough with a breeze and low humidity.  In the morning the sky was so blue it seemed to have a tinge of purple.  I found two live frogs and a dead amberwing dragonfly in the pool.  A glass snail may have been estivating.  A tiger swallowtail egged the cherry but I got only glimpses of other butterflies.  The camera caught a snout and a mint moth.  I heard a goldfinch and then it alighted for a drink.  But the second I moved, it was gone.  I fed a few peanuts to the squirrel with the tuft of pale hair.  It had scratched bare spots around its neck, maybe warbles.  

A blue dasher perched on the rosemary.  One hummer vigorously defended "her feeders" from another.  The mountain mint was no longer attracting pollinators and even the milkweed wasn't getting much attention except for very tiny insects.  Cicadas sang at least three different tunes.  I suppose I could use my phone to record and ID them.  A Carolina wren indulged in barkbutter balls.  A skink and I spotted each other on the steps and it disappeared immediately.  

Sunny day

The day was quite warm but the breeze made it very pleasant.  A female downy woodpecker had a seed breakfast.  A Carolina wren also visited.  Hummers found the new feeder, which was fortunate because the old one was empty.  (I'll put the other out tomorrow.) There were at least two hummers because I saw one chase another away.  I spotted one preening in the wild cherry.  

A  bird circling very high was a Mississippi kite. Another, I think, was a vulture.  Again, there were two frogs but they didn't put up much of a chase.  I rescued a spider from a mostly submerged twig.  The pool steps had a lot of drowned greenhouse millipedes.  A cicada's cast-off shell was lying on the patio.  I also found some cicada wings that had been discarded by whatever ate one.  There were plenty left to sing in the afternoon sunshine.  

The sky was mostly clear blue with clouds being hurried along by the West wind.  Occasionally, they cast sunbeams against the upper atmosphere.  I saw skinks of all sizes running errands and basking in the just right temperature.  Alas, they always dodged out of sight when I moved the camera   A blue dasher kept my space clear of small fliers.  

The butterfly milkweed had more pods developing than I have ever seen, probably because it wasn't feeding any caterpillars.  I think wasps got them.  Tiger swallowtails flew around the trees and a dark butterfly swooped through closer to the ground.  I saw something that might have been a snout heading into the dogwood.  A strange feather blew around the patio.  I thought it was white till I caught it and realized it was half black.  It was a big body contour feather so it came off a large bird, possibly the kite?  

 

Chilly

By lunch, a white sky dimmed the sun and the breeze came in chilly gusts.  The caterpillars were all still present and I located the three Argiope spiders, though one had moved up to the wall above the door which seemed like an odd place to hang out.  It also seemed strange that the monarch caterpillars chewed on the milkweed pods which I'd think would be tougher than leaves, not to mention needful for future generations of caterpillars.  

I found a defunct cicada afloat.  The millipede, Oxidus gracili, from yesterday was definitely a goner.  On the other hand, I rescued another millipede, an isopod, a wasp, a small brown spider, and four pale green assassin bugs, two of which were quite lively.  The other two were tangled together and I moved them near one that was recovering.  It scuttled over to investigate, and possibly cannibalize!  A red spotted purple briefly danced over the water.  Dogwood leaves began to lose their chlorophyll.  Beautyberries turned magenta.  A Carolina wren hid behind rose thorns.  I startled a young skink.  This has been a memorably dry August.  Rainfall was only 1.6" and the average is 5.8" though I'm sure that includes some hurricanes.  

Cicada

The morning sky was white from a thin overcast and not much was happening at breakfast time.  Cornell shared a link for a Fall bird Migration Dashboard but it indicates this is not yet the time for Virginia.  A Carolina wren finally came for suet.  The spiders were, of course, patient.  Around 2pm, the sky cleared enough for sunshine.  Fluffy cumulus blew away to the West while a high layer of cirrocumulus slid slowly East.  I went outside and a cicada buzzed past to land on the feeder post.  A blue dasher decided that was way too big a bug.  

The clouds dissipated and the sun became very hot.  The fungus under the oak seemed bigger but still looked like fresh bread.  Some beautyberry clusters showed a hint of red.  I located the three black swallowtail caterpillars again, though I was expecting the biggest one to have gone off to pupate.  It looked like it might stay right there for the change. 

Lots of butterflies were on the wing but few stopped to pose.  One that did was a dark swallowtail that I think might be a dark phase tiger swallowtail.  It rested on a dogwood leaf long enough for me to get out of the water, get the camera, and stalk it.  Eventually it flew to a lower bush and then danced in the air with another dark butterfly.  It disappeared, then a dark butterfly I thought was the same one flew to the top of the wild cherry where it seemed to be laying eggs.  Seeing the wings against the bright sky lent some proof to the tiger hypothesis.  

A red spotted purple drank from the pool, then rested on the concrete.  Unlike the swallowtail, it was quite tattered.  Another, in better shape, rested on a maple leaf.  I also glimpsed a monarch, a hackberry emperor, a summer azure, a sleepy orange, and others I couldn't identify.  

In the late afternoon, a fresh sheet of cirrocumulus rolled out of the West.  It moved on through quickly and the sunlight returned.  A female widow skimmer landed on one of the perches, then switched to another.  A male hummer visited the feeder but the light didn't catch his gorget. 

A change of nuthatches

A white breasted nuthatch came for breakfast but I didn't see a brown headed nuthatch all day.  Titmice, however, did want seeds.  A Carolina wren cared more about suet than the heat.  A house finch sat beside the ripe wild cherries pretending he had no interest in them.  A hummer showed up but I was sitting to close to the feeder.  The day was oppressively hot, but afternoon clouds prevented the thermometer from reaching triple digits.  

I glimpsed a rabbit hop past the deep end of the pool.  Squirrels were leaping from tree to tree playing "chase me," I think.  A fiery skipper blended in with the milkweed.  Dragonflies perched and hunted, in front and in back.  There were, indeed, two Argiope  spiders in the front yard, one guarding the peppers and the other watching over the lantana.  The pepper minder had caught a cicada and dropped the carcass into the flowerpot.  It had a stinkbug as well, still in the web.  The one in back seemed satisfied with its current location.   

Butterflies

The male goldfinch was back this morning.  I glimpsed a towhee for just a second.  A Carolina wren argued with a downy woodpecker but in the end they both got some suet.  A great blue heron preened on a dock post in the afternoon sun.  I didn't see any nuthatches or bluebirds till late in the day. 

The party on the mountain mint expanded to include a fiery skipper and a buckeye butterfly.  A blue dasher chaperoned.  The bee with the pantaloons was back.  A big carpenter bee showed up.  So did the first great golden digger wasp of the season.  Cicadas sang in the trees though I didn't see any.  I rescued a robber fly from drowning. 

A black swallowtail was more interested in the rue.  A Guinea paper wasp agreed, but for different reasons.   A bud on the hibiscus looked ready to open.  Unfortunately, the sawflies got way ahead of me and chewed up all the leaves and damaged many flower buds.  What I think was a tiger bee fly, Xenox tigrinus, landed on the retaining wall.  

Cicada

A blue dasher dragonfly perched outside my window.  Its wings were oddly dark but eyes and body markings were right.  Ground cherries were blooming.  Flower clusters appeared on the beautyberry bush.  The young garden spiders were doing well.  Wasps visited the mountain mint.  Blue jays preferred the barkbutter balls.  My swim was very late in the day.   

I was enjoying the evening, watching fireflies, when a cicada started singing.  

 

Hot sun, cool breeze

The sky was intensely blue.  A Carolina wren gleaned crumbs for breakfast, reminding me to refill the hanging dishes.  The male juvie cardinal looked almost adult.  Only his beak gave him away.  Another male fledgling was still doing the feed-me shake.  

The aster put out a late blossom.  Dogwood berries looked ripe.  So dis some of the beautyberry clusters.  A cabbage white seemed interested in morning glory leaves.  Bumblebees joined wasps on the mountain mint.  I found the remains of a black swallowtail in the remains of a web.  Another flitted around the rue.  The monarch caterpillar seemed a little fatter.  I found a drowned cicada but this one was only half the size of the one I found last week.  It was quite green too.  A fuzzy yellow caterpillar climbed the side of the pool and disappeared.  I think it was a yellow woolybear, Spilosoma virginica. 

I saw several blue tailed skinks including one I rescued from the pool.  I thought I saw two frogs in the water but one turned out to be the skink.  The lizard seemed to be following the frog around and even climbed on top once.  After I put the skink out on the nice hot concrete, I evicted the frog as well.  But then it or another appeared back in the water. 

Blue jays feasted on acorns and weren't very interested in the feeders.  Two red bellied woodpeckers landed on the maple trunk but quickly sidled out of sight.  A mockingbird also hid in the leaves.  White breasted nuthatches were brave enough to get seeds while I was outside.  

Florida Predatory Stink Bug

A Carolina wren came for breakfast, but not very early.  The male fledgling cardinal posed nicely on the birdbath.  And the I was busy until my afternoon dip.

There were two frogs today.  It took a while to catch both of them and persuade them to leave.  I also removed a very small spider that had located on the top step where I was likely to brush against it.  A Florida Predatory Stink Bug (Euthyrhynchus floridanus) was floating in the water.  It was only the second one I've ever seen and the other one was in almost the same spot, years ago.  Anyway, I rescued the bug and took it up to the patio for a photo session.  It was orange on the belly as well as the three spots on the back.  The rest was a pretty metallic green but I didn't have very good light.  The cicada I found yesterday was feeding a nest of small ants.  

Sunset was colorful enough to pull me away from the computer and outside.  There were a lot of clouds and no moon.  

Hints of Autumn

The creek was a placid mirror reminding me that even though the reflected leaves were still green, the weather patterns have begun shifting toward Autumn.  The air was humid again but the sky was blue with cotton fluff.  A mallard preened on the dock.  The beautyberries got redder.  Two hummers zoomed past repeatedly as one tried to raid the feeder and the other defended it.  A mockingbird came for barkbutter balls.

I found a big cicada floating in the water.  I wasn't sure if it was dead or just needed to dry out.  There were lots of adult two-lined spittlebugs Prosapia bicincta in the water too.  They were hardly bigger than the cicada's mouth but a close look revealed that the two insects are quite similar except for size.  Spittlebugs belong in the froghopper family, Cercopidae.  Wasps prowled the mountain mint.  Two frogs and a skink were also in the water.  The cricket I rescued might have lured the skink. 

Cooler

This time the storm did lower the temperature, if not the humidity.  The white breasted nuthatches were looking for breakfast.  A male hummer came for brunch, soon followed by a Carolina wren, but at a different feeder.  I glimpsed a skink on the patio, then another on the wall, and later found one drowned in the skimmer.  

A slaty skimmer used one of my perches.  A dark butterfly fluttered close to the trees.  The discarded husk of a cicada was floating in the pool.  Two Carolina wrens shared a dead branch in the dogwood.  Sunset painted a peach tint on a bar of cloud that extended across the sky from Southwest to Northeast.  The cicadas and tree crickets were loud at dusk, but I saw no fireflies. 

Rinse and repeat

The day began hot and stifling.  Yesterday's rain did not bring relief to either temperature or humidity.  White breasted nuthatches were frustrated that cardinals and finches monopolized the seed feeder.  One nuthatch seemed to be pacing vertically on the post.  A Carolina wren was into everything. 

I had a hurried morning swim because I thought I had an 11am meeting.  While in the water, I saw where a hummer had perched to monitor the feeder.  But I could not find the right twig once I got out.  She swooped in several times to protect "her" feeder from other hummers but was too fast for me.  So was the only skink I saw and a dark butterfly that might have been a red spotted purple.  Clouds started piling up around 2:30pm. They cast some sunbeams and cloud shadows but nothing particularly impressive.  

Blue jays were motivated to gobble up the mushy barkbutter balls and mealworms even though I was sitting very close.  The young birds were less wary.  One blue jay caught what I think was a cicada.  An egret stalked downstream below the dam.  Bees worked fast on the mountain mint.  The wren prowled some more.  Despite the muggy, buggy weather, I saw no dragonflies. 

The sky grew very dark and today's thunderstorm arrived about 5pm.  Just before the rain began, a red spotted purple butterfly hid in the hackberry tree.  It was over less than an hour later, but for many minutes it was a real gully washer.  

Pleasant

Morning was overcast and humid but the clouds groke up by mid day ans ad the temperature rose the humidity dropped.  The hibiscus put on a show with a half dozen flowers.  Hummers visited but I didn't get any photos. 

I evicted a couple of frogs from the pool for their own good, also beetles and a wasp.  We went over to pick figs bur there weren't many and they weren't quite ripe.  One of the pepper plants had started a pepper.  The sunflower over there had not yer bloomed, unlike the one by the pool.  The dog splooted in the grass.

A cloud wisp had a hint of sundog color.   Blue jays besieged the barkbutter balls.  But they were ousted by the female red bellied woodpecker.  The camera insisted on focusing on the trees in the background.  I sat outside in the twilight and saw a couple of fireflies.  I could hear cicadas and tree crickets and, I think, a buzzy-voiced bird.  Wisps of cloud drifted East.  It was too early for stars, planets, or moon.  

So humid

At breakfast, the windows were fogged and everything dripped.  Hardly any air movement mitigated the misery.  Why did I ever want to explore the Amazon?  Fortunately, as the day warmed, the humidity dropped.  The brown headed nuthatch joined the usual seed eaters.  Hummers objected to the main feeder but found the little one.  Sawflies defoliated the hibiscus because I couldn't spray during rain spells.  Spider mites went to work on the mountain mint and the rosemary.  I glimpsed a dragonfly in the morning.  Another used one of the perches.  A red and black fly sat on one of the outdoor chairs.  I chased a frog around the pool.  Skinks scampered across the patio.  Cicadas sang.  

Hairstreak

I admired the flowers in the front since the day lilies and hibiscus finished in back.  The mountain mint had its usual complement of bees and wasps, plus a black and white banded sand wasp.  And a gray hairstreak butterfly Strymon melinus visited the mountain mint.  

The black swallowtail caterpillar hadn't gone far.  A dragonfly took the perch outside my window. A swamp cicada, Neotibicen tibicen, for some strange reason. clung to the patio concrete.  In the afternoon, the sky clouded over and threatened, but didn't deliver.  I swam anyway and rescued beetles and a mama spider.  The wind kept blowing needles and leaves into the water faster than I could clean up.