Skinks

The temperature was still cool but by tomorrow it is predicted to warm up.  A hummer arrived before its feeder was ready.   Again the yellow cat hunted in exactly the same spot as yesterday, apparently fascinated by something on the ground.  I yelled at it.  A tiny skink ran across the patio before I could get a picture.  That was about it for the morning, but when I went out to swim things livened up.  An adult skink that should have known better was floating near the steps.  It wasn't moving and I was worried, but soon it began to paw at the pool wall.  I eased it out and noticed it was very thick in the middle like it might be pregnant.  (Is that the right term for an egg layer?)  

Not too long after, I found a young blue-tailed skink paddling in the deep end. I carried it back to the steps for a posing session.  When I looked later, the silly thing had its nose over the edge peering down at the water.  So I beeped its nose.  It took the hint.

Meanwhile, a cicada killer wasp had also fallen into the water and all my rescue sticks were missing.  I found a dead twig and carefully lifted it out.  As often happens, it didn't want to let go of the twig for a while.  Eventually, it got over the trauma and flew away.  I also rescued a ladybug and some scarabs.  The sky was a deep, clear blue and the sun was hot to balance the chilly breeze.  

I could only find one Argiope, the one behind the bench.  When I checked the rue, the chrysalis was fine.  I noticed a first instar caterpillar, a middle size caterpillar that might have just molted, and only a couple of the big ones.  But I didn't see any more chrysalises.  On the butterfly milkweed, I located the same caterpillars as yesterday.  

Yet another skink hustled across the patio and the steps.  Its tail was so blue it was ultraviolet.  At supper, a punk-looking blue jay wanted barkbutter balls.  A couple of titmice argued over the menu.  The usual species kept the seed feeder busy.  

Cicada killer

The cicada killer wasp was floating in the water and I rescued it very carefully.  It slowly revived and eventually flew away.  I also fished out a black and green caterpillar but I think it was a goner.  When I was coming back to the house, a male widow skimmer alighted on one of the bamboo perches.  

A very young skink climbed the feeder post.  Luck for it, no hungry bird happened to be visiting at the time.  Grown skinks often climb the brick walls of the house but I've no idea why climbing appeals to skinks.  Watered-down sunlight came through the cloud cover but no rain fell.  A fine, new fungus popped up under the oak.  At this stage it looks to me like slices of bread   

A brown headed nuthatch visited the seed feeder.  A male and a female cardinal got into a fight at the feeder.  Since two pairs come to the feeder and one pair is dominant, I'm guessing the two birds were from different pairs.  A downy ate suet and titmice feasted on seeds and suet.  I dumped yesterday's rainwater out of the feeder dishes but didn't refill them because of the impending hurricane.  

 

3 frogs

I overslept.  A cicada killer was busy around the violets next to the birdbath.   A hummer was hungry for breakfast. 

One frog sat on the top step of the pool ladder.  It evicted itself as I came close.  The other two were on my "rescue stick" that I wedged into the coping to aid critters to escape drowning.  One was sitting on top of the other.  By the time I got out and got the camera one frog had left.  The other stayed put the whole time I swam around.  After I got out, there were two frogs again. 

The hummer was standing guard in the dogwood again.  Blue jays got excited about the barkbutter balls.  A female bluebird tried to get a few.  Even a female cardinal sampled them.  The bald male stuck with seeds.  The female downy came for seeds too.  A song sparrow pounced on a fallen seed. 

The wind grew very gusty especially when a cloud blocked the sun.  The fungus under the oak reappeared.  A blue dasher guarded the patio. The Argiope with wanderlust was still behind my chair.  Tiny midges swarmed over a stinkbug the Argiope had wrapped.  The blue dasher was replaced by a larger skimmer, maybe a slaty.  And still I got bit.  

Still hot

As I dripped off, a cicada killer prowled over the mountain mint.  It zoomed off just as I got the camera ready.  A dragonfly monitored the pool.  The lanceleaf coreopsis started blooming again.  

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. 

 

Fans of figs

The fledgling bluebirds were still sharing food.  A goldfinch checked the sunflower to see if there were any more seeds.  A Carolina wren scurried around.  An odd-looking starling visited, perhaps a juvenile not done changing feathers.  It weighed too much for the seed feeder. 

Argiope #2 was sitting on its zigzag web, waiting.   A fiery skipper probed a violet leaf.  I picked a lot of figs very carefully.  A blue jay and another bird might have been a brown thrasher ate figs that were out of my reach.  The wasps were easier photo subjects, especially the cicada killers.  June beetles and flies also enjoyed rotting fig.  I had to scrub fig mud off my shoes.

I discovered one of the tobacco hornworms had drowned in the pool.   Afterward, I watched the mountain mint while I dripped.  Another fiery skipper showed up.  A blue jay watched me.  A blue dasher hunted from a bamboo stake perch. 

Later, I discovered a slender bug on the door frame.  A black swallowtail kept returning to the rue.  Another dragonfly used a bare wild cherry twig as a vantage point.  I thought it was a Carolina saddlebags, but the photos look like a widow skimmer.  The sky was a clear blue background for twelve-spotted dragonflies. A tiger swallowtail did not hang around for a portrait.  A second blue dasher tried to dislodge the one on the perch but lost and retreated to a gladiolus stalk. 

A skink chased another across the patio.  A hummer objected to my proximity. A mockingbird grudgingly let a blue jay eat first.  Then more jays arrived.  And even a juvenile bluebird  cut in line.  But eventually the mockingbird ate its fill.  Seems hard to believe they chase crows but won't argue with a blue jay.  A white breasted nuthatch came for seeds.  

Too many photos

The young cardinal stood around on the roof of the feeder looking foolish.  Eventually it dropped down to the perch to eat.  Its beak was beginning to change color.  

On my way to pick figs, I discovered a life-and-death drama.  A full grown tobacco hornworm caterpillar was thrashing on a ground-cherry stalk, trying to keep a parasitoid tachinid fly from landing on it.  Two more caterpillars were hiding out on a nearby stalk, hoping the fly wouldn't notice them.  I thought the fly looked pretty distinctive -- pale gray with red fore and aft -- but I didn't find a clear match online.  

The Argiope spider was still guarding the figs.  Two red spotted purple butterflies flitted around the fermenting fruit.  Green June beetles, bald faced hornets, and cicada killers slurped up fig insides.  I think another tachinid fly was enjoying fig juice too.  The whole area smelled like a brewery.  Mosquitoes and other small biters were thick even though a strong breeze funneled through.  On the way back, I spotted a little green bee but all three caterpillars had disappeared. 

I was so ready for a swim to wash off my hot, stick, buggy skin, but the pool offered another round of critters.  Twice I rescued a mama wolf spider and had to chase her away from taking a third dip.  I also very carefully rescued a Polistes wasp like the one that stung me when I moved a birdhouse she was using.  And, I found a small crab on the bottom which I was able to catch.  K kindly took the pictures since I couldn't get my hand far enough from the lens.  It had some odd markings and folds on the back and was missing at least one leg on the left.  I wonder if it was a soft shell? The back leg was a claw, not a paddle, so it wasn't a blue crab.  

A blue dasher occupied the perch by the red aster and another was on the perch by my window.  But the perch by the hibiscus had a bar winged skimmer.  I think a saddlebags flew overhead.  Bees and wasps worked on the mountain mint.  A thread waisted wasp splooted on the concrete!  A snout butterfly flitted around my head and later a duskywing did the same.  I don't understand the attraction.  A fiery skipper stuck to the mountain mint like a sensible butterfly. 

A female hummer chased a male away from her juice.  Blue jays dropped in for barkbutter balls.  A mockingbird appeared to be miffed at having to wait for a turn, especially since the blue jay took all it could cram into its beak.  I heard raptor cries and looked up to see three circling.  

A skink chased another across the patio.  I only got a picture of the chaser.  Maybe its regrown tail made it grumpy?  It's amazing that they can regrow the tail but cannot re-pigment it.  Another with a similar tail climbed the step wall later.  I stopped taking pictures around 1pm because I had well over three hundred.  

Very hot

Early in the day, a cicada killer came bumping wt the glass, and then flew on about its business.  A hummer objected to the sugar water in its feeder so K hung a fresh batch. I very carefully rescued a large black bee and some brown beetles.  But I saw a skink dash after something in the air, maybe a jumping cricket?  As I dripped dry, a skink sunbathed on the step.  Turtles gathered on their log.   An egret fished under the bulkhead.  A four spotted pennant used one of the dragonfly perches. Then a slaty skimmer took possession  The underside of  black bee's abdomen collected pollen.  And it was still over 90 after sunset. 

Bees

I carried a pitcher outside to brew sun tea and found a "gift."  A dead cicada killer was lying on the patio.  It was nice to have a leisurely look at a wasp that's always on the move in life.  I also saw a ladybird beetle on the milkweed that the monarchs preferred for their eggs.  On closer examination, I could see aphids that the beetle may have been after.  The beetle had many spots so it was probably the imported Asian species that's sold as a "natural" pest control. 

At lunchtime, a black swallowtail dined on butterfly milkweed flowers.  Carolina wrens made the feeder rounds.  The Argiope by the patio switched sides on its web.  A female amberwing hunted from a base in the rue.  For some strange reason, with loads of leaves available, the monarch caterpillar ate a hole in a milkweed seedpod. 

I found a dead frog in the skimmer and a live one sitting on the ladder. I chased that one all over the pool but finally evicted it after it climbed up my suit.  I wouldn't bother but I believe that the pool water poisons them.  I also found a bluetail skink swimming and fished it out.  It was not grateful. Bright sun, low humidity, but a breeze from the North made swimming slightly chilly.  The water was still warm but I felt the breeze as I waited outside till I finished dripping. 

The green bee was back and there may have been two of them,  There were at least two great black wasps and several great golden digger wasps.  No butterflies came to either the mountain mint or the spearmint but I saw an azure fluttering around the trees.  When I looked for the new Argiope, the web was empty but I thought something dropped from it.  But then I found a full grown Argiope drowned on the top pool step. 

I also pursued photos of the dark honeybees.  Later, when I did a little research, I learned that there are two subspecies that look dark gray Apis Mellifera Carnica and Apis Mellifera Caucasica and two more that are much darker than the ones I've seen. And a bigger surprise - the "regular" honeybees on the mountain mint seem to be the Africanized hybrid Apis Mellifera Scutellata.  I suppose that explains why the dark ones give way to the lighter colored bees.  But another source suggests they might all be from the same hive, only with different fathers.

 A full grown skink came very close as I watched the bees.  One of a handful of titmice had no tail. The dock was full of mallards, mostly drakes in eclipse.  

Cicada killer

A black swallowtail visited the rue.  A tiger swallowtail posed with the asters while I was in the pool with no camera.  A female skimmer used a perch but a Halloween pennant clung to the topmost pine candle.  A male widow skimmer rested on a dried stalk of spartina.  A blue dasher found a different stake to perch on. 

The giant wasp roamed around the patio and especially the birdbath as though certain there was a cicada around.  I wondered if it could sense the one that landed on the feeder hanger a couple of days ago.  Other wasps and bees obsessed over the mountain mint. 

A couple of turtles basked in the sunlight.  The male hummer returned and a female also fed.  The sugar water was almost gone by evening.  Sunset was orange and streaky.  

Everybody loves figs

The dark-morph tiger swallowtail was back at breakfast but we did not see it after that. We went to pick whatever had ripened since the storm.  Some figs had fermented and some had rotted or grown mold.  Others were being nibbled by all sorts of insects from big green June beetles to bald-faced hornets.  I even saw a cicada killer. 

The mountain mint was still busy with wasps and a few bees, and one fiery skipper.  A Summer Azure (Celastrina neglecta) preferred the herb mint. Blue mud wasps were back.  I found a massive brown longhorn beetle dead in the pool skimmer.  A female blue dasher kept watch for smaller meals. 

A Carolina wren was pleased I dumped the last of a bag of bark butter balls (mostly fragments) into the tub of bark butter to keep it from melting.  A blue jay wasn't so sure. 

In the late afternoon, clouds gathered and thunder rumbled but nothing came of it.  Robins and mockingbirds feasted on the figs and the wild cherries.  One mockingbird scolded and chased a squirrel down the sidewalk.  I saw a question mark butterfly on a fig leaf but no sign of the cicada killer.  However, the cat was lurking around, probably hoping for an unwary fledgling. 

A yellow crowned night heron rested on one foot on a dock piling.  Hummers visited, glad to have the good feeder back with perches so they don't have to hover.

Lively

For July, it was pleasant - low 90s and moderate humidity.  All sorts of wildlife showed up to enjoy the day. A blue jay began with a bark butter ball.  Then I spotted a cicada killer in the chaste tree.

At lunch, a buckeye joined the bees and wasps on the mountain mint.  A black swallowtail circled the rue.  I found a blue mud wasp on the mountain mint. A night heron landed on the dock while I was pruning hackberry branches that intruded into my view. 
I rescued a young earwig and got stung again by another dratted sweat bee.  And I found a mud crab in the pool which I netted and released downhill.
A slaty skimmer was bumped from its perch by a widow skimmer.  I saw several skinks but only got pictures of a very small one. 

Up on a sunny oak limb, a male red bellied woodpecker was having a spa day, preening and sunbathing.  Earlier it had raided the bark butter balls. A brown thrasher had the same idea.  Bluebirds made occasional visits.  The Carolina wren preferred to take its bark butter ball under a chair and peck it apart.  Goldfinches came to drink from the ant moat. 


The crescent moon was faintly visible overhead mid afternoon. It was sharper after dark, but there was less light for the camera. 

Gray sky

As I ate breakfast outside, I noticed a slug on a leaf that had come to the point and was figuring out how to turn back.   A hummer joined me for breakfast.  

The air seemed very damp and toward evening there were showers.  A frog was in the skimmer.  It leapt into the pool but eventually I caught it and told it to leave.  I don't mind swimming with frogs but the water seems to poison them. I rescued a green June beetle and a metallic green tiger beetle. 

And after I got out, I found a monarch caterpillar climbing a bamboo stake and persuaded it to relocate to the butterfly weed.  A green pondhawk perched on the feeder handle by my window.  

While I was on the phone in the afternoon,all sorts of things flew by.  I saw a cicada killer, butterflies, and dragonflies.  A flock of robins landed in the cherry tree.  A Carolina wren thoroughly inspected the redwood trunk.  Chicadees and cardinals hunted in the saltbush while house finches poked through the cherry. 

Peninsula garden

K gave a presentation at the UU Fellowship of the Peninsula and I discovered they had a community vegetable garden.  It included several varieties of sunflowers, one of them bushy with smaller flowers which were overrun with bees and butterflies: two tiger swallowtails, a silver spotted skipper, and a painted lady.  The profusion of bugs attracted Eastern pondhawks and a golden winged skimmer.  I didn't ask but I suspect the flowers were Jerusalem artichoke - Helianthus tuberosus.  Maybe I should get one from the grocery and plant it? The sun was scorching and there wasn't much breeze to move the sticky air.


When we finally got home, a palamedes swallowtail was fluttering around the patio, but I missed it.  There were buds on one of the new lavenders and flowers on the butterfly milkweed.  A female Needham's skimmer used a perch near the flowers.  And of course there were blue dashers.  Wasps worked on the mints.  I fished a lacewing out of the water but I think it was dead.  By then the sky was full of menacing clouds racing East while the temperature dropped. 

I thought I'd seen a hummingbird with a white crown and now I have proof.   Meanwhile, a cardinal learned a bitter lesson.  He spied a fat green caterpillar in the rue and found that it tasted nasty.  The caterpillar died but presumably some of its siblings will be saved as long as the cardinal remembers.   Blue jays took a break from the blueberries to have some bark butter balls.  Chickadees and titmice and a finch stocked up on seeds. 

Ducks joined a turtle on the lake snags.  An egret staked upstream along the far bank.  The chaste tree was nearly finished blooming.  A cicada killer zoomed all around me, frustrating my effort to get a decent photo.  Thunder rumbled and convinced me to leave the pool but very little rain fell and the sky cleared before sunset. 

Warmer

 A hummer came for breakfast.   So did cardinals.  I wasted pixels chasing a tiger swallowtail with the camera.  When I did catch it, the wrong branches of the cherry tree were in focus.  The wild cherries were beginning to get red. 

 A great blue heron stalked the mud at low tide till a kayaker startled it.  Dragonflies watched from dead saltbush branches.  One was a great blue skimmer and the other a Needham's skimmer.  The camera wanted to focus on the water.  Four turtles soaked up sun on the lake snags. 

Basilica spiders were all over the rue.  I saw a bright metallic blue bee under the parsley, but it got away.  And I rescued a drowning cicada killer. 

A buckeye butterfly fed on the parsley.  Another golden Needham's skimmer stayed low on the rosemary to avoid the wind and the wasps.  Then a male Needham's showed up in all his red glory.

A Carolina wren seemed interested in the birdhouse in the camellia.  The paper wasps were frustrated by the treated wood in the bench seat.  A tired dragonfly landed on a chair back and refused to move. 

I was worried about the mountainmint because it was getting pale.  Turns out that happens before blooming.  But now I'm not sure I got the right kind of mountainmint.  What I got was clustered mountainmint.  Common or Virginia mountainmint apparently has prettier flowers.  And there are more mountainmints. 

No rain!

A skink basked by the birdbath.  I spied a very tiny caterpillar on a milkweed pod.  The argiope switched sides on the web. The sky was that intense blue that borders on ultraviolet.  Cumulus popped up in the South but went nowhere. 


I spent a long time in the pool.  There were four live frogs and a very dead one in the skimmer. Also a big green June beetle with its wings out. And I saved two swimming skinks. one of which fell in right in front of me.  But the real treat was a cicada killer that somehow landed on its back in the deep end.  I gave it the far end of a stick to grab and swam for the camera.

I also saw a mockingbird on the ground foraging under the oak.  But I was in the deep end and I figured that if I went for the camera the bird would leave.  After I got out, a hummer perched right overhead.  And that's when the camera battery died.  It was on the same perch that I had photographed and accidentally deleted the other day.  I saw butterflies but hardly any dragonflies.  At least four blue jays sassed me and stole bark butter balls. 

Rain

Clouds came and went in the morning but looked like rain more often than not.  Blue morning glories bloomed.  A snowy egret looked down at the dam spillway.  The raggedy hummer came back.   Blue jays fussed at each other over the rain-melted bark butter balls.

The rain held off till afternoon so I got some time in the pool.  I left the camera in the house though, just in case.  I pitched two dead frogs down the hill and evicted two live ones I found in the skimmer.  No doubt they'll be back.  I also rescued a couple of mama spiders.  Another spider, unencumbered with offspring, insisted on a spot on the ladder - it jumped back into the pool when I fished it out.  A monarch and a tiger swallowtail argued over the milkweed.  I saw a cicada killer hunting. 

The great crested flycatcher was back too.  They look as cuddly as a teddy bear.  A bar winged skimmer used the bamboo perch while a slaty skimmer perched on a dead dogwood twig.  A skink caught a bug right in the middle of the patio.  A couple more skinks ventured out later.  A duskywing skipper flitted around rather close to where I'd recently seen a skink. 

There were a couple of deluges with damp mist between.  A great egret rested on the dock.  I believe I saw a Mississippi kite!  It was raining under scary clouds when I went off to my meeting. Coming home after dark was drier but distant lightning flashed and I was glad to pull into the garage.

Come-and-go rain

Rain, overcast, wind, and sunshine made a very changeable morning.  There was activity in the cherry tree early on, but I couldn't see clearly which birds were involved.  Hummers, titmice, wrens, and blue jays were visible, along with the usual chickadees, house finches, and cardinals. 

A few dragonflies, bees and wasps, and a black swallowtail ventured out in the lulls.  I saw a full grown skink and then a tiny (new-hatched?) blue tail.

In the afternoon, a male goldfinch appeared to be trying to get something out of the ant moat in the hummer feeder.  A young mockingbird hunted cherries.  The cicada killer proved as impossible to photograph as ever.

Cooler

Puffball cumulus clouds drifted West at breakfast.  Hummers and wrens were breakfasting out. I missed the bulk of the day, but got outside in the late afternoon.  By then clouds were beginning to build up, and by sunset the sky looked stormy.

Dragonflies were thick - I saw red and yellow bodies, spotted, saddlebagged, and black tipped wings.  I also saw a cicada killer but could not get a good shot.  The cicadas were loud.  I managed to rescue a scoliid wasp from the water without either of us getting hurt. A sidewalk tiger beetle dashed across the patio, almost invisible against the concrete. 

A Carolina wren tried the suet feeder. The house wren cussed me out from so close I jumped. I heard jays and crows and suspect a hawk was involved. 

Humid heat

The windows were fogged again, but I didn't want to disturb the spiderweb.  It was pretty much wrecked and had only caught small stuff, unless something tore loose.  I thought I saw a wren through the condensation.  As it began to vaporize, I did see the goldfinch.

The hummer feeder was dry, preferable to moldy, so K swapped it out, after I had boiled up a new batch of sugar water.  I sped up the cooling by setting the container in a water bath in the sink.  I wonder if that will affect its storage.  At any rate, the hummers were satisfied enough to fight over it.  A cicada killer banged on the window. 

A variegated fritillary took an interest in the violet leaves, also the morning glory leaves, and the cement.  I saw a few dragonflies, just blue dashers and slaty skimmers.  A little blue tailed skink slipped past me.  So did monarchs.  That motivated me to take my gift card to the nursery where I bought a butterfly weed plant.  I also picked up a fancy hens&chickens because I misunderstood K, and a creeping thyme for the gnarled branch I'm turning into a planter.  It was very hot at the garden center though clouds and a breeze helped.  I saw more monarchs there

A duskywing was fluttering around the rosemary when I headed to the pool.  It looked like one argiope had caught a fish but it was probably just a silk-wrapped bug.  A yellow crowned night heron was hunting on the mud at low tide.

Well after dark something hit the window and I got a glimpse of wings.  I think it may have been an owl.