Eagle circling

A red bellied woodpecker came early and found only seeds.  Bluebirds followed.  A cardinal pair tried to share the feeder perch but together they weighed too much.  They were still courting.  I don't know if they were a different pair or if they had a nest failure.

In the mid morning I restocked the dishes and put out a fresh hummer feeder.  A blue jay took notice right away.  The jay wasn't pleased with the mealworms.   The female pileated showed up and was shocked that the suet cage was empty.  She hopped around on the patio but didn't attempt the dishes.  But she thought about it.  Carolina wrens also hopped around looking for food.  

The potted clematis was blooming.  Wasps were plentiful and so were cabbage whites.  An adult bald eagle circled over the creek.  Then an osprey followed suit.  While photographing the eagle, I thought a dragonfly zipped across my field of view, but I couldn't be sure.  

I glimpsed a skink slipping behind the birdbath.  Later, a larger one crossed the patio.  It had lead a rough life with a regrown tail and a nip in the scales along its ribs.  Blue jays were courting in the maple tree, just like cardinals but harder to see.  A bluebird rode a dogwood branch through the wind gusts.  This may have been the hottest day thus far this year.  

Monarch

The weather report claimed almost two inches of rain fell, but the bucket I left out had more than that.  I believe it was watering the blueberries that did the trick.  A monarch visited the butterfly milkweed in the morning.  When I went over to the aster to see what had become of the camouflage loopers, I startled the bullfrog.  It dived and I did not see it again.  I rescued another robber fly and some more beetles.  The sawfly larva denuded the hibiscus leaves because I hesitated to spray when rain was predicted.  And the Japanese beetles ate holes in the petals. 

Four or more fiery skippers fussed over the mountain mint at mid day.  I saw a couple of skinks.  A female widow skimmer buzzed the mountain mint repeatedly.  Birds were scarce since I was reluctant to put out food in case of more rain.  But a Carolina wren foraged here and there.  A few fat drops of rain fell on the way home from my meeting.  A female blue dasher perched in the front yard.  A twelve spotted skimmer worked the upper air.  The crape myrtlle was blooming, as was the lantana and the leatherleaf clematis.  Two peppers were getting big. 

Warm

It was another pretty day that I spent mostly in meetings.  At breakfast a squirrel entertained me by trying to get into the seed feeder. 

In the parking lot after the lunch meeting I could hear swallows chattering as they hunted bugs in the air, but I didn't see them.  At home, geese rested by the spartina and goslings climbed all over mama.  I saw a cloudless sulphur and did manage to photograph a silver spotted skipper. The first rose bloomed and so did a yellow iris. Clematis flowers were all over the trellis. 

As I left home in the afternoon, I spotted a brown thrasher with a long straw in its beak.  I took some pictures around the Greer Environmental Science building, but wildlife was mostly absent, except for a mockingbird.  After dark, a frog chorus was loud in their wetland ponds.  

Halloween

I saw the usual chickadees, cardinals, and house finches.  A squirrel ate up the mealworms. The clematis popped out a blossom just when I thought it had given up the ghost. 

Sunset was streaky pink.   The moon was not yet full but bright enough to illuminate the trick-or-treaters.