Arthropoda

I got in a nice, early swim which was fortunate for a crane fly, a tiny moth, camel and field cricket nymphs, and a big May beetle.  A larger moth and a robber fly were, alas, defunct.  I did not rescue a Japanese beetle.  More interesting insects feasted on the mountain mint and the butterfly milkweed.  The green bee was back along with several other kinds of small bee.  A feather-legged scoliid wasp joined the thread-waisted wasps.  A Macrosiagon dimidiata beetle also fed there.  The orchard spider prospered but I fear the Argiope must have been eaten.  

The fallen cherries were fewer but instead there were hackberry leaves with what looked like shattered galls.  The beautyberry was finished blooming and was making little green berries. Two blossoms opened on the hibiscus.  As I ate supper, I could see a dragonfly in each stake, except when they dashed after prey.  The blue dasher took the shorter stake and the slaty skimmer the larger.   I took that as testimony that it was buggy outside.  Besides, it was very hot and we are at the edge of the smoke hazard from Canadian wildfires.  

Hottest 4th

A Carolina wren visited before it got too hot.  It hopped, rather than flying, from the lower dish to the upper.  An venusta orchard orbweaver spider constructed an intricate web over the azalea next to the window.  That should work excellently after dark with a light in the kitchen.  For identification, on the Internet I found lots of pictures of the spider but none of the web.

Because of the predicted heat, I went swimming earlier than on previous days.  I fished out two crane flies but only one recovered.  Also, one of the water-walking spiders, but this one had no babies.  Many more May beetles (southern masked chafer Cyclocephala lurida) plus some black ground beetles, a yellow jacket alive and a honeybee dead.  An interesting moth, possibly a tulip-tree beauty Epimecis hortaria secreted itself just below the coping where it was safe from anything not in the water.  Wasps were active but the only other insect I saw was a tiger swallowtail.  

The outdoor thermometer showed 104 at 4pm.  The sky was hazy with thicker patches so the sun was intermittent.  I had changed the hummer feeder in the morning and I thought I glimpsed a hummer, but I'm not sure.  A mockingbird flew into the cherry tree.  A squirrel found K's peanuts but took the last one into the shade to eat.  

Chilly water

The brown thrasher pair nibbled at the barkbutter balls K put out for the crow.  The crow did get some to.  Mockingbirds and blue jays preferred to eat from the hanging dishes but the mockingbird also ate some on the ground.  When the food on the ground was gone a brown thrasher protested.  When I got in the water, the sky had become clouded and the wind had grown stronger.  I rescued an assassin bug, a crane fly, a robber fly, a scarab beetle, a spider, and something that looked like a sawfly.  None of them hung around for a portrait.  

 

Spider season

A Carolina wren poked through the seed trough.  I saw the first daylily flower, at least first for our yard.  The crow was back for another bath.  We got some sun in the early afternoon and I attacked the algae in the pool.  Several of the walks-on-water spiders avoided me but I persuaded one to move to dry land.  A crab spider was much more cooperative.  I also fished out a pretty little insect with black wings and a red head, possibly a wasp.  

Later in the afternoon we had a short deluge and a couple of thunder showers.   A crane fly tried to get through the window.  When the rain stopped a blue jay arrived and considered the wet barkbutter balls.  After dark, I saw a moth at a window.  

Living shoreline, part I

The coir logs were set in place today.  A white breasted nuthatch scuttled around the redwood trunk as though looking for something.  The other feeder birds got what they needed, titmice included.  A mockingbird that waited too long was displeased at finding crumbs.  

A sulphur and a cabbage white did not pause or pose.  A red faced five lined skink crossed the step.  Turtles covered every surface on the lake.  A crane fly got into the house. 

Summery

The first thing I saw was crane flies scrabbling at the window.  I wonder what they think is beyond the glass.  Bluebirds pecked at the dust from yesterday's serving of mealworms.  A white throated sparrow with very spiffed-up feathers hopped around the patio.I suspect it might have spent the winter further South, not here.  

Two mourning doves foraged in the mulch.  Another migrant, a myrtle warbler, flitted through the trees.  It might have been after sweet gum seeds or pine nuts.  I also saw a pine warbler but I think it saw me too.  The dog insisted on frequent forays outdoors where it was warmer than inside - I saw 83° on the thermometer. 

The sky was hazier today and jets left contrails.  Some of the blue eyed grass was blooming.  Flies were thick around the mountain mint or maybe the bird poop beneath the feeders.  And by flies I mean the kind that get swatted. 

Skinks

In the morning a crane fly clung to the window and a small moth did the same in the night.  In between we went to the plant sale at NBG.  I took the camera and saw a dragonfly but it never stopped.  We came home with native columbine, a red aster, dwarf red porterweed, and native honeysuckle that need to be planted.  

A mockingbird all but knocked on the door asking for more suet.  Bluebirds noticed when I stirred the barkbutter dish so the balls rose above the broken meal.  A brown thrasher and a blue jay also paid attention.  Brown headed nuthatches didn't care as long as there were sunflower seeds. 

A little blue tailed skink started out of the vegetation, then panicked and ran back.  A bigger one, but still blue in the tail, climbed the post, then thought the better of it.  An adult scolded it.  The adult skinks were all red in the face and feeling feisty.  A couple of chases ensued.  

An orange butterfly escaped the camera.  It might have been a pearl crescent or a variegated fritillary.  And of course there were cabbage whites.  An attractive paper wasp lit on the rue

Sparse leaves appeared on the beautyberry.  Green seedpods covered the money plants.  The dogwoods were done flowering and the azaleas past their peak.  The yellow rose had a bud.  

Cloudy

Even though there was a risk of rain, I put off swimming till afternoon.  I thought I saw a greenhead fly so I got out of the water.  Robber flies began to appear.  A crane fly cllung to the door screen. 

Blue dashers occupied every reasonable perch.  A Carolina saddlebags made a dead twig at the top of the hackberry tree its base of operations.  That led me to notice that the wild cherries were about half way to ripe.

Since the rue was going to seed, wasps switched to the mountain mint and the lavender.  A great golden digger wasp reappeared.  The sakaki flowers attracted bees.  A half dozen bumblebees had fallen into the pool and some actually revived. 

Toward evening, dragonflies of some sort zipped around at treetop height.  Then a yellow crowned night heron landed in the oak.  At lunch, K had spotted a juvenile night heron up in a pine tree but the one in the oak was an adult.

The clouds took on strange appearances during the day but only a handful of raindrops ever landed.  A fragment of rainbow floated overhead for a while. I saw but failed to photograph blue jays and hummingbirds

World Migratory Bird Day

The weather was sunny but windy.  The temperature climbed from the 40s to the 60s. I did my part for Migratory Bird Day, I submitted two checklists.  In addition to birds, I saw a couple of small skinks, honeybees on the rue again, an earthworm, a snail, a couple of isopods, a small rusty brown butterfly, and a crane fly in the wild, not on a window screen.  Some. turtles were basking on the lake logs.  

Great egrets were around all day and I believe I saw a yellow crowned night heron fly upstream.  The bluebirds paid many visits to the bark butter balls. Carolina wrens joined then and I also saw a house wren poking into everything in search of food.  A frustrated chickadee was kept from the sunflower seeds by a house finch.  The male downy woodpecker checked in to see if the suet was back.  A blue jay tried to sneak past me to the bark butter balls. 

The wind calmed briefly before sunset.  Clouds were colored cream to rose to smoke.

Day improved

We began wet and chilly under a gray sky.   Nothing much was going on, perhaps because the cat was around.  Again it seemed convinced that something lived under the pool cover.  Skinks?

In the afternoon a brown thrasher ventured out for bark butter balls.  Bluebirds also came.  One had a caterpillar.  The temperature rose into the mid 70s. Skinks were everywhere.  A black swallowtail and a silver spotted skipper (I think) flitted past the flowers and left. 

I went outside and startled a crane fly.  The wind was strong enough to ground insects. Menacing clouds would threaten rain and a few minutes later the blue sky would have nothing but wisps.  A great blue heron perched on the channel marker.

I found a bee fly hanging around the blue squill flowers. Plants that I believe are milkweed were coming up.  Quite a few egrets were visible near the dam trying to get the best fishing spots. 

I saw puffy cumulus turn rosy at sunset which should have been a good sign.  But around 11PM, a storm slammed into us.  Howling winds, rain, and hail, beat against the house.  Thankfully, it was short-lived.  

Soaking rain

Rain fell all morning.  Starlings were shocked by the empty suet feeder, which they had helped empty.  A downy woodpecker clung to the post trying to make suet appear.  A Carolina wren scouted for new food sources.  Eventually the downy  turned to the bark butter balls. 

After lunch, the overcast tore apart exposing rifts of blue sky.  The sun pulled steam from the wet pool cover.  Raindrops glittered on leaves, but the camera couldn't see what I was seeing.  I wonder if the sparkle is actually a shift in the light so fast that it blends in my sight, but not in the camera?

An ambitious squirrel climbed the shepherd's crook to get to the bark butter balls.  But the hot pepper worked and the squirrel abandoned its prize to go get a drink. 

An egret stalked through the shallows at low tide, catching little fish.  It flew up and perched on a post that put it fairly close to me.  That's when I saw the aigrettes and green nares that showed it was ready to breed.  One turtle  was on the log after lunch but three hours later there was a crowd. 

A crow landed on the post but saw nothing of interest.  A blue jay was more optimistic. It tried the seed feeder but was too heavy.  A crane fly tried to pass through the glass. 

Gale

Another one of those pesky jet stream loops arrived with high winds that dried up what rain fell overnight.  The National Weather Service said, "South winds 25 to 35 mph with gusts up to 60 mph expected." There was more rain around 8:30am, but not as much as I'd like.  The only bird that ventured out to the feeder was a cardinal.  A few gulls played with the gusts over the creek. Later in the morning we got more of a soaking. The rain was very directional - only the South side of the oak got wet. 

As we ate lunch I saw a Carolina wren and the bluebird pair. A damselfly bumped along the window.  Crane flies and bumblebees clung to shelter.  The wind made waves on the creek flow downstream even though the tide was rising.  A streak of debris and trash followed the wind's direction. 

Around 2pm the sun was visible through the overcast.  Low clouds blew past from Southwest to Northeast.  I was outside to drive off starlings before they gobbled up all the suet.  A blue jay and a downy woodpecker scolded me.  Trees thrashed in the scary wind gusts.  And by 3pm the clouds were patchy with stretches of blue between.

The wind finally slacked off in the late, sunny afternoon.  Remarkably, it was still room temperature outdoors at dusk.  Venus shown brilliantly above the pines on the West side of the house.

Easter

I rolled out of bed in time to livestream an Easter sunrise service on the beach.  There really was no sunrise as the sky there was overcast with a red horizon.  It was not overcast here, about ten miles inland. The air was quite still and the creek glassy at low tide.

 A red bellied woodpecker got to the suet first.  Bluebirds popped in and out all day.  Blue jays too.  Pine warblers got a little suet in the late morning as I was cooking. 

At lunch, an orange butterfly was too fast for me.  I also saw tiger, palamedes, and black swallowtails. Dragonflies, crane flies, bees, and wasps were energized by warmth.  The brown thrasher showed up after lunch. 

The day got progressively hotter and more cloudy as the wind from the South got stronger.  Since an overnight rain was forecast, I wanted to get the last of my seeds in the ground.  Other birds scolded but the downy woodpeckers barged right past me and helped themselves to suet.

Dull day

The feral cat was back at breakfast.  And so the birds were not.  The cat sat on part of the cover that was over the water.  Maybe that was warmer?  And the cat returned at supper, this time on the concrete.

An interesting crane fly hugged the wall out  of the wind.  Despite the gray sky and chilly wind, flowers were blooming.  A lost kayak paddle bobbed on the creek.  A Carolina wren briefly inspected the mealworms I had put out, but left without eating. We decided where to plant the two pots of milkweed.  K wanted a rosebush moved.

Hot again

I sprayed neem oil on the rose and the hibiscus because I was getting annoyed with the Japanese beetles eating the flowers.  I hope it didn't bother the spider.  A crane fly spread out on the screen.  The female as well as the male cardinal lost her head feathers.  A pair of finches reappeared.  When I left home, I noticed that I could see the very top of the pine and a Halloween pennant was perched there. 

A couple of wrens flitted around in the trees, singing and fussing.  What I think was a chickadee acted very much like a nuthatch hopping up the cherry trunk.  I pished at it and it came closer but not where I could get a clear view.  There were lots of ripe cherries so I'm puzzled why there weren't more birds eating them.  The male hummingbird came back, but the feeder was in shade by then, and when I aimed the camera he flew off. 

A saddlebags and a 12-spot cruised over me while a slaty watched from a perch.  Blue dashers found their own spots to perch.  A bar winged skimmer clung to the dead twig at the top of the oak.  A male widow skimmerr joined the slaty skimer on the bamboo stick. 

Thread waisted wasps were mating on the mountain mint again.  A Japanese beetle was entrapped by the ant moat. I rescued another baby skink but it ran off before I got back with the camera.  A monarch fluttered over me, but it did not go to the milkweed.  Right after I came inside, a cloudless sulphur flew past the door. 

We passed under a dark cloud and got a few sprinkles of rain on the way to Norfolk.  It was still light when we came home and the earlier clouds were golden and rose.  The half moon was visible overhead.

Wet and gray

Overcast with gusts of wind and bands of rain discouraged wildlife. The downy woodpeckers still land on the post where the suet used to be before going on to its current location.  Chickadees and cardinals ventured out for seeds.  The caterpillar on the parsley was a little bigger.  Crane flies appeared at every break in the rain.

Hot sun

At breakfast, a male cardinal caught another having a sunflower seed and ran him off.  A blue jay tried to get some bark butter without getting photographed. Several swallowtail butterflies flitted about.  Then I went off to register voters.

The law of the jungle prevailed at lunch.  The feral cat stalked something in the azalea bush by the breakfast room window.  A skink made a foolish dash across the patio and the cat got it.  I did not capture the drama because I'd never before seen the cat catch anything.  More butterflies, wasps, bees, crane flies, and a damselfly flew past the window. Then the clouds went pink and the day was done. 

HOT

Actually, it has been hot since Tuesday.  But today I needed to be dressed up and then had to walk some ways from where I parked, so I noticed the heat.  The car claimed 92°.  I was busy both morning and afternoon and didn't notice much in between.  I did water the three new plants. There were butterflies, bees and wasps, and of course crane flies.  I heard the wren at breakfast before it got too warm to have the windows open.  I glimpsed a hummer at dusk and realized I'd let the juice go too long in the heat.  You can just barely see the top of its head.

Stormy

The sky was gray when we got up and the air felt humid. The first wave of storms hit in the early afternoon with fierce gusts and hammering rain. A second line passed through around quitting time.  Wildlife made itself scarce except for a crane fly and a slug on the window.. 

Skink

Why are crane flies so fascinated with windows?  I saw a black and a tiger swallowtail. And wasps and bees, of course. 

An egret appeared to hold a conversation with an oddly pale mallard.   A couple of geese brought their four goslings to eat our grass. 

I think a squirrel was eating green cherries.  Another turned somersaults off the redwood trunk and generally acted like it was intoxicated. 

A skink scampered past me and slipped under the pool cover.  A little later, it or another emerged and then froze, perhaps noticing how close I was.  It was definitely blushing.  One turtle sunned itself on a log. 

Blue eyed grass was beginning to bloom and a money plant was festooned with green coins.  The purple iris apparently bloomed without my noticing.  The Solomon's seal flowers seemed mostly done.  The coral honeysuckle was covered with flowers so if any hummer didn't like what was in the feeder, it would not go hungry.