Scorching

As I drove to Chesapeake, I saw a cloud formation like a fingerprint in the sky.  When I arrived it was overhead and too big for a phone photo, and when I came back outside it had dissipated.  What with one thing and another, I didn't see much else till afternoon.  A Carolina wren poked around under the dish feeders.  The wind was still from the Southwest, but the clouds were moving much slower.  Down where I was, a breeze helped alleviate the heat.  A hummer perched on a stalk by its feeder, but flew off before I was focused.   I spotted a skink on the step wall just as the camera battery died.  

I waited till late in the afternoon to swim.  It wasn't buggy except for one mosquito that will never bite again.  A dragonfly nymph was clinging to the pool wall.  It got away from me, but I don't know what I would have done with it anyway.   There were two frogs in the skimmer that I released only to have them jump back into the pool.  I must have caught one three times.  I got pictures of one with a passenger - I wonder if it knew?  A different skink was floating in the water.  It was old enough to know better.  I laid it on the hot concrete to revive. It was still there when I finished my swim and I was afraid it had died, but it finally left when I wasn't looking.  

 

Tiger, tiger, beetle bright

Rain was predicted so I got outside early.  The mountain mint was busy with bees and wasps.  I wanted to see the camera trap and also to collect a seedpod from one of the daylilies so I walked around the pool.  Frog legs were sticking out from under the coping. Then the frog noticed me and dived.  Slowly, without moving, it drifted back to the surface, but I was waiting.  

I found another in the skimmer and two while I was swimming.  I also found a damselfly that I fear was beyond revival and a metallic green tiger beetle that did revive.  The pair of Carolina wrens visited the dish feeders.  A light rain started right after I came inside.  It didn't amount to much but the day was mostly gloomy from then on.

Hot

The day was sunny and hot.  I had a morning meeting so I waited till late afternoon to swim. Wasps were active and one head-butted my foot.  Another climbed a dragonfly perch.  I rescued many scarab beetles, some were plain brown and others were bronze flecked.  A damselfly watched for small fliers.  I glimpsed a yellow butterfly but couldn't say what it was.  

Pleasant

Today was cooler, sunny, and very nice.  Nevertheless I waited till late to swim because biting flies terrorize me.  I saw damselflies and rescued very large ants.  Spiders took care of themselves.  Dragonflies patrolled the sky.  

Flies and other fliers

In the morning a brown thrasher visited.  A bluebird investigated the blue dish and found a tidbit.  The furnace heat returned.  I was tabling again, this time mid afternoon on a hilltop.  Fortunately we had a tent.  An ambulance came for someone a few tents away.  Thunderheads crowded the horizon, but nothing happened before I left.  The car thermometer crept up to 100 on the way home.  

K said I looked bedraggled.  I got into the water and soon felt better.  And I rescued a damselfly.  It perched on my finger and used its long abdomen to unstick its wet wings.  Then it flew.  A beetle I rescued also flew away.  Other rescuees may not have made it.  There were more beetles, flying ants or sweat bees, and of course spiders. A blue dasher kept watch from a low perch.  As I sat to drip off, I was attacked by a Tabanid fly, a deer fly, I think, as I didn't see green eyes.  So I dashed dripping indoors.  Not too long after that, we had a short rain shower.  

102°F

After waiting to swim till late in the afternoon, I rescued a lot of beetles and a few spiders, including one woodlouse hunter.  The beetles were mostly black ground beetles along with one scarab.  A damselfly watched from the pool edge but paid no attention to a fly.  A squirrel drank from the ant moat.  A crow bathed on the top step of the pool.  

 

Still hot

 A Carolina wren came for lunch.  So dis the mama squirrel with the odd fur patch.  I waited to swim till the trees shaded the water.  A damselfly was in the usual place.  A small crab spider scuttled along the pool edge.  A lacewing was stuck to the wall but it did not seem to be alive.  A moth afloat looked very battered.  I rescued several black beetles.  A mockingbird visited several times.  An assassin nymph lurked on the mountain mint.  A brown thrasher skulked under the sakaki.  

 

Monarch

Today was sunny and beautiful, cooler but not as windy.  A monarch discovered the patch of butterfly milkweed and fed off-and-on for half an hour.  When a Carolina wren landed on the nearby barkbutter dish, the butterfly seemed to be harassing the bird, flying toward it as though trying to drive it away.  

Later, blue jays and a mockingbird visited the dish but I did not see the butterfly.  I went for a late swim and saw a damselfly.  I fished out a spider, a ground beetle, a ladybug, a snail, and an earwig.  The spider and the beetle ran off but I'm not sure the others were alive.  Even though it wasn't windy, the air felt cold on my wet skin so I didn't linger to take pictures.  

Beautiful weather

Yesterday's rain was still evident.  A titmouse was up early.  At lunch, K put BBBalls on the patio for the crow.  A blue jay preferred to eat from the dish.  The temperature got up into the 80s with a breeze under a brilliantly blue sky.  The milkweed was a riot of flowers but I didn't see pollinators.  The cardinals were still courting.  

Again there were spiders to rescue including another crab spider.  Two damselflies perched in the shade by the water.  After I swam, I saw a skink.  A squirrel scampered past me just a couple of feet away.  I could see something flying over under the sakaki but I don't know what.  A azure butterfly flitted over the house.  Another blue jay visited.  

 

Still hot

A mating pair of damselflies hovered over the edge of the water but I was in the water and unable to take a picture.  I rescued a moth or small butterfly that was too battered to identify.  Also, I fished out a spider and several ground beetles.  Other spiders and mulch roaches were defunct.  A squirrel ate suet.  

Triple digits

Again, I swam before the heat of the day.  More beetles clung to windblown debris in the water.  I also fished out a living queen ant, very carefully.  I'd been seeing drowned queens but this one was still swimming.  All three Argiope spiders were thriving.  The purple asters were gorgeous.  The lichens on the bench enjoyed the rain and sun.  An Asiatic dayflower bloomed.  Coral lilies made red bead-like seeds.  The ruffled daylily continued to bloom.  The sakaki flowers emitted a wonderful fragrance.  

Whatever the National Weather Service recorded, our outdoor thermometer read 100°.  The wind made it bearable, barely.  The butterfly milkweed stopped blooming.  Its foliage looked lush and not chewed by any caterpillars, alas.  The mountain mint attracted wasps but thus far no butterflies.  Money plant pods looked about ready to disperse seeds.  I thought I saw something on a floating leaf and, sure enough, a damselfly perched there.  My best guess was an immature female Eastern forktail Ischnura verticalis. 

H O T

A crow poked around under the suet.  Its beak was open like it was panting.  Then a chipping sparrow landed on the seed feeder roof but it didn't have anything to eat.  A bluebird claimed the top of the post again before getting seeds.  A red belly landed on the post but didn't stay.   Blue jays got their barkbutter balls.  The female pileated learned a new trick and clung to the suet cage instead of the post.  White throats were tempted by the barkbutter balls. 

While I was weeding around the birdbath, a damselfly glided past me.  Of course I didn't have the camera, but I probably couldn't have got it if I did.  A black swallowtail danced around the plants before discovering the rue.  I thought I glimpsed a yellow swallowtail too, and I definitely saw cabbage whites.  Lots of big bees bumbled around and fed on the money plant.  A big mulch roach scuttled under the grill. 

The thermometer showed 91 after lunch but the SW wind was really strong so it didn't feel that hot.  The wind blew the tide down to full moon low even though we just passed the first quarter.  The heat rushed the bulbs and the daffodils were nearly all gone.  Hickory buds popped open.  The blue sky grew hazy, then cloudy, as the day went on.   I cooked hummer juice and put a feeder out.  That meant rearranging the hanging dishes but I was reluctant to give up on the jelly just yet.  Toward evening the temperature had dropped almost 30 degrees.. 

Wasp drama

The heat returned with sunshine in a hazy sky.  An osprey landed briefly in the pines but I wasn't ready.  A male Needham's skimmer used a bamboo perch.  A different species perched on a bare twig atop the wild cherry.  A damselfly lurked on the pool edge.  My best guess is orange bluet Enallagma signatum.  At supper, several dragonflies darted over the water.  

Bees and wasps covered the mountain mint, but a snout butterfly and a fiery skipper managed to get a share. I thought I glimpsed other butterflies but couldn't be sure.  A gray long-horned bee (Melissodes spp.) posed for me.  So did a mydas fly.  I guessed that a big insect that banged on the window was a cicada killer.  While I was in the pool a wasp flew into me and I knocked it into the water.  I rescued it very carefully.  I also saved a couple of bumblebees and many beetles.  And I evicted a few spiders. 

The two infant Argiope spiders had moved their webs a few inches.  I saw a wasp fly into the white part of each web.  I don't know if they were after the spiders or if the webs looked like something desirable, maybe a moth.  I don't think the wasps caught the spiders.  I looked up spider wasps and  they have a different body shape. 

The beautyberry was in bloom.  Goldfinches refused to visit until I was inside.  I saw the hummer flying around the sakaki. Apparently it bloomed while I was gone.  Dark clouds brought an early twilight.  The illegal fireworks started making it hard to know if there was thunder.  

Mysterious stranger #4750

I was busy in the morning.  At lunch, a mockingbird  checked for treats.  The goldfinch pair had seeds.  Later, when there was shade I swam and chased spiders and rescued beetles.  A damselfly cruised slowly and hovered just a few inches above the pool surface.  I didn't have the camera and I doubt I could have photographed it if I had.  But it was very cool to see.  

A maroon daylily bloomed.  The plain orange and the ruffled yellow daylilies were still blooming steadily.  The sky was hazy in the late afternoon.  Then we got a very mysterious visitor.  A pigeon landed on the edge of the pool.  It seemed as big as a duck.  Its light leg was banded with the number 4750.  What do I do with that information?  At any rate, after a little while, the bird flew away.  

The goldfinch pair returned but the cardinals harassed them.  Both male and female acted like bullies even when they didn't want to eat.  The two male cardinals had an extended chase as well.  Testy!  

Dragonflies

Overnight rain dropped the temperature.  A blue jay came for rain-softened barkbutter balls.  I took advantage of the pleasant weather to do some yard puttering.  Tiny, bright orange wolf's milk slime mold Lycogala epidendrum popped out of the end of a landscape timber.  There were eleven flowers on the orange daylily.  A Carolina horse nettle was blooming.  Parsley flower heads looked like fireworks bursting.  The first gladiolus spears appeared.

I spotted a dragonfly on a clump of dead leaves floating in the pool.  It didn't move even when touched so I figured it was dead.  I think it might have had a damaged wing.  In the afternoon, I found it floating on the surface of the water so I hauled it out and discovered it was alive.  My best guess is that it was a harlequin darner Gomphaeschna furcillata.  A female blue dasher kept watch from a dried up daffodil.  Lots of wasps were busy around the yard.  I rescued a bumblebee and a couple of beetles.  The forktail damselfly was again perched on the pool coping in the late afternoon. 

A soaring bird might have been a Mississippi kite.  An egret flew downstream.  The male pileated woodpecker came by to see if there was suet.  But even though I put out fresh sugar water, I didn't see a hummer.  

Dragon and damsel

The female bluebird was back at the seed feeder.  Both sexes are more interested in seeds noe that we're adding a mix to the sunflower seeds.   The female pileated made a brief stop but didn't find any suet.  Blue jays found the barkbutter balls.  An orange daylily bloomed.   The hummer returned.  A grown up skink put its head out, saw me, and retreated. 

At last, today more Odonata appeared.  Male and female blue dashers used the bamboo perches.  As did a female common whitetail dragonfly (Plathemis lydia).  A damselfly watched from the pool edge.  Maybe that's why I wasn't bothered by an in-your-face bloodsucker?  A small orange snout butterfly, an even smaller pale butterfly (probably an azure), and a black swallowtail explored the vegetation.  Wasps searched everywhere.  I rescued a ground crab spider Xysticus (sp) but I think I drowned a mother wolf spider with a ball of eggs.  

Hot and smoky

Dragonflies zipped around too fast to identify.  In fact, they seemed more like ripples in the fabric of reality than flying insects.  I tried catching them with the house wall as a background, but just got a blur.  Bees and wasps, leatherwing beetles, and a snout butterfly stuffed themselves on the mountain mint or rue. I glimpsed the damselfly but it disappeared.  Several of the usual beetles and a few wasps needed rescue from drowning.  The pool skimmer was full of bullfrog, the same one judging by its patterned skin. 

The heat was moderated by a strong breeze.  The goldfinches couldn't stay away from their sunflower.  I saw a male and a female hummer at the feeder.  When darkness fell, the local pyromaniacs began letting off their illegal fireworks.  The poor dog came and sat on my foot.  

Mydas fly

The goldfinches couldn't wait for the sunflower seeds to ripen.  Two osprey soared in circles.  A female hummer came for an evening meal.  She was antsy and wouldn't settle on a perch.  A downy woodpecker decided I was harmless. 

I saw more butterflies today - skippers, snouts, and a red admiral.  Lots of wasps and bees gathered on the mountain mint, also a wasp-mimic mydas fly.  I rescued a robber fly along with several beetles. 

A damselfly with orange eyes lurked beside the water.  Orange bluet, Enallagma signatum, seems the best fit for identification.  In the evening, I glimpsed dragonflies, but they were high and moving fast.  The smoke haze didn't help. 

The orchard spider still had its web slung from the dragonfly perch.  It had caught a fly, I think.  I tried to catch a firefly with its light on, but all I got were blurs.  

Rainy solstice

It just didn't seem right to have gray skies all day on the longest day.  Yesterday was gloomy too and felt chilly despite being in the 70s.  Slugs feasted on the rue.  I rescued a lot of scarab beetles and saw a damselfly while I was swimming.  The mockingbird was a regular presence.  It didn't like getting wet. 

A couple of downy woodpeckers squabbled over the disappearing suet.  A blue jay found the re-hydrated mealworms in the dangling blue dish.  The female pileated woodpecker helped the suet disappear. 

Between the wind and the moon phase, the  tide was exceptionally high.  After dark, fireflies were out.  

Thunderstorm

At last we got rain with a classic summer afternoon thunderstorm.  

I saw a damselfly by the edge of the pool but it didn't wait for the camera.