Meteorology fail

We were promised day-long bright sunshine and instead got cold mist and a gray sky.  Not only was it overcast, the temperature was well below the prediction.  The cloud cover also guaranteed that there would be no viewing of the lunar eclipse last night (actually early this morning).  A Carolina wren came for suet, then a downy.  The male oriole sat on the dish feeder like he was incubating the jelly.  Then a myrtle warbler landed nearby but couldn't get past the oriole.  

A bluebird ate seeds.  White throats hunted what fell from the feeder.  A white breasted nuthatch squeezed between a finch and a wren to get seeds.  The nuthatch flew to the ground and the birdbath which was a behavior I had not seen before.  Toward evening, a pelican glided low over the flat water as mist gathered.  It would have made a great photo but the camera was at the other end of the house.

Eclipse

The female red bellied woodpecker was up early again to eat seeds.  Is a vegan woodpecker even possible? A white throated sparrow was early as well.  Apparently the weather was perfect for winged termite swarms.  They looked pretty flying in the sunlight, not so much on the ground.  The mockingbirds snacked on them and two dragonflies came to feast. 

The Solomon's seal popped up. The figs leafed out.  The rose made a bud.  A molting myrtle warbler stopped fro brunch.  A tiger swallowtail left eggs all over the wild cherry.  White breasted and brown headed nuthatches devoured seeds.

I made a pinhole camera to capture the eclipse.  We were outside the area of totality again but the level of light dropped noticeably.  All the colors seemed dull despite being in the sunshine.  NASA gave the timetable of the eclipse by zipcode with this handy graphic. 

I saw a skink on the lower patio but wasn't fast enough with the camera.  A pair of bluebirds perched in the maple.  A chipping sparrow ignored the eclipse and ate seeds.

Lunar eclipse

I got up early to see the setting "blood moon" and it was impressive.  Though theoretically there was plenty of time, I had to stand in the street to line it up with a notch between two trees.  And the Northeast wind that had cleared the sky felt mighty cold.  So I went back to my nice, warm bed.  

The wind kept blowing through the sunny but bird-less and bug-less morning.  As a result the tide ran very high.  Fluff covered the saltbushes like dryer lint turning them gray.  The sky was intensely blue.   

Lunar eclipse

The eclipse began yesterday and that's when I took the photos but it extended well past midnight.  The moon was redder than I expected, but I could not get the camera to resolve surface features.  The light just wasn't strong enough.  I am thankful that the clouds waited and let me see a blood moon eclipse.  

The morning got really hot and fairly sticky.  Our thermometer read 90°.   That made me determined to get into the pool.  But then a ferocious storm roared in with gusts I thought would uproot trees.  Hard rain pounded the pavement and the temperature dropped ten degrees.  It was all over in 45 minutes so back out I went.  The daylily did indeed bloom. 

The pool water was 68° which turned my feet red.  But I stayed in till something started biting me.  I rescued two ladybird beetles and a scarab.  Also a small wasp.  A pair of red bellied woodpeckers worried about visiting the suet while I was outside.  They gave up.  I heard a brown headed nuthatch squeak, but didn't see it.  Blue jays were back. 

Hot & sticky

Apparently more rain fell in the night but the sun was out in the morning.  Bluebirds came for breakfast.  I was slow getting outside and the temperature had reached 80°.  A baby praying mantis was still guarding the strawberry planter.  A paper wasp sat on a mountain mint leaf.  A daylily bud looked ready to open.  A fitful breeze made little impression on my comfort and none on the creek surface.  By the time I had planted eight sunflower seeds, sweat was dripping off my nose so I retired to the air conditioning.    

An orange butterfly was too fast for me.  It did not pay attention to the milkweed so I don't know if it was a male monarch or some other kind of orange butterfly.  There may have been a few dragonflies but I couldn't be sure they weren't wasps.  Birds flitted through the tree leaves - I think one was a goldfinch.  There were at least three blue jays.  

K came up with more outdoor work that bathed me in sweat.  As I recuperated inside, the cardinal pair acted their rom-com.  He landed on the feeder, she on the hanger above.  And she waited.  When it was past time he should have offered her a seed, she descended by increments to see what was keeping him.  He was stuffing himself, so she tried to land beside him.  But the feeder is calibrated to close at the weight of two cardinals (or one blue jay).  So the perch tipped them off and they both left.  I hope she gave him a good scolding.  

The sky stayed hazy with many clouds blowing out of the West.  I hope it's not too cloudy for the eclipse.  A Carolina wren found where I had spilled barkbutter porridge attempting to drain off rainwater.  The wren happily helped itself.  A male red belied woodpecker came for suet.  The suet had got turned so that I couldn't see smaller birds like the nuthatch but the woodpecker was too big to hide.  I went out afterward and turned the suet around.  

The eclipse is supposed to begin at 10:30 and be full at 11:30pm and last into Monday.  The May full moon is at perigee, its closest approach to Earth this month.  Apparently perigee does not always coincide with a full moon, but neither does an eclipse.  And the shadowed moon is supposed to be reddish because of Rayleigh scattering. 

Eclipse day

A red-spotted purple flitted around the cherry.  The hummer made frequent visits.  And the male goldfinch came back.

There were lots of butterflies around lunch time.  I saw a monarch several times.  Also a sulphur, black and tiger swallowtails, and smaller skippers and such.  The monarch investigated the yellow birdhouse.  The tiger tried to drink from the hummer feeder and appeared to sip from the orange fungus on the morning glory leaves.

We used a pinhole, a mirror, my fingers waffle-style, dogwood leaves, and passing clouds to view the eclipse.  The mirror failed but the other methods worked.  The clouds were the best and I thought they would just be a problem. 

I rescued a very lively skink that tried to out-swim me.  Then after its photo session, it didn't want to let go of my hand. I saw several more skinks during the afternoon. 

The two argiopes were back at opposite ends of the shoreline.  A female red-backed jumping spider prowled through the violets.  The angle wing katydid perched at the tip of a hibiscus stalk.  There were a few dragonflies but I guess there was less to catch today. 

Something dropped a whole (but pecked) fig in the pool.  A night heron appeared at the edge of the dock, then flew up into the trees.

I thought I was finished for the day, but as dusk turned to night, a barn spider, AKA Charlotte, began an orb web across the patio door. Several slugs, a foolish plume moth, and smaller bugs all clung to the glass.  I believe the web took about two hours. 

Drying out

There was actual blue sky and sunshine today, for a while.  I glimpsed a flicker early in the morning and some brown streaks zoomed by later.  Mother and son cardinal interacted.  The squirrels were lumpy with fly sores.  One investigated the watering can and another tail-flashed from the dogwood.  Bees and wasps returned to the rosemary and a bug silhouetted on the window. 

The clouds returned mid afternoon and the moonflowers opened early again.  A lunar eclipse in the early night was supposed to be spectacular with a larger than usual moon and a reddish tine, but the clouds did not appear to care. This was all the moon I saw: