2 too big spiders

A Carolina wren visited at breakfast.  After stuffing its crop with seeds, it perched on a chair back to peer in at me.  A string of ten geese paddled upstream.  Today was considerably warmer and I would have gone swimming if the pool had not been covered.  I went outside hoping to see birds eating beautyberries but instead I was surprised by a skink that dashed across the pool cover and then hid under it.  I could hear birds but they were shy about coming into view.  Asiatic dayflowers were still blooming.  The Christmas fern made spores.  

I wandered over to the fig patch and discovered two large webs.  The owner of the lower one scuttled into hiding, sort of, as a ball on the underside of the gutter.  The one in the middle of the higher web ignored me.  I believe they were some kind of Araneus orb weavers.  They were in a good location to catch mosquitoes, I discovered.  After I circled back I saw what I thought was a young eagle.  

No bunny, just a possum

Enough sunlight got through the white sky to cast shadows.  The wind wasn't as fierce as yesterday, fortunately because the air was not as warm either.  The temperature did rise into the 80s. A bluebird came for breakfast.  

After lunch I spent some time outside.  The coral honeysuckle was a mass of flowers - something for hummers if the sugar water has gone bad.  A few coral lilies had started to bloom.  Fern fiddleheads were unfurling.  A freshly bathed bluebird flew up from the pool puddle.  Next a white throat got in.  A couple of doves drank from the pool puddle.  I could hear woodpeckers fussing because they thought I was too close to the food.  

Once I was inside, birds rushed to the feeders.  Blue jays got their barkbutter.  A cardinal went courting with a barkbutter ball.  A male cardinal had some of the dried up, pollen covered jelly. I took photos of movement in the trees but missed most of the causes.  A myrtle warbler, however, was just slow enough that I got one photo.  A male red bellied woodpecker enjoyed some suet.  Then a female pileated woodpecker took over.  Finally a mockingbird got a turn at the barkbutter balls.  A white breasted nuthatch paid an evening visit to the seeds. 

The possum came back and lay down in the pool puddle.  Despite this, doves decided it was safe to get a drink.  An egret huddled on a dock post.  A true bug of some sort landed on the window.  It was shaped like last year's bordered plant bug but lacked the red outline.  

Bright but cool

Reflections lit up the creek before the sun reached the water.  It happened again in the late afternoon.  The sky was a clear blue but the air was quite chilly.  Yesterday, I was on the Internet all day.  I was determined not to miss another day of wildlife so I photographed the five monarch caterpillars again.  They need to eat fast if they are going to make it to Mexico.  The milkweed pod continued to slowly disperse seeds.  A Carolina wren scolded and then flew away.  I relocated the ebony spleenwort fern and found it had grown quite a bit.  There were no clouds to obscure the first quarter moon.  

Adventuring

The temperature got quite cool overnight, but by afternoon, it swung back into Summer - sunshine and shirtsleeves.  I got some decent photos of a southern purple mint moth Pyrausta laticlavia, the pretty villain attacking my rosemary.  Leaves fell one by one.  A ground beetle rode an oak leaf around the pool. 

I found the ebony spleenwort still growing through the fence.  And with that the battery died.  But I had taken forethought and brought the spare.  But the camera refused to work.  So there were no photos of the sweet gum seedling I found or another plant I hoped to identify.  So I went over to the dock to look at the fallen pine.  Despite checking each plank, one came loose and almost did me in.  When I got my breath back, I took a look at the sink.  It was plugged and full of water and a drowned rat.  I got the drain unclogged with a stick.  I hope all the water drained, but I didn't hang around to watch.  Maybe a buzzard will take care of the remains.  

By the time I got back up the hill, the camera decided to work again.  I got a quick shot of a pine warbler hiding behind a clump of beautyberries.  

Blue water

The mockingbird pair returned but they were rarely close enough to get in one frame.  Perhaps that's a survival strategy, but I finally caught them.  The starlings and bluebirds were very hungry. A dove wandered around the pool cover puddle.  A blue jay tackled the suet. 

The fern fiddleheads multiplied and stretched taller. Roses were blooming.   Turtles basked despite the demolition across the creek.  The rust infection on the red cedar looked really bad.  A few wisps of cloud interrupted the blue sky.  The blue water was in the pool that was opened while I was away at a lunch meeting.  I wonder what became of the skinks that were hiding under the cover?  I did see one on the upper patio.  Also, the plants we brought home Saturday are now in the ground.  

In the late afternoon, I patiently watched the bluebird house and finally caught the male with a beak full of spider, I think. I saw a goose pair with two goslings.  

Cold rain

During breakfast, the male pileated woodpecker worked on the remains of the most recent block of suet.   A brown thrasher decided to clean up below.  

The goose or swan decoy that's been meandering around the creek washed up in our saltbush.  

Since rain was forecast, I hustled outside with seeds to plant.  While doing so, I transplanted more coral lilies out of the french drain.  And I discovered a few fiddleheads on the Christmas fern that I had been afraid was dead.  .The canna sent up a leaf as well.  The rain began soon after I came in. 

At lunchtime, a yellow rumped warbler ate suet.  A bluebird perched above the barkbutter but left it alone.  Probably time to pitch it out.   A mockingbird felt the same or, at least, preferred suet.  The female pileated showed up during supper but there was no suet left and I was not going out in the rain to refill it.  

Hot wind

Since yesterday, the wind's been roaring from the Southwest, pushing clouds and heat and making waves run down the creek.  I believe the temperature rose above 80° but I forgot to look after I saw it had hit 79°.  The sky cycled between blue and white but distinct cumulus clouds made up the white.  It had a very March look.  Unfortunately, the wind was hard on birds, and my timing was bad.  I saw the pair of pileated woodpeckers and a brown thrasher but got no pictures.  The pair of wrens also visited but were never close enough to get in one frame.  A junco flitted around in the trees, as did myrtle warblers.  Bluebirds and house finches were thirsty.  

I went down to the dock to look at the repairs.  On the way I found a periwinkle shell in the grass.  A few mallards were out feeding on the creek.  Seaweed draped the mud bank because the wind had pushed the water out.  Barnacles were shut up tight.  Some kind of bivalve was interspersed among them, maybe a clam or scallop.  They looked too symmetrical for oysters or mussels.  On the way back I found a couple of violets in bloom.  Then I found an ebony spleenwort fern poking through the fence clear across the yard from where I'd planted it years ago.  I need to mark it before someone comes through with a weedeater.  

Lepidoptera

Today was much like yesterday, pretty and pleasant.  Bluebirds and a pileated woodpecker wanted breakfast.  Eventually I relented and put out bark butter balls.  One crow got the hang of it, but the others balked.  So a blue jay had to show up its cousins.   

A dark butterfly egged the wild cherry, which suggested it was a dark morph tiger swallowtail.  I saw a smaller brownish butterfly on a dogwood flower, but it got away.  Several skinks ranging from a skinklet that peeked out from the pool cover to red faced adults were awake.  Turtles basked on the lake snags. 

Like the bluebirds, there were brown thrashers around all day.  But unlike the bluebirds, I only saw one brown thrasher at a time so there were no fights.  Starlings came and fought over the remnant of the suet.  Even the titmice had suet.  In the late afternoon a white breasted nuthatch also wanted some of the rapidly disappearing suet. It was followed by woodpeckers and a Carolina wren. 

By mid afternoon the crescent moon was above the trees, but Eastward flowing haze and cloud wisps kept confusing the camera.  My best shots scarcely revealed the man-in-the-moon, much less craters.  One small fiddlehead finally came up on the Christmas fern.  Perhaps the Winter was not cold enough?  I found more mutant four petaled violets.  I think the fifth petal shrank rather than disappearing. 

A hummingbird moth worked around the money plant flowers, left to sample other flowers, then came back.  It was a Snowberry clearwing (Hemaris diffinis), the same as last Spring.  The moth was not the only lepidopteran visitor to the money plant.  A tiger swallowtail also enjoyed the nectar.  maybe I should try it?   

Speaking of hummingbirds, I spotted a patch of red across the yard and got excited only to discover it was the head of a red bellied woodpecker.  A male brown headed cowbird perched on the feeder hanger but did not partake.  

Firsts!

Clouds looked like rain one minute and sunny the next.   They were being pushed by strong winds...A house wren checked out the feeder by my office.  It flew before the camera was ready, but I saw it and I'm declaring it FoS.  A yellow crowned night heron perched on the dock.

Blue jays and bluebirds snatched bark butter balls.  A mallard hen paddled downstream with a raft of freshly hatched ducklings.  A yellow crowned night heron (same one?) preened on a pine branch that overhung the creek. The day was very warm but the breeze and the come-and-go clouds kept it comfortable. 

Fiddleheads were opening on the fern.  I saw buds on the yellow flag iris.  There were a lot fewer flowers on the coral honeysuckle.  I thought I saw an odd bumblebee visiting the money plant.  Then I realized it was a hummingbird moth.  That was the first in many years! 

Around 5pm a very gentle rain fell.  A bluebird and a brown thrasher visited the bark butter balls.  The low sun broke through at one point and I thought of checking for a rainbow, but the temperature had dropped about 20 degrees.  Then the sky got dark and the rain hammered the ground during supper.  The clouds lightened up a little before twilight. 

Windy

The storm left sky and earth scrubbed and shining.  But the wind was still gusty. Turtles lined up to bask, overseen by cormorants.  Lots of periwinkles found resting places above the water.  An egret paced beside the shore.  A little moth spread its wings on the window.  The wind trashed an orchard spider's web.  Geese brought their six goslings to graze. 

A dragonfly zipped around the yard about 18" above the grass.  I wasted pixels and only got a blur.  Earlier I saw a black and a tiger swallowtail.  I found a patch of a different kind of moss, Polytrichum commune - Common Hair Cap Moss.  Most moss in the yard is either pincushion - Leucobryum glaucum or  Fern Moss - Thuidium delicatulum.  I believe the stuff on and under the retaining wall is cypress-leaved plaitmoss Hypnum cupressiforme.  The fuzzy fiddleheads of Christmas fern were beginning to unfurl. 

K cut off the redwood branches that were blocking my view of the lake.  Thus I saw a great blue heron land on a dead tree.  Then an egret landed on a nearby log.  A raft of cormorants paddled down the lake past the egret and some got out of the water.  The egret joined the heron which eventually departed.  So did the cormorants. The feral cat came by at dusk, and was rolling on the lower patio as though in catnip.

Clouds and wind

There were white wisps when I got up and half an hour later the sky was overcast, then that too swept off to the West.  A male goldfinch got a drink from the hummer feeder moat.  Hummers sucked up juice every couple of minutes.  I had glimpses of egrets on the creek. 

A rap on the window alerted me in time to see (but not photograph) a cicada killer in hot pursuit of a cicada.  Wow!  The wind discouraged birds and bugs for the most part.  However, an aerial battle between hummers passed right over my head.  A titmouse was unwilling to land on the feeder with me near.

The black swallowtail caterpillars are just as voracious, but they have more rue than the monarchs have milkweed.  The swallowtail is on the left and the monarch on the right.


Altogether it was not much of a photography day - just flowers and caterpillars.  There were flowers on the trumpet vine and the chaste tree.  The fern fronds were dark with spores.  The saltmarsh fleabane had buds, though there was only one plant this year. 

Hazy

Downy woodpeckers came for breakfast. Then the dredge started up.  Later on, I saw a question mark butterfly land outside the window.  It folded its wings and became a dead leaf.  There were other butterflies around.  I saw a tiger swallowtail, a painted lady, and I think a spring azure. 

After lunch I spent time outside.  The Christmas fern survived trampling when the window was installed last winter. A queen yellow jacket hunted for a home site.  Two great crested flycatchers flew around, wheep-wheeping.  A red-bellied woodpecker pounded on the oak.  The house wren surveyed the yard from her porch.  I rescued a bee from the water.  And chased off goslings repeatedly.

A couple of male house finches tussled and while they were occupied, a male cardinal took over the feeder.  There's a moral in that somewhere.  The haze thickened and by the time the dredge crew quit the sky was white, darker to the East.  But sunset turned gold.

More of the same

Again, the evening clouds were gone in the morning. It is sunny and windy. A squirrel came for a looooong drink at the birdbath.

Cardinals, finches and a titmouse came to lunch. So did the wretched husky that gets loose every so often. The choke cherries are blooming and a small brown butterfly was visiting. The ferns are opening their fiddleheads.

Down on the dock, a cold wind came out of the NE, but the clouds were coming from the NW. An osprey, cormorants, egrets and herons, and of course geese passed by. Fish keep jumping and I keep missing. A crab was working on a piling and, I swear, something's nose stuck out of the water until I moved. I suspect a muskrat. See the spot in the middle?