Many rescues

After a week without sunshine, it blazed all day!  A Carolina wren picked through the stale barkbutter balls.  I found a monarch chrysalis in the mountain mint.  The black swallowtail chrysalis was unchanged.  The two Argiope spiders were prospering.  A cloud of no-see-ums entangled with the rosebush web.  The Berkely's polypore was buried in tree debris.  

At last the air was warm enough for me to consider swimming.  This was fortunate for two young skinks, a wheel bug and a leaf-footed bug, something that looked like a small Mayfly, a lacewing, a bumblebee, several crickets, a mama spider with a load of spiderlings, some things I couldn't identify, and a brown furry lump that I think was a puss caterpillar.  I was extremely careful with that one.  One of the skinks took a close look at the leaf-footed bug, then left it alone.  Later I saw a wasp hunting around the area where the caterpillar had been floating.  I wonder if the wasp had captured and dropped it.  

Chill wind

Despite the rain, the hibiscus surprised us with another flower.  A hummer sought breakfast during a lull.  The Argiope weathered the storm.  Brown headed nuthatches couldn't wait either.  In the afternoon, the wind flipped around to the North and cleared the sky, but lowered the temperature.  I cleaned tree trash out of the pool and evicted one frog.  It seemed tired and didn't really lead me on much of a chase.  

A honeybee was busy with the mountain mint.  As I dripped and shivered in the wind, I noticed lots of long-legged flies on the mountain mint, some red, some green.   Then a fiery skipper landed and a Southern purple mint moth flitted among the mountain mint stalks.  A white breasted nuthatch persisted until it got its seed.  A tree on the far side of the dam turned gold.  It looked to me more like the tree was dying than coloring for Fall.  The cormorants made their nightly commute.  

Cool gray day

The rain finally stopped but the sky stayed overcast and that kept the temperature down and the air damp.  A cool breeze persuaded me to stay dry.  When I went outside I saw a tan jumping spider, Platycryptus undatus.  I took my eyes off it to grab the camera and when I looked back it was on its back with legs curled, acting dead.  It had been lively seconds before so I flipped it right-side-up.  It slowly recovered and tottered away.  Did I discover a spider that plays possum?

A skimmer used one of the bamboo perches.  Some of the usual wasps were missing but all the regular bees showed up.  Some flies liked the mountain mint too.  I saw a fiery skipper, a monarch, a tiger swallowtail, and a dark butterfly.  Bees harassed the monarch while she laid eggs on the butterfly milkweed.  

Hummer wars have begun.  I saw a hummer keeping watch on the feeder.  It was all fluffed up as though it too was feeling chilly.  Then it dived on another that tried to feed.  It also flew up to me and hovered about four feet away.  I wish I knew what that meant.  A couple of skinklets wandered around the patio but I saw no adults today. 

A bird perched atop the maple - a mockingbird?  Then I saw great crested flycatchers.  There were at least two, maybe three.  I thought they were fledglings because they seemed awkward and pale. 

Buggy

A brown headed nuthatch greeted us at breakfast.  Then I was busy till late afternoon when it was very hot and critters kept flying at my face since the rest of me was submerged.  I rescued a few beetles and gave up.  A duskywing joined the bees and wasps on the mountain mint. 

As I dripped off behind a screen of wasps and dragonflies, I saw a green heron preening on a dock post.  An osprey dived on the creek but there was too much vegetation for me to know whether the bird caught anything.  I also saw a hummer seeking nectar from a hibiscus. 

Most of the perches were occupied by dragonflies, slaty skimmer, widow skimmer, maybe other species.  Bees dominated the mountain mint but there were some wasps.  Two silver slashes on the thorax indicated one was Ammophila procera.  I checked on the Argiope spiders and found the one in the rue.  Of the other two, one clung to a ruined web and the other web seemed empty.  

Waiting for rain

The day was mostly overcast with a few times of sunshine.  A hummer was hungry in the early morning.  A downy came for seeds, along with chickadees and titmice.  Goldfinches were back.  

Expecting rain, I swam in the morning and encountered the usual beetles and spiders.  A big mama wolf spider in the skimmer was carrying a load of babies.  After my swim, I saw a duskywing skipper and a summer azure on the mountain mint.  A tiger swallowtail flitted across the yard.  Lots of scoliid, threadwaisted, and great golden digger wasps feasted on the mountain mint.  Bumblebees, carpenter bees, and black bees competed with the honeybees.  Even flies sipped nectar.  I located the two young Argiope spiders.  One of them caught lunch.  A couple of dragonflies dueled in the air. 

The rain still hadn't fallen in the afternoon.  While I sat outside, birds acted like I was a grave threat instead of the one feeding them.  Goldfinches flew up then swooped away.  A hummer also flew off when I moved.  So I went inside and that was the signal the nuthatches had been awaiting - both white breasted and brown headed.  There was some drama when a male house finch let a female goldfinch share the seed feeder but chased off her mate.  I heard blue jays gut only saw them flying away from the oak.  A heavy dark cloud with a sharp boundary occupied the evening sky, but still no rain fell.  

Insects

Two female goldfinches and a male cardinal came for breakfast.  Eventually a male goldfinch showed up.   Even later, a mockingbird checked the food dishes but ignored the suet. 

When I got out of the water, a lovely dragonfly was sitting on one of the stakes.  I think it was a female Needham's skimmer but it was gone when I came back with the camera.  On the mount mint I saw a great golden digger wasp, many honeybees, a few bumblebees, and an assortment of other bees and wasps.  The asters were abuzz too.  I think one was a bee fly.    The orchard spider was still in the web attached to one of the dragonfly perches.  Two saddlebage butterflies patrolled the sky over the pool.  Butterflies were mostly skippers and snouts.  The mydas fly was back. 

Late in the day, I noticed a yellow crowned night heron on a downstream dock.  

.

Shoreline finished

The early mockingbird was back.  The newspaper had an article on poison ivy.  The volunteers planted spartina and strung goose protection.  It all left the shoreline looking very strange.  Geese and ducks paddled past without stopping. 

The rue was buzzing in the afternoon.  I saw a honeybee, bumblebees, hover flies, many kinds of wasp, and a very tiny bee with loaded pollen baskets.  A big, dark, waspish thing whizzed through the lowest parts of the vegetation so I never got a good look.  Several spiders were handing out around the pool.

A pine warbler got some 'powder of mealworm and barkbutter'.  Titmice were bold. or possibly naive - I think they may have been parent and offspring.  The one that looked younger to me kept dropping the seeds it was trying to peck open.   

Baby bluebird

The air was still smoky, though either the smell had diminished or we got used to it.   Bluebirds looked ragged, maybe molting or maybe parenting wore them out.  Even though I staked it, the sunflower got in my line of sight of the seed feeder perch.  So instead of the brown headed nuthatch, the back of the sunflower was in focus.  The LRN volunteers were back to mark planting areas on the sand and rig goose deterrents.  

Either birds were eating green cherries or they were finding bugs among the cherries, but the wild cherry tree was busy.  One was a juvenile bluebird.  A mockingbird stood on the side wall of the steps and flashed.  Then it went to the birdbath for a drink.  

A snout butterfly was attracted to the cinquefoil or violets, I couldn't tell which.  BugGuide says their food is hackberry.  A cabbage white was more interested in the mountain mint.  But I didn't see any butterflies on the butterfly milkweed, just a little wasp and a minuscule ant.  Bumblebees feasted on the rue and I thought I saw a honeybee too.  Some potter wasps and quite a few flies were feeding on the rue as well. Leatherwing beetles preferred the parsley.  Wasps and flies joined them. 

Crows checked in case I had left them any food.  I hadn't.  A red bellied woodpecker wanted suet but was too wary.  When a white breasted nuthatch showed up, I was frustrated by the sunflower so I went outside.  Two white breasted nuthatches took turns at the feeder despite my presence.  A juvenile bluebird foraged under the red cedar.  A pine warbler got some suet.  A mockingbird decided I was too close.  Chickadees and titmice weren't as easily deterred from eating.  

Crows were busy harassing something.  Clouds moved in and we had a brief shower around 6pm.  The two male cardinals whose territories overlap at the feeder got into a squabble and one chased the other away.  I could tell them apart because one had begun to molt.  

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. 

Windy

Bluebirds and blue jays ate up all the barkbutter balls.  Many crows gathered to harass something I couldn't see, but I assume it was a hawk.  Two curious osprey circled higher over the commotion.  

A couple of blowflies rested on mountain mint leaves, for what?  A leatherwing beetle roamed a parsley umbel. I glimpsed a tiger swallowtail and tossed a couple of beetles and spiders out of the water.  

Two brown headed nuthatches came for seeds and squeaked at me because I was sitting too close.  Under a cloudy sky, the temperature was seasonable, except for wind gusts which felt very chilly in a wet swimsuit.  

June-like day

A raggedy-molt brown thrasher came for breakfast.  Later in the morning while I was slicing green onions for Persian cold yoghurt soup, a pair of goldfinches visited.  Alas, no photo. The sky was intensely blue and the temperature mild with moderate humidity, more like the beginning of summer than the end. 

I saw skinks at lunch and several times in the afternoon.  Brown headed nuthatches also showed up repeatedly.  The hibiscus had a new flower and there were still more buds, thanks to the neem oil!  

The Argiope was still facing the other way on its web.  And the new Argiope was back in its web, so the one that drowned was an unknown.  In the late afternoon, the dog took a notion to have a roll in the violet leaves under the hibiscus and perilously close to the spider.  I checked afterward and found that, while the web had some damage, the spider had wisely hidden behind a dead leaf.  I found myself apologizing.  

The mountain mint continued to draw pollinators despite the spider mites damage and my pruning.  I didn't see the green bee, but there were plenty of honey and bumble bees, and flies.  Lots of digger, thread-waisted, and potter wasps, and today a butterfly!  It appeared to be a tattered summer azure.  The foolish monarch caterpillar found another seedpod to eat. And a hummer sampled the flowers on the butterfly milkweed.  I wish my other milkweeds would bloom, but I guess that's too much to ask when they're trying to survive all the insects.  Curiously, a Guinea paper wasp was sitting on the neem oil sprayer. 

A fly was very interested in a crack in the steps.  I thought it led to a skink lair but I wouldn't expect that to attract flies.  I rescued a spider carrying an egg pearl but I was too late for a big cicada, one of the same kind as I rescued a few days ago.  It may have been finished living before it fell in the water.  I also fished out a skink, an assassin bug that was still swimming, a small brown click beetle, and a big scarab with markings that reminded me of an army tank draped in camouflage.  

I believe I saw a tree swallow land in the oak but I couldn't find it in the foliage.  A downy woodpecker came back for suet.  Three titmice, including the one with no tail, also clustered on the suet.  And as the light began to fade two Carolina wrens sought suet for a bedtime snack.  

Rinse and repeat

Today followed the same pattern as yesterday except that it was not unpleasantly hot.  Rain had ruined the hummer juice and the barkbutter balls.  The bluebird fledglings made many visits to the remaining morsel of suet, as did chickadees and titmice.   I saw a male goldfinch and a brown thrasher but they were too quick for me.  A disheveled, molting mockingbird was also interested.  Then three brown headed nuthatches took a turn.  

I spent most of my time in the pool cleaning up debris.  The only animals were a defunct centipede, a frog I evicted, and a few wasps, including a Polistes exclamans.   We ate lunch outside since the temperature was nice, but unfortunately, flies found our food irresistible.  Hummers were frequent visitors during and after lunch but some continued to look where the feeder used to be.  They also found the red hibiscus flowers attractive.  Blue jays flew among the trees but I was too close to the food so they stayed away. 

The temperature was just right for skinks, which found reasons to repeatedly cross the patio.  One crossed the step only to encounter another who was uninterested in company.  A duskywing and a fiery skipper joined the hymenoptera on the mountain mint.  I also saw a monarch and a tiger swallowtail.  The clouds thickened and covered the sky by mid afternoon again, but the rain didn't start for several more hours.  

Still hot

Morning rain didn't last.  Birds ignored it to reach the suet.  A Carolina wren alternated suet and sunflower seeds.  As usual, a brown thrasher preferred to clean up what fell.  

The sun was out by lunch time, driving up the temperature.  Wasps and hover flies enjoyed the mountain mint.  A great blue skimmer dragonfly kept watch outside my window and later a blue dasher chose the perch by the pool.  I caught a glimpse of a damselfly.  The sky was intensely blue with fluffy clouds.  A yellow kneed wasp nibbled on the bench.  

The leatherleaf clematis Clematis pitcheri continued to bloom on the front porch but the flowers were more white than purple.  The crocosima was spectacular.  And the chaste tree was blooming already.  Goslings by the shoreline were half grown and beginning to get adult colors.  Fireflies blinked while the geese grazed.  

Getting warmer

The season has moved on from irises to day lilies.  It has been dry too - all the excess rain in February was counterbalanced by the lack of rain the last several weeks.  K has been watering the blueberries.  We installed another cake of suet and bluebirds came flying.  

A tiger swallowtail danced around the trees and a dragonfly made passes over the grass.  Wasps and flies were more plentiful.  A cabbage white actually posed.  So did a chickadee.  And a hummer finally came to the feeder.  

Still hot

The male red bellied woodpecker got up for a suet breakfast.  Much later, I heard one fussing in the trees because I was too close to the suet. 

The painted skimmer was back briefly at lunchtime.  I saw a tiger swallowtail fluttering around the wild cherry and a dark swallowtail that just kept going.  The brown thrasher pair foraged for suet crumbs while bluebirds went to the source.  Blue jays pecked at the remains of barkbutter balls. 

Since the temperature was predicted to drop back to normal after today, I made sure to get another afternoon in the pool.  This time I only rescued a few small black beetles.  Dragonflies zoomed past but didn't pause to be identified, much less photographed.  The sky was quite blue with lots of cottony cumulus.  And it was still windy.  When I came in, the pileated woodpecker landed on the post right behind me. I tried to ignore her but she spooked anyway.  

In the late afternoon, I heard a mockingbird again.  A bluebird perched on a vent pipe looked over his shoulder to where crows set up a racket.  If there was a predator, it didn't come our way.  Wasps and syrphid flies were attracted to the rue flowers.  A silver spotted skipper hid behind a rose leaf.  Cabbage whites flitted around like nothing was good enough for them.  A buzzard circled overhead. 

By evening menacing clouds covered the sky.  Dragonflies zipped across my field of view without the directional changes they make when hunting.  A crane fly brushed past me.  In between the low dark clouds I could see higher clouds turning sunset colors.  The stormy-looking clouds just kept moving past without a drop of rain falling.  But I think the temperature was falling because the wind began to feel chilly so I came inside.  

80s

The camera viewfinder went blurry so I wasn't sure if I was getting anything in focus.  As a result, I didn't take many pictures.  But apparently the lens was fine.  From memory, I saw a black swallowtail and a cabbage white, a skink, many wasps and flies, a mockingbird,a brown thrasher, a brown headed nuthatch,a Carolina wren,a pelican, three kinds of woodpecker (pileated, red bellied, downy), and a crow.  Cherry petals fluttered on the breeze.  I hope someday I get a cherry from the tree.

K refilled the seed feeder and left the bucket to air out.  Naturally, a squirrel had to investigate.  

Cooler

Nevertheless, I saw a dragonfly, a butterfly, and many flies.  Pollinators buzzed around the dogwood, but I don't know if they were bees or something else.  A paper wasp gnawed on a daylily stalk from last year.  A skink slipped along the retaining wall. 

Some of the new oak leaves were very reddish but others were golden.  The one dogwood that has bracts that stick too tightly was again full of box-like flowers.  The rust problem on the cedar was back.  The purple iris sent up buds.  So did azaleas. 

A juvenile pelican fished in the creek.  A brown thrasher hid from me and a blue jay spied on me.  The brown headed nuthatch and the downy woodpecker argued over the suet but I was too close to move the camera without spooking them both.  The nuthatch lost.  

Cool for August

Clouds kept the temperature down, but not the humidity. The first hibiscus flower of the second round of blooming opened.   Bees and wasps, and even flies preferred the tiny mountain mint flowers.  A duskywing skipper joined the crowd.  A couple of dragonflies zipped through without pausing. 

In the pool a spider walked on the surface tension.  A camel cricket was having a harder time so I rescued it.  Minuscule swallowtail caterpillars ate tiny holes in the parsley.  A black swallowtail laid more eggs on the rue.  The butterfly milkweed had seedpods started but the other milkweeds hadn't even bloomed. Caterpillars ate several of them to bare stalks.  And a monarch came to lay more eggs

Skinks enjoyed the reprieve from rain.  But one crept up on another and ambushed it.  A hummer rejected the feeder and checked out each plant, to no avail.  Eventually I got the feeder replaced, but then the recently refrigerated sugar water was too cold.  The hummers waited till it came up to air temperature. 

A red bellied woodpecker made a brief stop at the bark butter.  A Carolina wren sat on the chair and scolded the feeder.  A bluebird family visited and the fledgling confused me by going to the seed feeder.  A molting pine warbler chose bark butter.  

I heard a kingfisher about 4pm and eventually spotted it on one of the pilings, but redwood fronds were in the way and my wiggling around for an unobstructed view must have alerted the bird.  I think it had a fish.  I spied a rabbit in the grass beyond the maple tree.  The rain held off till 5pm and then was just a sprinkle.

Blood temperature

A Carolina wren came for breakfast.  The cardinal looked silly on the hummer feeder.  A pair of goldfinches dropped in. 

The male downy woodpecker worked on the bark butter at lunch time.  A hot South wind blew us up to 98.6°F.  The humidity was higher as well.  At some point in the afternoon, the bark butter melted and spilled on the hibiscus leaves. 

I saw my favorite wasp, the great golden digger, amongst many other kinds of insect on the rue.  There were hover flies, greenbottle flies, and one big dark fly, honeybees, bumblebees, carpenter, leafcutter, and tiny sweat bees, paper, mason, and blue mud wasps, and a yellow jacket.

A Canada goose family relaxed in the mouth of a drain pipe downstream.  A blue jay flew at the BBB feeder instead of landing.  It did not end well. 

After dark, the moon rose round and bright behind the trees. 

Beautiful day

It was sunny and pleasant and fragrant - the white jasmine was blooming.  So was the pepper, the cilantro, the false indigo, the white lily, and the mountain mint looked like it was getting ready to bloom.  I put out bark butter balls and the blue jays weren't far behind.  One kept trying to land on the cup instead of the hanger with no success.  Another managed by climbing down. 

The slime mold was still white except where leaves and such had fallen on it.  I touched it and it was not slimy or sticky, but cool and a little damp and fairly firm.  There were two large patches and some small bits.  I found a snail on top of a patch that had been mostly hidden by vegetation.  Another glass snail was on a straw sticking up from the slime mold.  I wonder if they eat it? 

Long legged flies were flitting around the pepper leaves and I spotted one that was bright metallic red.  It was a little smaller than the ones I usually see, but I decided I don't care enough to catch the fly and investigate its personal parts for a specific ID.  They're all supposed to be predators on small garden pests.  

Ar lunch, two small skinks went tearing across the top step too fast for me to react.  A hummer made several visits so I guess she built a nest in the area.  Three squirrels, all with a noticeable dark streak above the nose, interacted in ways the made me suspect they were siblings not long out of the nest.  Two of them put their noses together as though kissing.  One stayed up the post or on the feeder roof while the other two foraged below. 

A female bluebird settled on the tub of bark butter so they must have eaten all the balls.  Unfortunately the window screen was in the way of the camera.  Then a couple of pine warblers showed up and one bumped the other off the feeder.  A Carolina wren sat still on the feeder for some time.  Then one of the warblers returned. 

As I are supper, I noticed a spider on the window.  The bullfrog was still calling.  The new camera did not want to take pictures of the moon.  Good thing I kept the old one.