Cloudy

I planted the seed from the daylily pod before swimming.  The water was full of beetles and frogs.  I lost count of the beetles but there were three frogs, one dead, one that was none too lively, and one that seemed OK.  Of course there was a mosquito.  Back on terra firma I found the Argiope doing well, bees and wasps enjoying the mountain mint and milkweed.  A fiery skipper preferred the mountain mint even though it would have been camouflaged on the milkweed.  Then I noticed a common whitetail dragonfly on the top of the retaining wall.  A little later, a skimmer claimed the garden stake.  A skink crept out of the vegetation over by the hummer feeder.  Chickadees came for seeds despite my presence, but other birds stayed away.

In the front yard, a rainlily popped up at the end of the dry creek bed.   And a second crop of fairy ring mushrooms appeared like mourners around the spot where the oak died from emerald ash borers.  We got a tornado warning after dark but we didn't get any high winds here.  

 

Hot

The air was hot and humid and not very breezy.  The hibiscus was still blooming.  As I stepped outside, a skink scooted off.  Apparently it had been resting in the shade of the house.  There wasn't much in the water - a few beetles, one little mama spider, and a millipede riding a leaf.  I spotted another infant Argiope, this one still making a fingerprint web.  A widow skimmer perched but I didn't see any dragonflies on patrol overhead.  I did glimpse some butterflies.  

A crow and a Carolina wren came to eat, along with the regulars.  Scruffy titmice that I suspect were molting fledglings got into everything.  A mockingbird harvested cherries.  A dark hummingbird visited its feeder but I think I spooked it.  The milkweed was blooming again.  The toadstools in the front yard looked about the same, maybe drier.  

Green Junebug

A crow joined the cherry eaters.  It landed almost on top of a mockingbird.  Chickadees and titmice liked the cherries too.   A brown headed nuthatch was only interested in seeds.  Something ate the sunflower petals then broke the stalk. 

While in the pool, I fished out a spider I thought had drowned, but it recovered as soon as it was in the air.  The usual beetles needed help but a green June beetle, Cotinus nitida, had rescued itself.  It was the first I'd seen this year.  Later a tiger swallowtail flitted through the trees.  A thread-waisted wasp enjoyed the mountain mint.  And underneath, I found an infant Argiope in its web. 

In the front yard, a rainlily bloomed.  Skippers fed on the lantana. And in an arc around where the oak used to be, white mushrooms the size of saucers spread their parasols.   The stalk had a ring but I didn't see a cup and I thought the gills bruised blue.  However, the best fit I could find online was Chlorophyllum molybdites which is poisonous.  By evening the sky was clear except for fiery clouds on the Western horizon.  

 

Still pleasant

Today I learned there's a bill in the General Assembly to establish a Virginia Fungi Task Force.  Also proposed is a state mycologist. The same article told me that the split gill fungus has 28,000 sexes.  Politics can be educational.  A mockingbird paid an early visit.  Then  a crow arrived.  A Carolina wren bounced around.  White throats were hungry.  Brown headed nuthatches found seeds they liked.  A goldfinch was more picky.  Bluebirds enjoyed the barkbutter balls as did a myrtle warbler.  The song sparrow was back.  Blue jays too.  

The scarred squirrel got into the mealworms.  A brown thrasher had some as well.  Pine warblers sampled everything.  The female oriole came by for a drink.  The male red belly chose seeds but the female pileated wanted suet.  

 

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.  

Clearing

The creek was quiet but the colors were dull.  It took a long time for the patio to dry because of the humidity.  Around lunchtime we had some sunny moments.  What I think was a young chipping sparrow tried to get lunch but the house finches were too greedy.   Then it gave a side-eye to a garden spider.  A Carolina wren was more successful with the barkbutter balls.  The cardinal was beginning to grow a new tail.  

A monarch butterfly perched on a dogwood, probably because there was so little left of the milkweed.  As I left for a meeting, I spotted two large parasol toadstools at the foot of the drive.  I was busy till evening but did see the cloudless Western sky turn beautiful colors after sunset.  

Mosquitoey

Before my morning meeting, a little green heron was sitting on the dock.  Lots of leaves blew into the water and made Rorschach images.  I visited the Berkley's Polypore and got thoroughly bitten by mosquitoes.  The chrysalis was showing some wing color - fingers crossed that I'm there when it emerges.  I found only one black swallowtail caterpillar and no monarchs.  A monarch butterfly flew past the butterfly milkweed without a glance.  The remaining Argiope seemed fine.  A large silvery feather poked into the ground.  

 

Cicada

The morning sky was white from a thin overcast and not much was happening at breakfast time.  Cornell shared a link for a Fall bird Migration Dashboard but it indicates this is not yet the time for Virginia.  A Carolina wren finally came for suet.  The spiders were, of course, patient.  Around 2pm, the sky cleared enough for sunshine.  Fluffy cumulus blew away to the West while a high layer of cirrocumulus slid slowly East.  I went outside and a cicada buzzed past to land on the feeder post.  A blue dasher decided that was way too big a bug.  

The clouds dissipated and the sun became very hot.  The fungus under the oak seemed bigger but still looked like fresh bread.  Some beautyberry clusters showed a hint of red.  I located the three black swallowtail caterpillars again, though I was expecting the biggest one to have gone off to pupate.  It looked like it might stay right there for the change. 

Lots of butterflies were on the wing but few stopped to pose.  One that did was a dark swallowtail that I think might be a dark phase tiger swallowtail.  It rested on a dogwood leaf long enough for me to get out of the water, get the camera, and stalk it.  Eventually it flew to a lower bush and then danced in the air with another dark butterfly.  It disappeared, then a dark butterfly I thought was the same one flew to the top of the wild cherry where it seemed to be laying eggs.  Seeing the wings against the bright sky lent some proof to the tiger hypothesis.  

A red spotted purple drank from the pool, then rested on the concrete.  Unlike the swallowtail, it was quite tattered.  Another, in better shape, rested on a maple leaf.  I also glimpsed a monarch, a hackberry emperor, a summer azure, a sleepy orange, and others I couldn't identify.  

In the late afternoon, a fresh sheet of cirrocumulus rolled out of the West.  It moved on through quickly and the sunlight returned.  A female widow skimmer landed on one of the perches, then switched to another.  A male hummer visited the feeder but the light didn't catch his gorget. 

Cicada killer

The cicada killer wasp was floating in the water and I rescued it very carefully.  It slowly revived and eventually flew away.  I also fished out a black and green caterpillar but I think it was a goner.  When I was coming back to the house, a male widow skimmer alighted on one of the bamboo perches.  

A very young skink climbed the feeder post.  Luck for it, no hungry bird happened to be visiting at the time.  Grown skinks often climb the brick walls of the house but I've no idea why climbing appeals to skinks.  Watered-down sunlight came through the cloud cover but no rain fell.  A fine, new fungus popped up under the oak.  At this stage it looks to me like slices of bread   

A brown headed nuthatch visited the seed feeder.  A male and a female cardinal got into a fight at the feeder.  Since two pairs come to the feeder and one pair is dominant, I'm guessing the two birds were from different pairs.  A downy ate suet and titmice feasted on seeds and suet.  I dumped yesterday's rainwater out of the feeder dishes but didn't refill them because of the impending hurricane.  

 

Hot

For some reason downy and pileated woodpeckers picked today to visit after weeks of absence.  The brown headed nuthatches stayed busy.  I missed a shot of a blue jay.  The thermometer read 94° in the early afternoon.  Dramatic clouds rolled in from the West.  I came inside when a few raindrops fell and thunder grumbled in the distance.  But no real rain fell and the sky cleared again.  However at dusk it had become overcast.  Fireflies were out. 

There are no photos of the critters I found in the pool because I was wary of the predicted thunderstorm and left the camera inside.  In the water I found one drowned looper caterpillar, too many drowned roaches, ants, two live spiders and more drowned, and one bullfrog.  I rescued a wasp, a wasp, a black ground beetle, an Asian ladybug, and a brown Oriental beetle.  The bullfrog rescued itself.  There were mosquitoes, but they weren't in the water.  The mushroom I saw yesterday was so withered and dried up I almost didn't find it again.  Two variegated fritillary butterflies danced around the milkweed but left before I could get the camera.  Small dark bees also fed on the milkweed.  An Ammophila wasp tried to threaten me away from the milkweed but gave up and flew off. There were buds on the New England aster. 

Warm

Rain fell overnight but the sky cleared and the air was warm and humid.  The small black panther had a staring match with a squirrel.  The squirrel left unharmed.   The cat appeared to have been damaged previously because there was a patch of missing hair below its right ear.  Anyway, it did not hang around.  After it left,  bluebirds arrived. 

Blue jays visited the barkbuter but escaped my camera.  Brown headed nuthatches ate seeds despite the house finch on the perch.  One nuthatch fed another but it wasn't clear whether the recipient was offspring or mate.  I'm inclined to think it was a fledgling.  

Gladiolus, daylies, and butterfly milkweed bloomed.  I went swimming and fished out a couple of spiders.  A mushroom popped up just below the retaining wall.  The moon was bright but hazy.  Fireflies eluded me.  

Warm

At breakfast, the creek was smooth and reflective but the surface seemed dull, perhaps from pollen.  A brown headed nuthatch was an early visitor to the seed feeder.  Its feathers looked slept-in -- maybe it was molting.  A male red bellied woodpecker came next.  The nuthatch made repeat visits.  At lunchtime, a mockingbird wanted suet.  A bluebird went for barkbutter balls as did a blue jay.  A crow stuck to suet crumbs.  I found a good sized bird nest in the crape myrtle which I suspect might belong to mockingbirds.  A Carolina wren wanted barkbutter balls bad enough to ignore me as I sat outside. 

A little orb web had picked up all manner of dust and detritus which made me think it was abandoned.  There was a cast exoskeleton in the corner.  The rue was blossoming and a Guinea paper wasp, Polistes exclamens, was feeding.  As usual, cabbage whites roamed the yard, but I also glimpsed a brownish butterfly and a couple of smaller butterflies that might have been Spring azures.  The sky was very blue in the morning, hazy with clouds streaming East after lunch and overcast by suppertime. 

The beard lichen continued to reassure me about air quality.  Hickory leaves were an incandescent chartreuse.  Yellow and blue irises, yellow coreopsis, and little coral lilies bloomed in the back yard.  In front, the false indigo sent up spikes of pea-like blossoms.  Plenty of berries bent the blueberry canes.  A mushroom emerged next to the juniper and the cap cracked, exposing the gills.  It has not been a good Spring for mushrooms.  

Mosquito swarm

I love the way the creek glows at dawn on a sunny day.  If there's wind, it drops at dawn and dusk so the creek can reflect the light.  A brown headed nuthatch was up early and a chickadee waited rather than argue.  The sky was blue again but a little more hazy.  Dogwood leaves took on a bronze hue.  Southern purple mint moths were ubiquitous and I walked into a swarm of mosquitoes, the most I've seen all summer.  My skin no longer reacts to their bites as much as when I was young, but they were in my face and everywhere.  

The Berkley polypore shrank, perhaps from water loss, and turned rust and gray.  I found a few very small mushrooms like orange beads in the grass.  When I picked one, it was just as orange underneath.  It had gills that were well separated, surprisingly thick, and attached to the stalk, no veil ring but maybe a hint of a cup at the base.  My best guess is orange bonnet, Mycena acicula.  

Butterbutt

The sky was the clear blue that suggests low humidity.  Certainly, the sun was very hot though the air was not.  After lunch, I found a little snail lying in the sun and moved it into some vegetation.  The Berkeley's polypore was getting orange.  The bright red juvenile cardinal was camouflaged among the dogwood leaves.  He appeared to like dogwood berries.  They were disappearing fast.  I thought I glimpsed the grosbeak again but this time it was a yellow rumped warbler - first of the season.  Lots of spider threads caught the sun.  This late in the year must mean that they will winter over as hatchlings instead of eggs.  

Sunshine!

There were still a lot of clouds but I was grateful for every moment the sun got through them.   A hummer found the feeder but was too anxious to perch.  I wondered if it was a tourist migrating South rather than one that nested here.  Downy woodpeckers availed themselves of seeds and barkbutter balls.  A white breasted nuthatch was gone before the camera was ready but brown headed nuthatches were more cooperative.  

High tide over-topped the dock.  When it receded, mallards moved in.  They looked bedraggled and the males were in eclipse.  I glimpsed a small bird in flight that might have been a kingfisher, or something else.  Southern purple mint moths were everywhere.  A red spotted purple danced through the trees.  It amazed me at how easily those colors disappeared against green leaves.  

The fungus no longer looked appetizing, more like moldy bread.  I had a good, if chilly, swim.  A skink, a mama spider and her spiderlings, and two crickets got a second chance at life on dry land.  Vast quantities of leaves and needles clogged the skimmer, floated on the surface, and sank to the bottom.  I heard a red bellied woodpecker but didn't see it. 

When I got home from a meeting, I went back outside.  A couple dozen gulls flew over. headed Northwest.  It was impossible to be sure but they might have been laughing gulls in winter plumage.  Three young mockingbirds feasted on beautyberries.  I knew they were young because their eyes had not yet turned yellow.  

A rustling in the dogwood turned out to be a red eyed vireo.  It seemed curious about me.  A rustling in the undergrowth might have been another, but all I could see was a belly in shadow.   A hummer monitored all this from the top of the wild cherry.  The boy cardinal came back, still begging his mama for food.  The kid was a bottomless pit.  Poor worn out mother.  A great blue heron flew up into the pine behind the hackberry where the vegetation mostly hid it.  Sunset cast a warm caramel glow on the clouds.  

Raccoon

An early hummer was very hungry.  She tracked an incoming bumblebee and chased away another hummer.  She puffed up her feathers and even raised a little crest.  Brown headed nuthatches were determined to get seeds.  Cumulus clouds blew in from the East but higher cirrus clouds flowed from West to East.  A red rose bloomed.  

I was able to locate the two monarch caterpillars again.  I do not understand why they bite part way through a stem and cause the leaves to droop and dry, but they keep doing it.   Frogs hung out on the escape stick.  They did not notice they'd been joined by a field cricket.  I rescued two crickets and one small skink. 

Just as I was getting ready to catch the frogs, a raccoon walked up to the pool and tried to get a drink.  The frogs made themselves very scarce.  At first I thought the raccoon was young and foolish but the longer I watched the more it seemed to me to be sick.  It was very awkward and almost fell in a couple of times.  That persuaded me to get out at the other end.  It wandered over to the polypore and nosed around but then it came back to the pool.  The frogs popped up for a breath and disappeared again.  The raccoon appeared to fall asleep.  K called Animal Control and they caught it and said it was fatally ill, though not rabid.  

At supper. the persistent nuthatch was back.  Clouds were softly tinted as the cormorants commuted back to their roost.  

Lovely day

The white breasted nuthatch was up early, soon followed by a brown headed nuthatch.  They both wanted seeds, as did a house finch.  Young mockingbirds were hoping for barkbutter balls but I hadn't gotten outside yet.  The sunflower shone like its name.  A goldfinch got a drink.  

When I refilled the barkbutter balls, I saw a soldier beetle on the mountain mint.  A frog waited on the ladder.  A skink scooted under my chair and then hid among pine needles.  The lengthwise lines on its body made surprisingly good camouflage.  Eventually it ran across the step and went about its business.  I put shoes on to get close ups of the Berkeley's Polypore.  When I got in the pool two frogs awaited me.  Also a drowned skink, alas.  Neither frog made any effort to get away.  I also rescued a magnolia green jumping spider Lyssomanes viridis.

I saw butterflies and one dragonfly but they did not cooperate.  The one butterfly that I got a recognizable photo of might have been a hackberry emperor Asterocampa celtis.  Certainly it was very close to a hackberry tree.  A cloudless sulphur got away, as did a dark butterfly.  There was a very small monarch caterpillar munching the new leaves on the butterfly milkweed.  While I was photographing the caterpillar, a jumping spider marched down the railing, keeping a wary eye on me.  My guess was a canopy jumping spider Phidippus otiosus.  A few wasps looked for nectar on the mountain mint. 

Blue jays and a male cardinal vied for barkbutter balls for supper.  The white breasted nuthatch came back for another meal but a female cardinal was in the way.  Then it was house finches, but finally the bird got fed.  

Skippers

The day was beautifully sunny and warmer than I expected.  The northeast wind still blew, but not quite as fiercely.  Still, there was more tree trash to clean up.   My brief time in the pool yielded two skinks, one dead alas, two frogs, and a black swallowtail butterfly.  The volunteer sunflower bud was starting to turn yellow.  There was another hibiscus flower today.  The butterfly milkweed was almost recovered from defoliation.  The beautyberries were getting their magenta on.  The fungus might be as big as it will get. 

The Argiope started the day with a fresh, clean web and she already had breakfast.  At first she hung on the outside, away from the glass, but switched at some point.  That nice new web collected a lot of detritus as the day went on.  A tiger swallowtail flew slowly enough for the camera.  Not so, a cloudless sulphur - it was a blur of butterfly-shaped yellow.  It landed on yesterday's withered hibiscus instead of today's flower.  Another duskywing flitted around the mountain mint.  Then a silver spotted skipper landed on the mountain mint.  I thought another skipper might be a Huron sachem.  A two lined spittlebug crept along a dried stem of money plant.  

A blue jay inspected the barkbutter ball dish.  A white breasted nuthatch yearned for seeds.   A wary hummer watched as much as she drank.   A Carolina wren objected to the crumbs that were left of the barkbutter balls, then hustled off to the seeds.   Brown headed nuthatches used ninja powers to get seeds.  A female cardinal looked like she had been dragged backward through a knothole.  Fortunately, molting is temporary. 

I saw a warbler with a yellow breast and brown head and back.  It seemed to have an eye ring though the angle of its head left me uncertain.  Also it was molting a bit so I couldn't see details of the wing bars.  Though it did not look like a pine warbler that is my best guess. 

Busy day

The brown thrasher was back for more delicious barkbutter but K forgot to remove the cover.  Problem solved, happy bird.  Brown headed nuthatches had to deal with chickadees and house finches.  They were both sneaky and bold.  I put out the last of a batch of hummer juice and made a fresh batch.  The hummers were satisfied.  A Carolina wren wanted barkbutter balls and then so did a female bluebird.  The molting mockingbird watched.  Actually, I saw at least three mockingbirds hanging around.  The male bluebird headed for seeds.  Birds were also eating dogwood berries and green acorns.  

The Argiope on the window switched sides on the web.  Now it can keep an eye or four on us.  I noticed it could move quite fast when something encountered the web.  A spotted cucumber beetle Diabrotica undecimpunctata occupied the yellow rose.  Caterpillars continued to eat rue.  A tiger swallowtail and a red spotted purple eluded the camera but a cabbage white posed.  A fussy wasp circled the mountain mint.  When I swam in the morning the only thing I rescued was a two-lined spittlebug. In the afternoon, I noticed a frog on the top step of the ladder. 

Several morning glories bloomed.  There were no hibiscus flowers but two buds waiting for tomorrow.  I detached a fragment of the big fungus to confirm its spore distribution system.  As expected, the underside was covered with pores    A gill mushroom poked up through the dirt nearby.  The canna was covered with blooms.  A volunteer sunflower made a bud. 

A female goldfinch took a turn at the seed feeder and the male came to watch.  Soon he had to join her but then she flew off with him in pursuit.  A blue jay settled into the dogwood while others flew hither and yon.   A white breasted nuthatch was too wary of me to get a seed.  I went inside and a female red bellied woodpecker took over the feeder. 

Bug

I was gone in the morning.  At lunch, a molting female cardinal looked very shabby and disheveled.  A blue jay was also a molting mess.  A bluebird kept watch on the feeders.  A mockingbird wanted barkbutter balls but was frustrated by a more aggressive blue jay.  Hummers continued to fight over their feeder.  Toward evening, a brown headed nuthatch popped in. 

A strand of web floated across the patio, catching sunlight. The two Argiopes stayed in the same spots, though I saw one run fast across its web.  A few wasps looked for fresh flowers on the mountain mint.  One blue dasher hunted from q bamboo stake perch.  Caterpillars continued to hatch on the rue.   Under one of the tables I found a huge leaf-footed bug.  There were no pool rescues. 

The fungus under the oak looked tasty but I suspect it would be more like wood.  I saw a couple of skinks but they weren't in the mood to pose.  One ran right under my chair.