Afternoon thunderstorm

A male goldfinch ate some seeds from the feeder.  A Carolina wren made a brief stop but flew before I could get a good angle on it.  A crow held its beak open as though panting.   Finally, a predicted thunderstorm materialized.  It lasted less than half an hour and left behind humidity so high the camera lens fogged up.  I went swimming after the sun returned.  While I was in the water a couple of pileateds feasted on suet. 

A duskywing skipper mingled with wasps on the mountain mint.  The bigger Argiope moved its web a couple of inches.  A prince baskettail patrolled the airspace.  A small grasshopper huddled on the window screen.  It might be a pine tree spur-throat grasshopper, Melanoplus punctulatus.

Chilly

A thin overcast veiled the sun and muted its warmth.  The wind gusts dumping tree detritus in the water.  I rescued a bumblebee from a sinking leaf but found no other wildlife afloat.  K saw two frogs earlier.  A monarch and a red spotted purple flitted around without alighting.  I could only find one fat caterpillar today.  I spotted the kingfisher on the bench on  the dock, but then it spotted me.  

After dark a pink and green grasshopper or katydid with very long antennae landed on the window.  

Insects

The goldfinches were our wake-up birds again.  Hummers were right behind after K hung a fresh feeder.  A lovely female slaty skimmer was posted on the lookout for annoying bugs.  Later a blue dasher took up the post and obelisked in the heat.  Fiery and dusky skippers were not dissuaded from the mountain mint by rude wasps and bees.  I also saw a variegated fritillary, a tiger swallowtail, and I think a cloudless sulphur. 

I was determined to get photos of leaf-cutter bees which wasn't easy as they kept moving.  The all-black bee, Megachile xylocopoides, was particularly elusive but I finally got it, dusted with pollen.  I also got the little grayish ones.  Great golden digger wasps posed nicely. 

A dog-day cicada, Neotibicen caniculariscicada, was in the skimmer.  It appeared to have drowned but I've seen insects revive so I left it on a table next to the house.  I also fished out a centipede and a shooter (a kind of leafhopper).  Along with May beetles I rescued a metallic green six spotted tiger beetle, Cicindela sexguttata.  A grasshopper came inside and my butterfly net was useful in returning it to the great outdoors.  My best guess is pine tree spur-throat grasshopper, Melanoplus punctulatus.  

With all these insects, skinks were out and about.  One headed right at me so I moved my foot and it darted off to the side.  But then it was curious and turned around to peek at me.  

Hummingbirds

A goldfinch was the first bird.  A bluebird came as soon as I put out mealworms.  Then a male red bellied woodpecker wanted suet.  Chickadees were unimpressed.  The white breasted nuthatches were back.  A Carolina wren inspected the area from atop the feeder hanger.  

When I got out of the pool, a  dragonfly perched on the bamboo stake the orchard spider used as an anchor.  I believe it was a yellow-sided skimmer, Libellula flavida, though at first I thought it was a Needham's skimmer. 

The usual insects crowded the mountain mint, including a great golden digger wasp, leaf-cutter bees, and a bee with very furry legs.  I saw more juvenile grasshoppers, or maybe katydids.  The water was again full of beetles,roaches, and small wasps.

A blue tailed skink crossed the patio and climbed the wall.  Something I thought was bigger than a squirrel disappeared behind the oak next to the fence.  Probably a cat.  Clouds piled up and provided welcome shade.  There was some afternoon rain but it barely wetted surfaces.  A nice breeze ameliorated the humidity.

A bluebird watched from an oak branch.  A mockingbird landed on the shepherd's crook.  One of the hummers, a female, kept expecting results from the hibiscus or gladiolus.  The male, however, know right where to go.  The white breasted nuthatches tag-teamed at the seed feeder. 

Dragonflies

The sky dripped a little at breakfast and that was all there rain there was.  A white breasted nuthatch joined the chickadees and titmice, cardinals and house finches at the seed feeder.  A mockingbird and later a blue jay, bluebirds, and a pine warbler visited the dish of barkbutter balls.  Goldfinches couldn't leave the sunflower alone.  The mockingbird harassed a couple of crows on the roof. 

The pool was full of beetles - a few black ground beetles, lots of brown May beetles, and of course Japanese beetles.  And the mountain mint was full of bees and wasps.  The hibiscus attracted a grasshopper nymph, a tiger swallowtail, and of course Japanese beetles.  A duskywing skipper visited the mountain mint.  The canna bloomed.  One lone turtle occupied the log on the lake. 

The humidity was higher which brought out the little biting bugs and that brought dragonflies.  I saw one outside the library i think was a wandering glider, Pantala flavescens.  A four spotted pennant, Brachymesia gravida, perched at the top of the cherry tree on a twig that something had stripped of leaves.  Something else zipped back and forth too fast for identification.  An amberwing, Perithemis tenera, lurked in the mountain mint. 

On the way home I spotted a rabbit.  As I sat outside around 5pm, the goldfinches, a mockingbird, a pine warbler, the female pileated woodpecker, and the male hummingbird fed cautiously.  They didn't like it if I moved to aim the camera.  

Voter registration drive

We had a good day to be outside at NSU but the only wildlife I saw there was a flock of Canada geese. Despite the hot sun, when I got home the water and breeze were cool.  I rescued some wasps, carefully.  Then I caught two frogs and put them out, and I even wore a skink for a while. Their tiny claws are sharp!  

I also rescued a very small grasshopper-like critter with big red eyes.  It was no bigger than a grain of cooked rice but it appeared to have wings so I'm not sure if it was a nymph or what exactly.  It seemed to have only one hind jumping leg, which could explain its involuntary swim.  The saltbush was budding. 

Distracted

What a rushed day!   I did get a swim and even verified that the figs are done.  But I didn't see much and remembered less.   We had a gloriously blue sky and I glimpsed a saddlebags dragonfly floating North.  The usual insects were abuzz on the mountain mint.  A green grasshopper nymph met me on the way to the figs.  

The spiders occupied their varied traps and I found a fine, new web spun by a venusta orchard spider outside my window.  

At supper time, brown headed nuthatches came for suet. 

Rain

I left the camera indoors for fear of rain, so naturally something strange happened.  As I  emptied the pool skimmer, a mockingbird, looking disheveled and possibly injured, landed beside me.  It drank from the puddle I had created, then slowly limped across the patio and huddled beside a chair for a while.  I didn't want to make it nervous so I didn't watch it all the time, and eventually it disappeared.  A red bellied woodpecker up in the hackberry feasted on the berries.  And the rain held off till nearly evening.

Small spiders have been in and around the pool, perhaps among the offspring of those mama spiders I rescued.  Big carpenter bees competed with the wasps on the mountain mint.  Honeybees were there too.  A black swallowtail even joined the nectar eaters.  The bird grasshopper was back on the hibiscus. 

The pair of Carolina wrens enjoyed the bark butter.  They were looking quite frumpy in their molt.  Between one shot and the next, the wren morphed into a brown thrasher.  Later a blue jay sampled the bark butter. 

Between seasons

Sunshine on the glassy creek spoke of Fall thought the heat and humidity belonged to Summer.  The third chrysalis still had not opened.  Black swallowtail caterpillars continued chowing down on rue. A Carolina wren speared a bark butter ball and wore it like a clown nose, alas out of focus.  Hummers started drinking early.  

At lunch, a squirrel flattened its belly against a cool patch of shaded patio.  A fiery skipper insisted on a place at the mountain mint.  Afterward, I saw a juvenile night heron hunting along the edge of the creek. 

A female pondhawk guarded the rue while a bird grasshopper hung out on the hibiscus.  A sharpshooter was also on the hibiscus, but I was too close to it.  In trying for a photo, I disturbed the grasshopper who flew to the gladiolus leaves.  I saw a tiger and a palamedes swallowtail, and some sulphurs, but they didn't pause. A black swallowtail was more cooperative. 

I rescued a skink despite its best efforts to drown.  Many other skinks were out and about.  The rabbit hopped past me while I was in the deep end of the pool.  A female eastern amberwing dragonfly hung out with the wasps around the mountain mint.  Wikipedia claims that both appearance and behavior mimic wasps. 

We had to refresh the hummers' juice.  I heard a crow and then saw a red tailed hawk fly away.  After that lots more birds appeared.  Great crested flycatchers appeared to find plenty to catch in the trees.  A young mockingbird might have been after dogwood berries or hackberries.  Brown headed nuthatches wanted sunflower seeds and one made the ratcheting squeak for which they're known. 

I came in to shed my swimsuit and when I next looked, a brown thrasher and a downy woodpecker confronted each other across the barkbutter.  Then two squirrels chased madly up the feeder pole and back, disturbing a female bluebird.  After that, it got quiet again. 

Breezy

One of the finches didn't look exactly like the others and turned out to be a juvenile bluebird.  Hummers arrived so steadily they sucked the feeder dry.  They also wasted energy chasing each other.  A pileated woodpecker shot across the yard and disappeared into the trees. 

Honeybees joined the throng on the mountain mint. I noticed spider mites were starting to spread among the flowers.  This year I know enough to get rid of the infected areas.  Four monarch caterpillars demolished the butterfly milkweed.  An adult monarch flew past and kept going, wisely.

When I lifted the skimmer basket, it was far too heavy.  The reason was a bullfrog.  It leaped out and I threw myself across the skimmer opening to keep it from going down the pipe and drowning.  The next I saw of it was eyes above the water in the deep end, but before I could do anything, the wind pushed the beach ball right at it.  That was the last I saw of the frog today.  While prowling around the pool deck looking for the frog, I startled a skink.  I did rescue some beetles and bees and a couple of young spiders.

Dragonflies occupied two perches.  Some others stayed on the wing.  I found two black swallowtail caterpillars on the rue.  They were still in the orange instar that looks a bit like monarchs.  The one that got eaten the other day had turned green.  Bad camera focus revealed an early black-and-white instar as well.

A male goldfinch made several visits to the ant moat for a drink.  Blue jays kept their distance. 

in the late afternoon, the cottontail returned to eat my morning glories.  At supper, a bird grasshopper sauntered along the top step, appearing at times to lay eggs.  Sunset was very orange.

Off-and-on rain

Everyone slept in except K.  Then I spent a lot of time cooking and may have missed some wildlife.  A squirrel was eating green dogwood berries.  A molting pine warbler ate bark butter and rainwater soup.  The camera only wanted to focus when the bird's head was down in the food.

Apparently the rain did not ruin the hummers' nectar, though other hummers made it too risky for good digestion.

There were moments of sun and an apparent aerial battle between a palamedes and a black swallowtail.  There was also a little snout butterfly.  I glimpsed a male widow skimmer, but he didn't linger.  A couple of sand wasps were very close.  A spiderweb held raindrops.  A grasshopper nymph climbed a bamboo stake I hadn't used yet. There was a frog in the pool skimmer again. 

A snowy egret stalked the shallows below the dam.  A molting Carolina wren took some melted bark butter.  The brown headed nuthatch ignored me five feet away and let loose with some squeaks.  A brown thrasher in the cedar observed me in the pool.

Fay-less

Tropical Storm Fay passed us by and hurried on to New Jersey.  Not one drop of the 3-4 inches fell on us.  It was breezy and there were more clouds than usual, and that was it here.  I put out a tub of bark butter thinking it would endure rain better than the balls, but instead we had heat.  I expect a half dozen hibiscus blossoms tomorrow. 

Three female house finches argued over a turn at the seeds.  Not only did one hog the perch, one of the two that wanted a turn chased off the other.  Siblings?  A Carolina wren investigated all the feeders. 

A monarch butterfly finally found the milkweed.  It seemed to have a strong preference for one I grew from seed, either Asclepias syriaca (common) or Asclepias incarnata (swamp).  It ignored the butterfly milkweed, Asclepias tuberosa. It also ignored a milkweed that had aphids. 

There were dragonflies but I think they were all blue dashers, mostly obelisking.  The mountain mint attracted leaf cutter, carpenter and bumblebees, scoliid and digger wasps, and an all-black bee a little bigger than a honeybee. I rescued two sidewalk tiger beetles a ground beetle, and several ungrateful spiders. One with babies onboard hung onto the bug she'd sucked dry.  I felt something creepy which turned out to be a half-grown grasshopper. 

A little green heron paused on the end of thedock before hopping down to the floating dock out of sight.  Something made bubbles rise in the creek as it reflected tinted clouds at sunset. 

Bird cherries

A female goldfinch visited briefly.   Blue jays played a game of trying to get bark butter balls without getting photographed.  This time I won, mostly.   A female bluebird had to wait for the blue jays to finish.  Brown thrashers competed with the blue jays but were too awkward on the feeder to get much.  They spent more time with the cherries. 

I didn't know that American wild black cherries belonged to the Padus sub-genus of Prunus called bird cherries.  Apparently the birds knew. The mint has begun to bloom so maybe I will see some hairstreaks.  A great golden digger wasp fussed over the mountain mint.  A Carolina saddlebags perched on the dead hackberry twig.  Blue dashers operated from the bamboo stakes I put out for them.  So did a female widow skimmer.  A common whitetail preferred the new mulch. 

The coral honeysuckle was still flowering, though not in the profusion of Spring.  I wonder if the hummingbirds visit it?  The flowers on the beautyberry seemed bigger this year.  A cardinal took a sunbath, maybe an ant treatment, in the domestic cherry, Prunus avium, sub-genus Cerasus, that grew from a random spit pit. 

I went down to the dock to see the yard from a different perspective.  A mockingbird was at work in the cherry closest to the water.  Virginia creeper was running rampant all over the cherry tree but I don't think its berries were ripe.  The cardinal, or another, popped up in that tree too.   

A dragonfly with spotted wings cruised low over the creek, paralleling the shore.  I saw lots of mud crab holes and a couple of dead crabs, but none living.  I did see wasps gathering mud and possibly digging holes.  Back at the pool I rescued a metallic-green bee.  A green grasshopper nymph climbed the chair I was sitting in but I could not find the right focal length. 

Hazy sky

All I saw at breakfast was the cat.  The temperature climbed to 84 but it was very breezy.  I saw several skinks at lunch time, but the heat energized them and they were moving fast.  The same with insects.  I saw a butterfly but couldn't even tell what kind.  The bees, wasps, and hoverflies attracted to the rue were a little more leisurely, so I could tell there were honeybees among them. 

I restocked the bark butter balls and that brought out the bluebirds.  Around 9pm, I heard bangs against the window and discovered it was a big grasshopper or katydid, an Orthoptera at any rate.

Changing weather

The hot, sunny morning clouded over by the time we got home in the afternoon and by 4pm light showers passed through.  So did quite a few birds.  Several pine warblers squabbled over the bark butter balls.  I also saw a male downy woodpecker who sneaked up on the suet like a ninja. 

I rescued a bird grasshopper, a couple of small wasps with red bodies, some ground beetles and one spider. 

Three or four bluebirds surprised me, but were equally surprised and fled.  A blue jay tried to be invisible.  Titmice were intimidated by their smaller chickadee cousins. The cardinals were all decked out in fresh feathers.  But the low light made the camera struggle. 

Still hot

This was not quite the scorcher yesterday was.  That set a record at 93°.  But I got plenty sweaty at TCC promoting the ERA. When I got home, I threw myself into the pool.  I rescued a bird grasshopper but it didn't wait for a picture.   The wheelbug hadn't since yesterday, but it certainly looked lifelike.  

I watched the squirrel make a mess of constructing its drey.  It appeared to think that if it just kept stuffing branches inside, something good would happen.  

The tide ran high in the creek.  I caught the crescent moon in the afternoon.  It was faint by day but at least I didn't lack for illumination.

While watching a cardinal in the beauty berry, I noticed a red eyed vireo. I don't know if it was a new one or the one I saw last week.  A chickadee seemed to bully it, though I've never seen chickadees eat beauty berries.

Sunset was spectacular - the sun was a huge red ball on the horizon.  The camera couldn't catch that, but it did get the surrounding glow. 

Mellow day

The clouds were back but every so often the sun would get through.  As I ate breakfast outside, the creek was a mirror for the trees, reflecting light that had not yet touched the water.  The blooming salt bush added sparkle to the shade.  There were buds on the  yellow rose. 

The clouds were fewer and there was more clear sky in the afternoon, but the sunlight was still frequently blocked.  The squirrel's drey was refurbished with green leaves.  While swimming I discovered a drama on the pool ladder.  A grasshopper had ascended the slick chrome railing and was, I think, drying out from a pool bath.  But below it on the railing was a spider, just sitting and waiting.

A mockingbird preened in the cherry by the fence, but didn't hang around for a picture.  A chickadee pretended to be a nuthatch on the oak.  Every  time I thought I saw something interesting, it turned out to be a house finch.  A red bellied woodpecker paid the tree a brief visit.  I could hear blue jays,but they stayed out of sight.

On the way home I glimpsed the creamy new moon as it followed the sun out of sight.  It was sharp and thin and reflected too little light to think of taking a picture.

Still sunny

A Carolina wren was up at dawn.  I woke up a little after 5am and saw the waning crescent moon through the window, but when I went outside after the sun rose, I had a hard time seeing it in daylight, and then an even harder time getting it in focus!  Out of two dozen shots only three weren't a fuzzy smear,

Nothing removed the drowned mantis, nor did it revive.  A variegated fritillary fluttered around the violets, which were not in bloom.  I would guess laying eggs but I've never seen a caterpillar on the violets.  A Carolina grasshopper (Dissosteira carolina) had gone for a swim even though it was missing a hind leg.  

 Curiously, a lot of fish were jumping in the creek.  I saw one pop free of the surface six or eight times.  But I was always too late for anything but the ripples.   An egret flew over the water.  The first time I just got a blob but my timing was on target for the next.  

A moth or skipper visited the mountain mint.  It looked like a very pale duskywimg.  

Beautiful day

I rushed to a meeting in the morning and only had time to look around after lunch.  The hibiscus flowers were smaller and one was misshapen.

A mockingbird gorged on beauty berries.  The Carolina wrens emptied their feeder.  High in an oak tree, a blue jay hammered an acorn while squirrels carried off pecans.  Hammering also came from a red bellied woodpecker on a pine tree trunk. 

I watched as a big bird grasshopper appeared to be laying eggs on the concrete.  The grasshopper's abdomen would swell, arch, and the end would open and close. 

Bracket fungi appeared in the mulch in the front yard, probably living on the roots of the sweet gum we had cut down. 

A female blue dasher perched on the stub of a pine needle.  It was the first dragonfly I'd seen in days at home.  They appear daily at street intersections, riding the thermals from the asphalt.  A few bees and wasps sought nectar. 

A great blue heron hopped onto the dock and paced its length before a passing boat caused it to leave.  The boat also drove off smaller birds that were feeding along the shore.

Millipedes keep dropping into the pool and drowning.  I photographed a live one. It clearly had two legs per segment, proving it was not a centipede.  I was surprised at how high it could lift its head.  The water felt chilly though the air was warm and the sun hot.  The sky was cloudless and the breeze gentle. 

Clear sky

I was up before the sun, but I was working with my back to the window.  The early light reflected in the creek seemed misty and dawn was quite chilly.  When I got to breakfast, so did the Carolina wrens.  One silly wren had a mouthful of mealworms and couldn't figure out what to do next.  The hummers finally showed up as the day warmed.

The morning glories were the same blue as the pool.  And the pool was full of frogs. A large green frog was sitting on the edge of the pool.  There were three frogs in the skimmer along with two huge, dead roaches.  I encountered more frogs swimming and heaved them out of the water.  I also encountered  another drowned roach.  Damselflies alighted on the pool edge but didn't stay.  I think one was a blue fronted dancer. 

In the afternoon, a bird grasshopper landed on the window screen.  I went outside to see it better and found the day had gotten very hot.  But because I was outside, I saw a skink in the water.  I managed to rescue it despite its efforts to escape.