Uncomon insects

An overcast sky looked like a storm was brewing, but it blew away. Then the sun was scorching and a buzzard soared ominously overhead.  A skink scuttled into a crack.  The blue was almost gone from its tail.  There were three frogs to chase and I caught them all.  I found an Asian horntail in the water along with an expired dragonfly nymph and a sidewalk tiger beetle that was still alive.  

A wheelbug climbed one of the milkweed pods.  Some dogwood leaves showed Fall color but I wonder if it was drought stress.  

Last summery day

I got a new angle on the orchard spider and it looked quite different in bright sun.   The swallowtail chrysalis was very brown.  Today was even warmer than yesterday so I got one last swim. I rescued two mama spiders that ran off with their spiderlings and an Asian horntail, but I don't know if it revived,  The mosquitoes were thick - they must have read the weather prediction.  Clouds were building up when I went back inside.  

Humid

At breakfast, the humidity completely fogged the windows.   Yesterday evening's downpour soaked everything.  

 A tiger swallowtail flitted through the trees.  I thought I glimpsed a chipping sparrow but it was gone so quickly I can't be sure.  

Because of meetings, I swam in the early afternoon under the hot sun.  A small skink scurried along the pool deck.  A large, mostly white, contour feather floated down and landed gently on the water.  An Asian horntail landed less gently, but I rescued it and also a small black wasp.  They both took off without waiting for me to take pictures.  

The wind shifted back around to the Northeast and hustled clouds along briskly.  It helped make the humidity bearable though just breathing reminded me of being in a laundromat with a fan blowing.  

Oh, the noise!

The Argiope's web was twisted by the rain overnight.  A bluebird came early for the party mix in the dish feeders and a brown headed nuthatch came for seeds.  The nuthatch ran into a territorial finch but it persisted and eventually got breakfast.  Later a Carolina wren wanted suet.  Titmice also got seeds.  A goldfinch just wanted a drink. 

A monarch butterfly found the butterfly milkweed.  I got just a glimpse of a tiger swallowtail and maybe another butterfly, and of course duskywing skippers.  Dragonflies were plentiful.  A female great blue skimmer, a blue dasher, and a widow skimmer used perches.  Cruising overhead were a prince baskettail and a saddlebags.  Honeybees, bumblebees, carpenter bees, leafcutter bees and those megachili bees with the furry pantaloons converged on the mountain mint along with wasps. 

I fished a centipede out of the water but ants decided it was a corpse.  A horntail was luckier and revived.  It stuck its horn up in the air like a dragonfly obelisking but it certainly wasn't too warm, so maybe that was a way to get rid of water.  iNaturalist said it's an Asian horntail Eriotremex formosanus.  Several brown scarab beetles and a bumblebee also got a reprieve from a watery grave.  After swimming with the bugs, I picked blueberries.  A couple of small organisms flew across the yard too fast for identification.  My first guess was hummers, but they could have been large insects.  A bluebird hid in the dogwood.  

A little before 9pm, I went outside to see if there were any visible sparkles from all the booming and banging.  Only a flicker showed through the trees occasionally.  So I watched the fireflies and pretended they were the sparks.  The moon was past first quarter and overhead, but blurred by haze.  When I came inside, I noticed a longhorn beetle (I think) on the window by the camellia.  

Skinks

At lunch time, there were skinks.  I waited till late in the day to swim, but it was still buggy.  But I was able to rescue a pigeon horntail.  It must have just fallen in because it was still buzzing.  I couldn't get it to grab anything so I lifted it out with my hand, with some trepidation as a horntail looks like a yellow and black banded syringe.  It did not wait around for a photo session.  Fireflies lit up the evening. 

Camera trouble

I couldn't get the camera to turn on.  So from memory, there were lots of dragonflies.  I rescued a threadwaisted wasp, a horntail, and a green metallic tiger beetle that was rafting on a leaf.  The last I saw, the beetle was still clinging to the leaf.  There were still blueberries to pick but the heat and humidity were awful.  A mating pair of robber flies landed on my berry bucket.  

Hot

A hummer came to breakfast.  A brown thrasher was up early scouting for crumbs.  Wasps and bees went for the mountain mint, as did a brown stinkbug.  

I rescued a horntail that was still actively struggling and must have just fallen in the water.  It didn't take long to recover.  I also rescued a mama wolf spider and her progeny. An odd green floater turned out to be a stinkbug.  I rescued scarab and ground beetles but not the Japanese beetle. 

A widow skimmer spent the day on the perch outside my window.  A pondhawk used the stalk that had held daylily flowers as an observation post.  A blue dasher perched delicately on a long, thin leaf.  Another later obelisked on a lavender pod.  Lots more blueberries had ripened and I got very sweaty picking them.  

Windy

A gusty North wind kept the temperature cool but otherwise it was a lovely day.  The last chrysalis still did not open.  A black swallowtail caterpillar was on the same rue frond as yesterday so I poked it to see if it was alive.  It put out its orange horns so I guess it was OK.  The wind grounded most butterflies and dragonflies but the bees and wasps were undeterred.  The big blue winged wasp, Scolia dubia was back.  There were at least four of the huge carpenter bees. 

Hummers also ignored the wind.  A goldfinch and a house finch shared a drink at the ant moat, but the house finch was in front of all but the goldfinch's tail, ruining what would have been a cute photo. 

I rescued a feisty horntail and the camera chose that moment to die.  By the time I'd gotten a fresh battery the horntail was gone.  There were a couple of insects on the mountain mint that I couldn't identify.  One was a wasp but I thought the other was a fly. 

Late in the day the wind calmed and an attractive, small moth came to the mountain mint.  I was eating pistachios and tossing the shells into the mulch.  I have been known to toss a nut that hadn't cracked.Apparently a squirrel had acquired a taste for them.  It checked all the shells then came to about a foot of me but I didn't give it anything.  I don't need another critter with expensive habits.

Eclose

Two monarchs emerged, "eclosed" in the technical term, this morning. The humidity was so high, the camera fogged.  Unfortunately, one fell from its chrysalis and its wings never fully unfolded.  The other was fine and flew off.  The third chrysalis, which I thought would open first, will be last. 

A squirrel dangled from its toenails to get at dogwood berries.  Hummer wars were fierce today.  Usually one gives up quickly and flees, but not this time.

The pool pump gave out yesterday, so critters that fell in were not sucked into the skimmer.  I rescued two skinks, one big black bee, a black wasp, a horntail, and the sad crumple-winged monarch.  I was amazed that the monarch seemed no worse for its near drowning and I was sure the horntail was a corpse.  But when tiny ants tried to bite off bits of horntail, it made a remarkable recovery. 

One skink was tired and docile but the other tried to escape by swimming through my crotch. But eventually I was able to grab it and plop it onto the patio where it ran for cover.  Meanwhile the other was still catching its breath.

A delicate damselfly did not need rescuing.  I think it was an immature female Eastern Forktail, Ischnura verticalis.  A few blue dashers and skimmers were around.  

I went out after dark but before the moon was up and noticed two planets high in the South, Jupiter trailed by Saturn, I think. 

Ruby throat!

There was a storm in the night that flooded the feeders and we were a bit late getting them refreshed.  A male ruby throated hummingbird slipped in and got a couple of good drinks in between the females.  Half the time the light was wrong and his throat appeared black. 
 A big skink with a tiny tail hurried under cover.  I wonder if it was the one I saw last week that had just lost its tail.  Black swallowtails seemed frantic to get eggs laid.  The usual bees and wasps were back at the mountain mint.  Like the hummer's throat, lighting that hit just right made the great golden digger wasp's face shine like metal.  A blue dasher kept watch from a bamboo stake. 

The storm had dumped tree debris in the water, including lots of pine needles.  I saved a scarab beetle clinging to some needles and a sidewalk tiger beetle swimming with its almost invisibly thin legs.  I also fished out a caterpillar and K found a horntail.  The caterpillar eventually revived and I left it in a clump of parsley.  I also moved another caterpillar from an almost denuded milkweed to the butterfly milkweed. 

In preparation for the remnant of Hurricane Laura, I turned the plastic end tables upside down, but I had to turn one back up because it had two monarch chrysalises. hanging from the underside.  The cottontail grazed under the azaleas.  

Mostly arthropods

On the lake, a turtle awaited the sun.  Two buckeyes feasted on the mountain mint among the bees ans wasps.  Blue dashers stood guard.

I was on the computer too much, but finally got into the water.  There,I rescued a sidewalk tiger beetle and a horntail.  Both were slow to recover.  A spider rode a leaf so I let it be.  Instead, I wasted time trying to catch a dragonfly in mid air.  Finally I caught the twelve spotted skimmer.  A widow skimmer perched right behind me. 

A Carolina wren serenaded me.  A juvenile brown thrasher took a dust bath while another hunted bugs.  It appears that an immature brown thrasher's eyes are brown not yellow.  Down by the dock, a yellow-crowned night heron hunted crabs. 



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Home at last

I saw waterlilies blooming last Wednesday when the train cut through the edge of the Great Dismal. Today I saw more North of Quantico, but those were still closed up when the train passed. I didn’t see any along the Chichahominy swamp.

Mimosa, Ailanthus. and sumac were blooming, Closer to the ground, chicory, Queen Anne’s lace, and several yellow-flowered weeds were in bloom.  A couple of osprey flew upstream over the Potomac and later I saw a great blue heron flying North. A cabbage white, a sulphur, and a monarch were attracted to the aforementioned weeds.

At home, I saw a silver spotted skipper, a male widow skimmer, and a great golden digger wasp. I rescued a spider and a horntail which did not revive while I watched. 

A hummer had a long drink through its long beak. An osprey settled into the tall pine and soon crows began to arrive below and hop upward branch to branch, sneaking up on the osprey. 

The wild cherries were starting to ripen and the blueberries needed picking.  Red flowers, hibiscus, gladiolus, and roses, confused a hummer.  It was hot again, touching 90°F according to the car, under a hazy sky. There was only a light breeze. 

Sunny

Yesterday was lovely, I'm told.  I spent it inside, away from home, alas.  When I got back, there was just enough light to check on the spider.

Fog was predicted for this first morning in October, but I saw no sign of it.  There was a heavy, drippy dew.  A hummer hovered all around the feeder but didn't seem to partake.  And K just hung a fresh one Saturday.  The first camellia opened.  The hackberry was loaded with ripening berries. 

A black swallowtail went crazy for the scarlet climber flowers.  I also saw a red spotted purple, a monarch, and an orange butterfly that was not a monarch.  A female bar winged skimmer kept watch over the pool. 

A turtle, a heron, and a pair of mallards shared a log on the lake.  The tide was up in the grass again.  It has run high all Fall.  Blue jays called a lot but mostly stayed out of sight.  I heard bird calls I didn't recognize as well.  A seed germinated in the ant moat. 

I rescued a pigeon tremex horntail that must have fallen out of the oak or been dislodged by one of the acorn eaters.  It was still staggering around the patio when I went indoors.  nd if that was not enough excitement, I saw a black threadwaisted wasp with a big green caterpillar it had captured.  They disappeared while I was circling around for a different angle, so the wasp must have flown off with the caterpillar twice its size. 

Wasp and butterfly

The water was warmer today and no clouds blocked the sunshine.  A breeze trimmed turning leaves and flung them into the pool for beetles to raft on.  I found another horntail attached to a sinking leaf.  I also found a dead frog in the skimmer, but the horntail revived. 

It wasn't the breeze that kept dropping acorns into the water.  Blue jays and squirrels both foraged in the top of the oak.  Titmice and chickadees visited the feeder and I saw a goldfinch at breakfast.  I also glimpsed a wren and a dragonfly. The two spiders, garden and shamrock, seemed to be doing fine.  But the star of the day was a red spotted purple that fanned itself for long minutes in the late afternoon.  It might have just emerged as it walked as much as flew, and once teetered on the edge of falling into the water.

Blue sky

The hibiscus managed another flower. In addition to the large fungus under the oak, I found little red boletes and a gray russula in the grass.  A blue dasher guarded the pool from one of the bamboo stakes.  I rescued some spiders and glimpsed a few butterflies and a skink. I found yet another frog in the pool, which I eventually caught and set  on the concrete.  It disappeared while my back was turned.

 I also rescued a horntail that was clinging to a twig with oak leaves afloat in the water.  I wasn't sure it was alive but began to move spasmodically and slowly revived.  An almost microscopic wasp was stuck on the horn which apparently annoyed the horntail.  For some reason, the horntail staggered to the edge and fell back into the water twice. 

Signs of Autumn

Maybe it is because the sun gets up later, but I'm beginning to see the early morning reflections I associate with Fall.  Berries have begun to color up and a few colored leaves have dropped in the water along with the incessant plop of acorns.  Buds appeared on the camellia and the dogwoods.

On the other hand, a yellow-bodied dragonfly and a couple of snout butterflies were darting around over the water.  Skippers congregated on the lantana.  A titmouse came to lunch, along with a lot of fledgling cardinals.

The barn spider and its web were gone today.  They recycle the web material.  The basilica spider was working on its chain-of-pearls egg cases.  The The black swallowtail caterpillars on the parsley seemed to be doing well.  Bees were foraging.  I found a pigeon horntail in the water.  I thought it had drowned but it may have revived.

A blue tailed skink defecated in front of me while I was looking at the horntail.