Chilly

By lunch, a white sky dimmed the sun and the breeze came in chilly gusts.  The caterpillars were all still present and I located the three Argiope spiders, though one had moved up to the wall above the door which seemed like an odd place to hang out.  It also seemed strange that the monarch caterpillars chewed on the milkweed pods which I'd think would be tougher than leaves, not to mention needful for future generations of caterpillars.  

I found a defunct cicada afloat.  The millipede, Oxidus gracili, from yesterday was definitely a goner.  On the other hand, I rescued another millipede, an isopod, a wasp, a small brown spider, and four pale green assassin bugs, two of which were quite lively.  The other two were tangled together and I moved them near one that was recovering.  It scuttled over to investigate, and possibly cannibalize!  A red spotted purple briefly danced over the water.  Dogwood leaves began to lose their chlorophyll.  Beautyberries turned magenta.  A Carolina wren hid behind rose thorns.  I startled a young skink.  This has been a memorably dry August.  Rainfall was only 1.6" and the average is 5.8" though I'm sure that includes some hurricanes.  

World Migratory Bird Day

The weather was sunny but windy.  The temperature climbed from the 40s to the 60s. I did my part for Migratory Bird Day, I submitted two checklists.  In addition to birds, I saw a couple of small skinks, honeybees on the rue again, an earthworm, a snail, a couple of isopods, a small rusty brown butterfly, and a crane fly in the wild, not on a window screen.  Some. turtles were basking on the lake logs.  

Great egrets were around all day and I believe I saw a yellow crowned night heron fly upstream.  The bluebirds paid many visits to the bark butter balls. Carolina wrens joined then and I also saw a house wren poking into everything in search of food.  A frustrated chickadee was kept from the sunflower seeds by a house finch.  The male downy woodpecker checked in to see if the suet was back.  A blue jay tried to sneak past me to the bark butter balls. 

The wind calmed briefly before sunset.  Clouds were colored cream to rose to smoke.

Warm

Pelicans and cormorants fished in the morning.  House finches tussled with the yellow rumped warbler while the downy ignored the little bird. A song sparrow foraged and a wren put in a brief appearance.  Then the feral tabby cat scared them all away. 

Later in the morning there was some hot mallard action.  K saw the drake bobbing its head and asked if that was courting behavior.  Apparently so.  A couple of days ago (2/17), I saw a female mallard "Nod-Swimming" and wondered what that was all about. The sky clouded over while this was going on.

The day was very warm (for February), so after lunch I sat on the dock.  Not much happened, but I heard a bird with a melodic rattle somewhere across the creek.  I could not see it.  The sun kept disappearing as bands of cloud passed through and there was a bit of wind.  I found a blooming hyacinth. I also saw an isopod trundling through the grass and some flying insects.  Later in the afternoon, a half dozen hoodies paddled around before disappearing upstream. The GBH was not at its usual post but I saw a heron take off from the bank on our side of the creek.  Rain started around 5pm.