Evidence of a mantis

The hibiscus set some more buds and opened one.  One of the benefits of a pool is that it catches things you'd never notice otherwise.  Today it caught the shed exoskeleton of a young praying mantis. Of course the water also caught the usual complement of scarab beetles and small wasps.  A lacewing had drowned.  I caught a frog and bid it depart before it became "dearly departed."  

A female great blue skimmer hunted from a garden stake.  Later a blue dasher did the same.  I thought I saw a yellow butterfly, but it was a goldfinch.  A mockingbird visited the barkbutter balls but got away from the camera.   I found two of the monarch caterpillars on the milkweed.  Bees and wasps went about their business on the mountain mint.  

 

Pleasant

Sunshine was reflected by the quiet creek.  K put peanuts for the crow but two squirrels squabbled over them till they were all gone.  Titmice came early for seeds.  Then, at lunch, a mockingbird was determined to get barkbutter balls, even while K was outside at the grill.  A bumblebee staggered across the patio - too much mountain mint?  I saw hummers at the feeder several times throughout the day.  Also, a monarch and a tiger swallowtail flitted past but only the fiery skippers posed.  

In the afternoon, fluffy cumulus blew past from the WNW.   A skink lay on the step wall mostly in the shade.  I discovered that the Argiope was not missing.  It had simply moved to the other side of its web.  A hummer guarded the feeder from an old hibiscus stalk.  A robber fly and a lacewing did not revive after I fished them out of the water.  I twice caught a frog but I think it was the same frog.  

 

Still hot

 A Carolina wren came for lunch.  So dis the mama squirrel with the odd fur patch.  I waited to swim till the trees shaded the water.  A damselfly was in the usual place.  A small crab spider scuttled along the pool edge.  A lacewing was stuck to the wall but it did not seem to be alive.  A moth afloat looked very battered.  I rescued several black beetles.  A mockingbird visited several times.  An assassin nymph lurked on the mountain mint.  A brown thrasher skulked under the sakaki.  

 

Butterbutts arrived

A little flock of yellow rumped warblers were all over the feeders in the early morning.  After that, I only saw one at a time.  The dredge was back at work now that the creek melted.  

At lunch I filled the dish with mealworms.  That pleased bluebirds, white throats, titmice, pine and orange crowned warblers, and Carolina wrens.  A brown headed nuthatch wanted seeds.  The temperature got into the mid 50s and the sky clouded over.  Sunset was streaky with stratus clouds.  

Insects were lured by the warmth.  I saw a lacewing on the window after dark.  

 

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.  

Spring-like

It was very balmy today.  Bluebirds cleaned up the barkbutter.  The warblers helped though they also ate suet.  Two male orioles showed up but one sent the other away.  Two females also came, one dark orange, the other paler yellow.  They waited for the male to finish.  Meanwhile the cat lurked on the chair on the lower patio.  

Brown headed nuthatches were abundant.  One intimidated a house finch.   A song sparrow erected its crest.  A female oriole joined the downy on the block of suet.  I got the birdbath re-positioned.  Turtles were out on their log enjoying the warm day.  After dark I saw a lacewing on the window. 

Ian's aftermath

The cloud cover was breaking up at breakfast, but despite shushing the humidity was at 95%.  It dropped as the temperature rose.  Titmice were distressed because the barkbutter was mush from the rain.  I think we got about three inches.  The tide was still running high.  It's amazing how much dust collected on the trees during our summer drought.  Along with berries and shredded leaves, there was a lot of dirt in the bottom of the pool.  I saw some insects swimming, but they were mostly on their own as I was busy cleaning.  I did rescue a lacewing and an assassin bug nymph, probably Zelus luridus.  

 

Mystery bird

I woke up to a spectacular sunrise and a crescent moon. And then the sky turned heavy gray for the rest of the day.   It was very warm, over 70°, and humid with a light breeze from the Southwest.  The creek was rough at dawn but calmed later.  I think all the waterbirds were out in the bay since the day was so mild.  

A goldfinch visited for a drink from the icky ant moat.  In winter drab, it wasn't nearly as gold as the pine warbler that followed.  

Then a turkey vulture landed on a branch and the song birds decamped.  Three more vultures arrived and they all sat on posts and branches, waiting for what?  Most of them flew away but one lingered for a long time on a downstream dock.  

Later, there was some conflict over the suet between pine warblers and a downy woodpecker.  A butterbutt stayed out of it and just watched.  Bluebirds cleaned me out of barkbutter balls.  I got very frustrated trying to photograph the brown headed nuthatches.  A red bellied woodpecker stayed in the trees.  A Carolina wren popped up amid the camellia blossoms.  

I got a photo of a bird I didn't recognize in the cherry tree.   It appeared to have a solid brown head and breast and two white wing bars.  Nothing matched that description but if the brown look was caused by bad lighting, it could have been a female Baltimore oriole or a male pine warbler.  I thought it was more warbler sized but there wasn't anything to compare the size against. 

After dark, a lacewing landed on the window.  I guess the warmth brought it out, but I doubt it will last very long.  Although with climate change, who knows?  

Sticky

After breakfast, I went outside to pull up poison ivy that I hoped had been loosened by the rain.  A titmouse and a blue jay wanted to know when the bark butter balls were coming so I fetched some.  A gray sky lowered the temperature but raised the humidity.  A little later when I went out front to check on the tomatoes and peppers, I began to sweat immediately.  Leaves were still wet from last night's rain.  Of course there was less of a breeze away from the creek. 

A female widow skimmer clung to a stake near the sheet spider web in the corner of the window - Scylla & Charybdis for a flying insect. At lunch I discovered the male widow skimmer on a stake closer to the door.  Of course there were also blue dashers.  A Carolina saddlebags held the vantage point atop the hackberry.  And one butterfly, a cloudless sulphur, flitted around the hibiscus. 

A brown thrasher and a red bellied woodpecker also wanted bark butter balls.  Three titmice bounced around in the wild cherry.  I tried to rescue a lacewing but it may have been dead before it fell into the water.  The sky got very interesting after 6pm and by 7pm a thunderhead was building in the West, casting shadows across the wispier clouds.  An egret flew home as the clouds gradually covered the sky.  The rain began around 7:30pm. 

Summer briefly

It was as lovely as yesterday, but warmer and only a little breezy.  But the pool water had dropped to 70°F.  Early in the morning, two birds struck the glass door to the patio, but were gone when K checked.  They left imprints of the powder from their feathers.

The morning tide flowed over the dock again.  I heard that elsewhere in the region it caused flooding. The full moon isn't till Sunday night, but apparently a storm to the Northeast and way out at sea was pushing the water into the Bay.  Meanwhile a drought watch was declared for lack of rain. 

A cricket rafted on a cherry leaf while a ground beetle and a small black caterpillar swam.  An ant carried a tidbit as large as she was down the retaining wall.  There were butterflies: a monarch during lunch, a cloudless sulphur, and a couple of brownish flutterbyes.  A leaf-footed bug patiently rowed through the water till I rescued it.  I also saved an assassin nymph and a bumblebee.  Other bees were too far gone, as was a lacewing.  A moth thrashed ripples from where it was caught on its back in the surface tension. Spider threads caught the sun everywhere but I only saw one live spider, which I evicted from the pool. 

I glimpsed a woodpecker but it flew off.  A blue jay tried to hide with its nut.  A mockingbird made repeated visits to the beauty berries.  Or maybe there was more than one mockingbird.  I got excited about little birds in the trees, but all the ones I could identify ere the usual suspects, chickadees and titmice.  A rustling in the grass was not a squirrel, but a brown thrasher. 

Warmer

Cloud cover came and went, but the sky was gray more often than blue.  There was more detritus in the water which had dropped from 80° on Thursday to 75° today. Nevertheless, I stayed in long enough to clean it up and to rescue a small beetle and a couple of small moths.  And to avoid a spider scuttling on the surface tension.  The only other invertebrates were a lacewing in flight and gnats dancing in a cloud.

Birds were more plentiful.  A blue jay kept an eye on me.  After hearing a woodpecker for a while I finely saw that it was a pileated.  A mockingbird came for the beauty berries.  Robins flocked in the trees. 

A Northern Parula Warbler appeared in the domestic cherry tree.  An egret flew downstream.  Titmice were camera shy. 

overcast

At lunch, a coopers hawk streaked across the yard, closely pursued by the boys in blue, AKA blue jay.  It really did look like a cop chase. 

Something, probably a squirrel, dropped a dozen short branches of oak leaves, mostly into the pool, but a few on the side.  I assume it was remodeling a drey and the mess came apart. 

The pool was not warm, but warmer than the air as the sun struggled to get through a thin overcast.  I saved a few wasps and beetles, but the lacewings never revive.  A small spider seemed to be outraged at my pool cleaning efforts. 

After I gave up and got my chilled body indoors, I saw a bird in the beautyberry bush that I'm guessing was a yellow breasted chat. 

Pool party

Hummers acted suspicious toward the feeder.  The creek had that placid Autumn morning look. 

I soaked the mountain mint, the roses, and the hibiscus in neem oil.  We shall see.  A bumblebee enjoyed the zinnias.  Another camellia flower opened.  

A very ungrateful skink did all it could to avoid rescue from the water including running around on my shoulders as though I was a Lyft it had called.  But I won.  There were also two green frogs, one big, one little, that I tried to convince to stay out of the pool.   The water was dusty with tiny flying insects, some of which wanted blood. 

A mockingbird was in the beautyberry bush, then flew to the red cedar and hopped around the branches over me as I floated, camera-less.  Blue jays flew together from one oak to another.  Some of them visited a knot on one limb that I suspect collects water.  I would need a drone with a camera to find out.  A Carolina wren found the mealworms. 

After dark an opossum visited.  It did not pay attention to the mealworms, which surprised me.  It seemed more interested in fallen sunflower seeds.  A green lacewing rested on the window.

Blue sky

Before breakfast, I went to refill the dish feeder and, well, there was a worm spill.  My loss was the wrens' gain.  A couple of fledgling Carolina wrens were demanding to be fed and the parents took full advantage of my clumsiness. 

The hummers drank their feeder dry again.  One tried and tried to find a way to the juice she was sure was there. 

A tiger swallowtail got nectar from the butterfly milkweed.  I also saw black and palamedes swallowtails and a cloudless sulphur.   At one point a wasp chased the tiger swallowtail away but it came back and chased away the wasp.  A great golden digger wasp was around the milkweed all day but I could not tell if it was the wasp involved. 


There were two frogs hanging out by the pool ladder, but they left when I got in.  I rescued two skinks, a couple of lacewings, some bees and wasps.  A metallic green beetle did not revive. 

While I was in the deep end, I saw a threadwaisted wasp run along the ground carrying a green caterpillar.  It got to the corner by the beautyberry where the dirt is exposed, set the caterpillar down, hunted around, moved some pine needles, seemed to get lined up with a particular stone, found its hole, dug a little more, and carried the caterpillar down out of sight.  I waited a little, but didn't see it emerge. 

The Carolina mantis was still hanging around the rose, upsidedown.  A soldier beetle sat in the center of a daisy.  I saw a tiny caterpillar on the butterfly milkweed and another on the swamp milkweed. 

A heron landed on the dock but vegetation kept me from being sure if it was a night heron. 

Hail, yes

K put fresh sunflower seeds in the feeder which got the squirrels excited.  But the feeder defeated their efforts.  The male hummer returned. I wish he would face the camera and flash his ruby throat. 

I found a lacewing on the sprig of mint in a vase indoors.  I've no idea how it got there but I released it outside.  The Argiope spun its zigzag at an angle.  A monarch finally noticed the milkweed.  However, I'm not sure the plants are big enough to support caterpillars yet.  A female widow skimmer showed up instead of the male I saw for the last several days. 

I picked about ten figs, the first of the season.   Clouds flowed out of the West and gave some relief from the heat and sun.  Saddlebags dragonflies cruised beneath them.  We had lunch outside, in the shade. 

The thunderstorm we weren't supposed to have arrived about 2:30 in the afternoon. The rain was as blinding as snow and shot off the roof over the gutters.  I think an inch fell in 20 minutes while lightning and thunder were simultaneous, and loud.  Hail was rough in shape and as big as a sugar cube.  (And melted nearly as fast.)  The temperature dropped nearly 20 degrees, but of course that didn't last. 

The clouds parted but the sun didn't dry the windows.  And later the sky became overcast.  A fiery sunset poured through a rent in the West. 

Creepy critter

It was a very hot day, so I waited till the sun wasn't hitting the patio any more before going outside.  There were dragonflies and butterflies, bees and wasps, as usual.  And I could hear cicadas.  But suddenly, a strange creature ran past me across the concrete and dived into the pool.  I scrambled to catch up before it was sucked into the skimmer.  It was a mole cricket, only the second one I've ever seen, and the other was at Back Bay decades ago.  I  rescued it and made it wait till I had some pictures.  Then it took off like an Olympic runner.

Blue dashers, a male widow skimmer, Carolina saddlebags, 12-spotted skimmers, and other skimmers with unmarked wings were all hunting.  A buckeye fed on mint and a black swallowtail rested on a dogwood leaf. I found a drowned skinklet, also a drowned lacewing and a drowned metallic green bee.  I left a Japanese beetle and a brown stinkbug to their fate but rescued an earwig and some other beetles.  The Argiope had a fresh zigzag in its web.  I startled a little katydid near the web, but it stayed away. 

An egret chased another off the dock.  Hummers weren't happy with the feeder.  Blue jays were around.  I saw something flying very high that had a raptor look. 

The moon was nearly full.

Rain

I awoke to the sound of heavy, steady rain. It tapered to a fine mist as the day went on but the clouds continued to menace.  The wind was gusty.  The wrens stayed busy.  I was gone all afternoon. 

The big drama was a stinkbug flying into a web in the upper corner of the glass door.  The spider had quite a job subduing it.  In the evening the slugs came out.  A lacewing clung to the glass well away from the spider. 

Water rescues

I was back in the pool at last. The weird weather yellowed many leaves before their time and the wind brought them down and blew them around till they got stuck in the water.  Insects were also dunked by the wind and appreciated the unsteady rafts.  But many had drowned already.  I fished out a big bee, little wasps, and lacewings that did not revive, and beetles and spiders that did.  One spider clutched her egg pearl.  There were a multitude of May beetles (brown Junebugs), a small, brown click beetle, and two green metallic tiger beetles only one of which was alive.  A widow skimmer watched from the nearest perch.  Small butterflies danced over the pool. 

I heard lots of birds including a mockingbird with quite a repertoire. Wrens sang and scolded.  Something whistled loudly.  Crows made their soft rattle of affection.  One hummer drove another away and all of them drank the feeder dry.  There were blue jays but they mostly stayed out of sight. Sunset made the contrails rosy.

Dragonflies

The last few days have hatched out a wide variety of dragonflies and also the little fliers they eat.  I wish I could have captured the way a dragonfly caught the sunlight while the vegetation behind was still in shade.  I wasted many pixels trying. Wasps also were spotlighted by the sun. The insects had to battle wind gusts. 

Blue jays kept coming for bark butter balls.  Egrets worked up and down the creek.  Fireflies appeared at twilight. K saw the almost full moon through a break in the clouds. Two green stinkbugs landed on the window along with lots of tiny moths and a lacewing, attracted by the light. 

Glorious day!I

It was cool (70s) and a bit breezy with intense sunshine in a sky so clear it was purple rather than blue. Humidity was only a bad memory.   Titmice again mobbed the seed feeder.  Hummers were happy to get fresh juice. 

When I went to pick figs, though most were rotting from the rain, I saw a common whitetail dragonfly that evaded the camera.  A green russula mushroom popped up under the fig tree.  Wasps, including a hornet and a cicada killer, feasted on the fermenting figs.  Some could not fly straight afterward and banged into the wall.  I saw a green lacewing lying in wait on a fig leaf.  A squirrel also came for figs. 

A half dozen yellow Genista broom moth caterpillars sheltered in a web while they ate the wild indigo in the front yard. Not far away, a jumping spider lurked on another indigo leaf.  Around on the West side of the house, leaf cutter bees had scalloped the redbud's leaves. 

As usual, a blue dasher guarded the pool. There were other dragonflies around, but they didn't pose.  A hackberry emperor butterfly did, very nicely. Wind and rain had raised toe water level in the pool and filled it with pine needles and other debris.  I caught a frog hanging out by the skimmer, but it refused to pose.  And I rescued tiger, click, scarab, and common ground beetles, but not much else.  The tide was very high for a first quarter moon.  An egret monitored the dam outfall.