High wind

Another hot and hazy, sunny day was alleviated by strong winds.  The dogwood blossoms were done, even the curly mutant flowers, and the wind sent petals skipping.  The male pine floweres had fallen to the ground.  A starling picked at barkbutter crumbs.  A blue jay thought about it.  A Carolina wren ate suet, then checked on the barkbutter dish.  A red bellied woodpecker also wanted suet.  I saw a downy and a pileated but didn't rush for the camera.  

I planted moonflower seeds that I'd carefully nicked and soaked - fingers crossed.  While I was outside, a very red-faced skink wondered if I was safe to approach.  Flying insects caught the sunllight and I hoped they were dragonflies.  One may have been a ladybug.  Bluebirds came for seeds.  

Dragonfly!

Bluebirds worked in shifts to carry off the freeze-dried mealworms and barkbutter balls.  The pileated woodpecker ate more suet.  Brown headed nuthatches carried away sunflower seeds.  A mockingbird has strong opinions about something.  A pine warbler answered the lure of the barkbutter. 

Toward mid day I started seeing a dragonfly patrolling the air above the pool.  The body appeared reddish but the camera only caught an orange blur.  My guess is Needham's skimmer.  It drove off another dragonfly that I glimpsed in even less detail.  The dragonfly never perched but a jumping spider posed on the chrome railing.  A brown skipper landed on a daffodil leaf.  I rescued some wasps and bees and a ladybird beetle from the pool. 

Of all the seeds I planted this year, the first to show up was a yellow coreopsis.  The butterfly milkweed emerged from the mass of mountain mint.  Wind gusts ripped young leaves off the trees. 

Cloudy

The bluebirds were enthusiastic about mealworms.  The female pileated woodpecker returned.  A blue jay dared to visit the barkbutter balls while I sat outside.  A mockingbird followed. 

A cabbage white butterfly enjoyed the money plant flowers.  A seven-spotted ladybird beetle flexed its wings atop a branch of rue.  A yellow legged Polistes wasp prowled low vegetation looking, I assume, for caterpillars to feed its offspring.A black potter wasp fed on the rue flowers.  I found a first instar black swallowtail caterpillar on a different part of the rue.  Four tiny red mites occupied a blue-eyed grass leaf. 

I planted the sunflower seeds that germinated in a damp paper towel.  And the Garden Center finally got some red purslane so I replaced my lost seeds. 

Hot

This morning the female goldfinch came along with the male.  Three male house finches and several females followed at the feeder.  A female cardinal was beginning to lose head feathers like the male I saw a few days ago.  A yellow crowned night heron preened on the dock bench.  A lady butterfly with missing eye spots feasted on a dandelion while a cabbage white flitted past without landing.  Bees worked on the Mexican sage.  The hibiscus sprouts were nearly tall enough to tie to supports.

The sky was hazy around noon and distances were not sharp.  Lots of wasps were out including a delicate black and yellow mud dauber, but only cabbage butterflies.  I rescued a ladybug and many other beetles, a honeybee and many smaller wasps from the water.  A rather scary spider with a pale abdomen seemed thoroughly drowned.  There were muddy scrapes on the coping that I blamed on raccoons. 

My car's thermometer registered 99° by mid afternoon.  When I got home, a great crested flycatcher landed in the dogwood.  Large ants trundled around the patio and up the windows.  An egret fished below the dam.  The haze had turned to large clouds which colored at sunset.

Blue sky

The day was warmer than predicted.  In the morning, a yellow crowned night heron hustled along the edge of the marsh grass.  After that, I was gone until noon. 

After lunch, insects were everywhere.  Big reddish-bodied, clear-winged dragonflies patrolled over the pool, never perching.  A big carpenter bee and a little ladybird beetle worked on the rue.  Small bees and tiny flies were everywhere.  A leaf footed bug hid in the azalea leaves.  The cabbage whites perched on green leaves instead of flowers.  An American lady butterfly preferred clover. 

A great crested flycatcher landed in the dogwood.  A male towhee whistled and I glimpsed him under the azaleas. A dove dozed in a spot of sun.  Titmice and downy woodpeckers joined the feeder regulars.  The cardinals were still courting.  Hummers visited but didn't approve of the bent feeder.

The geese families made repeated sorties. A little green heron fished below the dam today. Clouds began to blow in around 6pm. 

Foggy morning

A wren worked over the azalea next to the window, picking off sleepy bugs, I assume.  A male cardinal stalked along the pool edge, peering in.  Yesterday I thought it was thirsty, but now the birdbath is full, so it must be perturbed by its reflection.

A titmouse came to the feeder while I had my hands full.  The fog finally lifted after 11am.  Butterflies - cabbage & sulphur - and other insects, including a ladybug beetle, came out to play.  Grackles prowled the grass.  One yellow flag iris is blooming downhill from the pool.  The regulars came to the feeder but all the seed eaters are trying to catch bugs for their offspring.

Today has been cooler, but I finally saw a skink in the late afternoon.  Birds are calling up in the trees, but they're very hard to find, much less identify. An egret stalked under the bulkhead and an osprey circled above.  A squirrel got up in the neighbor's birch to eat catkins. 

Toward evening, a male towhee visited the feeder.  Tonight is supposed to be the full moon but I didn't see it, only the very bright moonlight in the middle of the night, and stars. 

Gray and still

Except for the surface of the water and the honking of passing geese. Now the clouds have broken and we have sun and gulls. But, not for long. Sigh. The sun was in and out all morning but it is warm.

Then the afternoon turned lovely just as I went to hear Doug Tallamy speak on landscaping with native plants. He says that biodiversity means redundancy - a healthy ecosystem has several species for each task. Ecosystems are responsible for making oxygen and sequestering CO2, holding soil and moderating weather. He mentioned Louv's theory of nature-deficit disorder. Plants determine the carrying capacity of the place where they grow. Almost all birds depend on insects to feed nestlings even if they winter on seeds or berries, so a landscape that doesn't support bugs doesn't get nesting birds. And native plants support far more insects because they've co-evolved the plant's chemical defenses and the bug's digestion. He noted that domesticated food plants have often been bred out of their defenses in order to taste better, which is why they are more vulnerable to bugs. Also, many species of birds and plants rely on leaf letter, preferring it to mulch.

On the way out of the lecture, I saw wasps and a ladybug! At home a bumblebee was working on the rosemary. And an osprey passed overhead. The earliest of the oak trees is beginning to bloom.