Windy

The day looked beautiful until a gust thrashed the trees.  The thermometer showed upper 60s but not with that wind chill.  Most birds stayed out of sight but I  saw a couple of crows rowing hard to keep from being blown backward.  Yellow roses continued to bloom, one by one.  I noticed some flowers lingering on the lantana while just above buds swelled on the jessamine.  A bee or wasp visited a camellia.  The trees were beginning to get serious about fall.  

 

Dreary

The rain stopped yesterday and I was outside for a short while but it was long enough to get bit up.  The tide was up in the grass again.  A Carolina wren had some suet.  I relocated one sack of spider eggs from the rose to the sakaki so it wouldn't get pruned.   I also moved the chrysalis to the feeder pole outside my window because the dead rue will probably be cut down.  I think the rue died of old age.  It must have been more than thirty years ago when I planted it and its an herb not a shrub.  The orchard spider was disturbed but its web was still intact.  

Purslane was still blooming around the front patio and the Carolina jessamine tentatively opened a few buds.  The lantana had quit blooming but spread all over the flower bed.  Peppers were ripening.  Today rain fell for much of the day but didn't amount to much.  A few birds ate seeds but there really wasn't much to see and nothing to photograph.  The tide continued to run high.  

Still cool

A Carolina wren was up early.  An orange daylily opened.  Dark clouds passed by looking full of rain, but none fell.  I thought I saw a bunny but it was a squirrel in an odd pose.  Out front, the lantana started to bloom.  White lilies, orange daylilies, and pink rain lilies put out flowers.  A strawberry plant popped up beside the dry stream bed.  A slaty skimmer used a perch outside my window.  

Bluebirds were busy so I thought they might still be feeding offspring.  A variegated fritillary fed on the butterfly milkweed.  Every so often it remembered that it needed to move around to confuse predators, but soon it was back at the milkweed.  The wind was much harsher than predicted and hard on small flying critters.  While cutting back the cinquefoil, I found some more wolf's milk slime mold.  I cannot imagine how it got that name.  

K hung more suet.  While pruning I surprised a blue jay.  An odd wasp-like flier wandered on the window.  It might have been an earwig.  A brown headed nuthatch came late to the seeds.  A couple of chickadees considered the dish feeders.  My impression was that one was a parent and the other a fledgling.  The bird certainly seemed clueless but eventually discovered the food.  

Glorious weather

This was the sort of day we hope for in June.  It was still a bit cool and cloudy in the morning when I swam but the afternoon was sunny with a nice breeze and in the low 80s.  Two hibiscus flowers greeted us.  Two frogs were in the skimmer and I thought a third one was sitting on the top step of the pool ladder but I was only able to find two. One was the little bullfrog but the other was different, maybe a green frog?  Though I caught them in the morning and put them out, I saw them again in the afternoon hanging out on the ladder. 

Two big monarch caterpillars and four younger ones chowed down on the butterfly milkweed.  The four Argiope spiders looked well.  A couple of blue dashers got territorial over a perch by thr mountain mint.  A slaty skimmer found the perch outside my window.  I glimpsed a couple of high flying dragonflies and an amberwing in the mountain mint.  A few fiery skippers were around.  A lovely red banded hairstreak visited the mountain mint.  I spotted more camouflaged loopers.  A variegated fritillary seemed to be laying eggs on the morning glory and the violets.  I thought I saw a monarch and a palamedes swallowtail but they were too fast for certainty. 

Blue jays and a bluebird found the barkbutter balls.  Hummers fed in the morning but by afternoon were coming to the window with demands.  Sure enough a spot of mold had started.  So K hung a fresh feeder.  A rain lily popped up in the front yard.  The lantana was a mass of flowers that attracted skippers.  

Rain lilies

Goldfinches came back.  This year they have been less wary and also more interested in the seeds on offer.  There were birds up in the trees but the only one the camera caught was a chickadee. 

I missed the regular front yard lilies - they must have bloomed very quickly.  I was grateful that three rain lilies popped up where the dry creek bed meets the grass.  The gardenias were still blooming but nearly finished.  The crocosima flowers were well started and mixed with lantana. Two peppers were growing on last year's surviving plant.

And in the back yard, the blue aster had flowers.  An accidental sunflower tracked the sun.  Coral honeysuckle trumpets dangled off the fence, trying to lure hummingbirds.  Wasps and skippers had discovered the mountain mint.  Of course, cabbage whites flitted around.  Dragonflies were more purposeful.  A skimmer used the bamboo perch.  The orchard spider still lurked in the azaleas. 

Butterfly!

It was very dark at breakfast and looked like the worst kind of day, windy and wet and cold.  Buffleheads were out on the creek.  The tide ran high from the wind.  Then before 9am, the sky cleared and transformed everything.  

When I returned from an appointment this morning and got out of the car, I saw something flutter by the peppers that were in the garage to keep from freezing.  It was a cloudless sulphur butterfly.  Another out of season sighting was a flower on the lantana.  

Pine warblers came for lunch.  Two male orioles showed up and perched around glaring at each other instead of sharing the jelly.  White throated sparrows prospected for fallen seeds.  Bluebirds went for the fresh barkbutter balls. 

A squirrel was determined to get into the bird food, but had no luck.  He found a good nibble on the ground.  Two more squirrels appeared and all three were wary of each other.  \

I went out after dark to see the moon but my photos were washed out.  

Oriole!

Crows loitered in the trees.  After breakfast, I discovered a male Baltimore oriole sitting on the patio outside the door.  It looked like it might have hit the glass but I didn't hear anything.  It flew off, then I hustled some grape jelly out for it.  But I did not see it again. 

The Japanese maple next door glowed in the sun.  My red maple lost most of its leaves.  One oak was bronze but the other was still green.  The sweet gum was crimson.  There were still flowers on the lantana.  

In the afternoon I noticed a chickadee and the female downy playing statues.  I don't know what they were hiding from but eventually they relaxed and got on with their business.   In the background, the creek reflected the sunlit bank. 

At sunset, I finally saw the moon.  It was slightly less than first quarter but washed out except for the terminator.  This time of year it's too low in the sky to see from the back yard so I was out front.  

Mist

I thought it was too damp for barkbutter balls or mealworms so all the birds had to eat was suet and seeds.  A mockingbird behaved strangely on the pool edge, bouncing and flashing.  A Carolina wren made a late breakfast visit to forage under the feeders.  Bluebirds worked on suet. 

I had an appointment in South Norfolk and passed through areas of fog in the afternoon.  When I got home, I toured the flowers.  There were red buds on one gladiolus spear.  The lantana and the crocosima started flowering and two buds on the white lily popped open.  The sunflower grew another inch.  

A feisty titmouse wanted a fair share of the food and even outfaced a nuthatch.  Chickadees came ins a steady stream.  Cardinals were more sporadic.  And the brown headed nuthatches got plenty of seeds.  A pine warbler was able to get a little suet.  

Trip

I went out of town on Monday and came beck Tuesday.  Monday was kind of nice but all I saw were a few buzzards.  Trees in the DC area were leafless and the night was very cold.  Tuesday a heavy overcast hung low and dumped rain of the first half of my return.  When I got back, I checked out the yard and found evidence that the cold did not reach this far. The lantana was blooming again.  I found only one mushroom.  The fatsia was beginning to flower.  The rain eventually caught up around sunset.  

Clear sky

I awoke to bright sun and a chilly North wind that made the creek choppy. When I went out to dump the soggy bark butter balls, a leaf footed bug dropped from the top of the doorway where it had secreted itself, perhaps for warmth.  I persuaded it to go outside.

After lunch I walked around the yard.  There were some insects, flies and yellow jackets mostly.  The forsythia was deceived into flowering and the zinnia, black eyed susan, and one daisy were still blooming, along with the rose.  I pulled up the big fungus under the oak to get a look at its spore side.   As I expected, it was a polypore spreading from two quite thick stalks.  Ir looked a bit moldy so I left it in the sun. 

A house finch was perfectly camouflaged by red dogwood leaves, but the twigs' motion as the finch tugged at berries gave it away.

When we got home in the late afternoon, a mockingbird argued with me as I swept leaves out of the garage.  It had quite a repertoire of buzzes and clicks and other unmusical sounds.  But it didn't stay for a portrait. The lantana put out a late blossom.

The wind had dropped and the creek reflected turning leaves.  A cormorant and a great blue heron perched on snags in the lake, but there wasn't enough light.  While I'm grateful for the extra morning sleep, twilight comes far too early after the return to standard time. 

Still pleasant

Wispy mare's tails sometimes coalesced to cover the sky.  A great blue heron fished under the bulkhead.  Titmice joined the regulars for seeds.  Hummers fought.  I went out front and sat on the new patio.  Some small and delicate mushrooms popped up in the mulch.  A hummer fed on the lantana along with skippers.  Geese flew North in a V formation, but they were just pretending. 

The cardinals occupied the feeder area and frustrated the finches and chickadees.  A Carolina wren hopped up but then hid out in the rosemary.  A cloudless sulphur nestled into a hibiscus blossom. It has been a summer for second bloomings - gladiolus, hibiscus, and today a late flower spike on the chaste tree. 

Palamedes and tiger swallowtails floated and flitted but never perched for a photo.  Snout butterflies did and so did skippers.  A spring azure landed briefly on the milkweed.  Bees and wasps were busy and milkweed bugs joined them.

A cough-like sound alerted me to a red bellied woodpecker up in a pine tree.  The rue was full of black swallowtail caterpillars and a tiny orchard spider.  A question mark butterfly visited the birdbath.  And an anglewing katydid landed on me.  I wonder if it was because my suit was the same color?  I rescued a honeybee bur was too late for a cicada.  A little blue tailed skink come out in the late afternoon.  The patio was scorching from the sun but the breeze was chilly after I was wet.

Cloudy

A goldfinch checked out "his" garden of sunflower plants.  They are beginning to make heads. 

In the afternoon, on my way back across Lynnhaven Inlet, an osprey flew low across the road.  When I got home, a tiger swallowtail was feasting on the lantana by the driveway.  Beetles and spiders were in the water and some beetles and a wasp had drowned.  I was buzzed by dragonflies.

The sky looked like a storm might be brewing and a faint halo appeared when a cloud blocked the sun.  The wren continued to sing about the joys of home ownership. I heard other songs I didn't recognize. 

Steamy

Not a whole lot to see this morning.  I was running errands and saw the library mockingbird. The regulars visited the feeder and the house wrens kept working.  A big Muscovy duck took a look at our pool then waddled downhill toward some geese.  The crape myrtle burst into bloom this morning, joining the lantana, nandina, and gardenia.  The bugs had not yet discovered the lantana.  Fat cumulus cloud piles sailed East.

The spider webs were all gone from around the front porch.  In fact, the only sign of insects was a mud dauber nest high up.  In the back yard, a female blue dasher dragonfly occupied one of the shorter perches.  I saw an osprey banking over the creek.  As usual, there were foolish beetles and spiders to rescue from the water. 

I was in Norfolk in the evening when the swallows pirouetted above the roofs.  A huge flat-topped cloud to the South flushed gold, then rose, on my way home.  The crows were circling around their favorite winter gathering spot where 264 crosses 64.  Fireflies were out when I got home.  It was still above 90.

Gray

There was only a little rain during the morning.  The turtle was still in the pool. A flower head appeared on the lantana and the coral lilies were blooming.  So was the oleander, the hot poker, and the yarrow. A rusty-colored squirrel harassed mama white-spot in the mulch. 

At lunch two titmice bullied the chickadees while giving way to the cardinals.  The wrens were in and out.  The turtle tested out the board but didn't crawl up it.  An osprey circled. 

K and I undertook a team rescue: K on the pole and me in the pool.  Between us we herded the turtle up onto the steps where I lifted it out.  Heavy!  And it put on an amazing turn of speed for the 10 yard dash to the creek.  I used the underwater camera to take this photos of the escape.  The water was 75 and felt warm compared to the air.

Afterward, I heard a very soft tse-tse every time a wren visited the birdhouse, so I think there's at least one hatchling.  I tried to get a photo of the parent using the underwater camera but there's no zoom. 

I believe our pool guest was a Northern Red-bellied Cooter.

Rain started up again in earnest around 7pm.  A chickadee fed a fledgling on the feeder hanger.  A male cardinal came to the feeder without realizing the other male was in the mulch below.  So they had words, again.  

Sunny again

The blue sky returned in the morning.  So did the geese.  I counted five goslings and more adults.  The creek was still and reflective.  Titmice came to the feeder.  A hummer breakfasted.  One squirrel stalked another who occupied the roof of the feeder to the pursuer's great frustration.  When he finally leaped for the feeder, the other one jumped off underneath and away they both went.

The male cardinal who has been fascinated with the pool took a plunge today.  I saw it shaking off water.  I assume it sees a rival in its reflection.  When the pool pump started and sent a little wave out toward the bird, it jumped up and back in shock.  I guess the water movement broke up the image because the cardinal then left.

The lantana is blooming out front and the magnolia trees are perfuming the air. A buzzard circled low over us.  A blue tailed skink made a dash across the patio when it thought no one was looking.  A yellow crowned night heron prowled the spartina while the geese made another attempt on the pool.  Lots of dragonflies had lots to hunt.  Big dark cumulus boiled up out of the West and dripped a few drops. 

After the cloud moved on, I went back to the pool. As I was getting in, I saw a little green heron.  It was using the metal loop that the floating dock has to slide up and down the piling as a fishing platform.  I was just thinking it was too high when the heron's head darted, neck lengthened, and it caught a fish.  It moved around the piling but stayed fishing all the while I was in the pool. 

Warm

The morning shower, as predicted, swept through shortly after 7am and the sky began clearing right away.  A chickadee showed up immediately. And now the sun is bright.  The creek is glassy again as it is most mornings.  Why is it that the water surface is so placid early in the day?

It was placid again in the late afternoon and the sky was a gorgeous blue.  The trees are really turning now.  The lantana is half frostbitten.  I found one morning glory sheltered by a downspout.   K planted the gardenia clone and the bulbs out front.  Bees enjoyed the warmth and crickets are still in tune.  A wasp was still active. 

From the dock, I could hear the rattle of a kingfisher, but I never saw it.  Buffleheads have arrived.  A white duck is hanging out with the mallards. There is a patch of puffballs under the redwood, but not as many as last year. 

Cooler and lovely

Clouds are slowly drifting Southeast.  A bumblebee pollinated the morning glories.  A nuthatch and a titmouse joined the usual three at the seed feeder.  The hummer feeder is clean and fresh.  A jay flew loudly across the yard.  A hummer rejected the feeder and tried the peavine. 

It is a lovely day.  Now the clouds are moving Northeast and dissipating as they pass over.   A tiger swallowtail feasted on the lantana out front. 

Skinks were out, including one I rescued alive from the pool.  They can swim!  Blue jays swarmed raucously in the oak.  Wrens have been lurking.  A pair of swallows were fussing and flew right over our heads.  A gulf fritillary landed on an azalea, then a painted lady on a dogwood.  A sizable jumping spider scurried out from under the rosemary. 

More gray

It looks like a repeat of yesterday.  Finches and chickadees were up before me. A hard rain began around 8am and only lasted about 20 minutes.

The day continued gloomy with spatters of rain.  Lantana and gardenia are blooming, as is the magnolia.  The gladiolas are a bright spot though something snapped a second flower spike.   The lavender is attracting pollinators.

Tufted titmice, chickadees, and cardinals came to the feeder while we were having lunch. In the afternoon a cabbage butterfly visited ever lavender floweret. 

The sun peeked through cumulus mountains in the late afternoon and rain started not long after.  The evening was very wet. 

Bright and clear

Sparrows were out and about. A crow hammered away at something while perched on the fence.  Pelicans have been cruising by without success. 

Curiously, despite three freezes, parts of the lantana are still green.  The Carolina Jessamine seed pods have opened.  The seeds are like those in a pine cone - a little flat wing thickened at one end.  I distributed some in various spots around the yard.  The rose over by the fig has been blooming, presumably because all the pruning has given it more sun. 

A flock of juncos enjoyed puttering in the mulch, drinking at the birdbath, and occasionally flying up to the feeder.  A Carolina wren joined them.  Then a titmouse.  Then everyone disappeared and I too saw a hawk.

Late afternoon, I went out on the dock.  It was pretty warm but there was wind.   Three female hooded mergansers  scooted off to the other side of the creek.  The low sun turned their brown to gold.  A pelican was fishing very successfully.  I watched several go down the gullet.  Cormorants and gulls flew past and the moon rode high and bright. The mud bank is covered with raccoon prints. 

Rain again

I awoke to hard rain but it only lasted a few minutes and subsided to drizzle.  The rain picked up again around 7:30 and continues.  While it was just drizzle a cardinal and a hummingbird visited.

The rain stopped around 10am but it remains very humid with heavy clouds on the horizon.  I glimpsed an orange butterfly.  The blueberries are swelling and the lantana is blooming.  Lantana is a tropical perennial that is at the extreme end of its range for wintering over.  This plant in front of a South-facing wall has come back every year for nearly a decade.

During the bit of sun at lunch, an adult five-lined skink ventured out.  Instead of a blue tail, it has a red head. Titmouse and towhee, cardinal and chickadees had lunch too.  Then a wren showed up.  Now thunder is grumbling.  And more rain all afternoon. And then after a lull, around 6pm a ferocious wall cloud with lightning appeared in the West and North and deluged us for an hour.