Gloomy

The usual two frogs went swimming with me.  I didn't see anything else of note in the water.  A leafhopper floated but I don't know if it recovered after I fished it out.  A hummer drank from the milkweed flowers.  I saw a monarch but it didn't visit the milkweed.  The Asiatic dayfloweres were blooming.  A red spotted purple landed on a dogwood but was edge-on to me.  

Buggy

The heat returned, this time with humid, sticky air.  We picked blueberries and it was not pleasant.  I was very glad to get into the water and cool off.  The little Argiope seemed settled in among the mountain mint stalks.  The orchard spider also seemed quite settled.  I rescued a small spider that looked like it might grow up to be a marbled orbweaver, or something in the Araneus genus.  Also, I fished out a planthopper, Acanalonia conica, and the usual batch of May beetles.  I tried to get the planthopper to come up to the house for a photo shoot but instead I got to see it fly away.  

The same insects were back on the mountain mint: leafcutter bees, carpenter bees, the hairstreak and the duskywing, and thread-waisted wasps.  A blue dasher obelisked on a twig.   A woodpecker went after cherries.  All I got was blurs, but it might have been a flicker.  Birds were not plentiful.  

Warm but gusty

A great egret rested on the neighbors' floating dock.  I wanted to photograph the insects that visited the yellow rose but the wind kept bouncing it. There was a spotted cucumber beetle   Diabrotica undecimpunctata, a honeybee, and a leafhopper.  A brown skipper landed on a gladiolus leaf.  Blurry, see-through clouds lined up in rows and later became cirrus brushstrokes.  Indoors, a little bumblebee bumbled around the bathroom.  I tried to swat a mosquito in the shower.  

Moonflower

Beautiful creek reflections enhanced the view at breakfast.  I went out in the afternoon determined to swim.  But first I admired the orchard spider and the swallowtail chrysalis to which the web was attached.  Crows were hanging out around the creek.  The pool water was full of field crickets and various sorts of black beetles.  I also rescued a leaf-footed bug and a couple of leafhoppers.  One was a greenish gray that would blend in with lichens and the other appeared black.  The angle of the sun revealed a big web next to the feeder post.  I think it belonged to an Agelenopsis spider that weaves sheets with a funnel where the spider lurks.  

The milkweed pods were open but the seeds weren't flying.  They make a simple gauge of humidity.  As I was dripping dry, I realized that a moonflower was starting to open.  I caught it in the act.   

 

End of summer

At breakfast, I glimpsed a snowy egret on the bulkhead and got just one photo before it flew.  A monarch was duped by the bright red of the dogwood berries, but found no nectar.  A red spotted purple found a resting spot under an azalea branch.  Now there are three sacks of spider eggs and three chrysalises to monitor.  A bluebottle fly was sitting on my chair, all gorgeous metallic teal on an absolutely icky body.  

The orchard spider was in the same spot, as were the Argiopes.  Rather than venusta, it better fit mabel orchard orbweaver, Leucauge argyrobapta.  Something had taken down the big org web across the pool.  A red-banded leafhopper sat on one of the moonflower leaves.  Passing cclouds and a Northeast wind muted the sun's warmth. The water was not warm and the wind was chilly but worse were the mosquitoes.  Not a dragonfly was to be found.  

Gloomy

The day was sunless and windless and the humidity encouraged mosquitoes.  A widow skimmer was on duty along with the spiders.  A monarch flitted around at lunch.  I rescued a rafting green June beetle, aka a fig beetle.  A green leafhopper, Siphanta acuta, came along with it.  Also I fished a mama spider and her little ones out of the skimmer.  

Geese made a big commotion on the creek.  A great blue heron preened on the dock.  The pileated pair visited the suet, one at a time.  Brown headed nuthatches queued up for seeds.  Bluebirds and blue jays came for barkbutter balls.  A Carolina wren made the rounds of the feeders.  I glimpsed a hummer.   

Drought?

On my way into Norfolk a little after sunrise, a big, pale full moon was barely visible in the West.  Coming home, as I drove into the driveway some sort of butterfly fluttered toward the blueberry patch.  A mockingbird, I think, flew across the driveway in front of the car and then flew back in front of it again.  When I looked at the back yard, chickadees were working on seeds.  I put barkbutter balls and grape jelly out in different dishes.  I meant to replace the hummer feeder contents - tomorrow.  

The new butterfly milkweed plant needed water so I moved it and the four caterpillars on it out front by the peppers.  Several peppers were ready to eat.  While out front I noticed a red banded leafhopper Graphocephala coccinea on one of K's bonsai trees. We have had no rain in October and it has been windy.  The last measurable rainfall occurred when Hurricane Helene hit the mountains at the end of September. 

Insects

The goldfinches were our wake-up birds again.  Hummers were right behind after K hung a fresh feeder.  A lovely female slaty skimmer was posted on the lookout for annoying bugs.  Later a blue dasher took up the post and obelisked in the heat.  Fiery and dusky skippers were not dissuaded from the mountain mint by rude wasps and bees.  I also saw a variegated fritillary, a tiger swallowtail, and I think a cloudless sulphur. 

I was determined to get photos of leaf-cutter bees which wasn't easy as they kept moving.  The all-black bee, Megachile xylocopoides, was particularly elusive but I finally got it, dusted with pollen.  I also got the little grayish ones.  Great golden digger wasps posed nicely. 

A dog-day cicada, Neotibicen caniculariscicada, was in the skimmer.  It appeared to have drowned but I've seen insects revive so I left it on a table next to the house.  I also fished out a centipede and a shooter (a kind of leafhopper).  Along with May beetles I rescued a metallic green six spotted tiger beetle, Cicindela sexguttata.  A grasshopper came inside and my butterfly net was useful in returning it to the great outdoors.  My best guess is pine tree spur-throat grasshopper, Melanoplus punctulatus.  

With all these insects, skinks were out and about.  One headed right at me so I moved my foot and it darted off to the side.  But then it was curious and turned around to peek at me.  

Hints of Autumn

The creek was a placid mirror reminding me that even though the reflected leaves were still green, the weather patterns have begun shifting toward Autumn.  The air was humid again but the sky was blue with cotton fluff.  A mallard preened on the dock.  The beautyberries got redder.  Two hummers zoomed past repeatedly as one tried to raid the feeder and the other defended it.  A mockingbird came for barkbutter balls.

I found a big cicada floating in the water.  I wasn't sure if it was dead or just needed to dry out.  There were lots of adult two-lined spittlebugs Prosapia bicincta in the water too.  They were hardly bigger than the cicada's mouth but a close look revealed that the two insects are quite similar except for size.  Spittlebugs belong in the froghopper family, Cercopidae.  Wasps prowled the mountain mint.  Two frogs and a skink were also in the water.  The cricket I rescued might have lured the skink. 

Mockingbird family

It was scorchingly hot and very gusty.  The clouds lined up in ridges and furrows.  I sat outside in the shade after lunch and watched the insect parade:  a bumblebee, a honeybee, an all-black bee, a great golden digger wasp, a black threadwaisted wasp, a little black wasp ringed with gold, a sans wasp, scoliid wasps, and a fiery skipper.  While I was sitting outside, a skink sidled up and scooted right under the chair. 

I meant to swim in the morning but my program ran over.  So I waited till there was some shade on the water.  Among the usual floaters was a sharpshooter, Oncometopia orbona, a kind of leafhopper.  A widow skimmer used the mountain mint as a windbreak.  The black swallowtail caterpillar was still trying to eat the gone-to-seed parsley.  I hope it doesn't starve.  After swimming, I picked the first figs of the year.  A sidewalk tiger beetle scurried away. 

A mockingbird parent brought two offspring to the feeder but they didn't quite connect the dots. Maybe tomorrow. A bluebird was also trying to teach its fledgling hoe to eat at the mealworm feeder.  Sunset was quite pink.  

Fireflies!

Hummers were stuffing themselves for the trip.  Someone or something left me a dead skink posed next to the pool as though it were basking in the sunlight.  I found another skink corpse in the skimmer along with many leaves.  Trees have been shedding because it's been so dry, not because summer is almost over. 

The cast exoskeleton of a half-grown praying mantis was lodged in the azalea beside the house.  Under the oak I found two conk fungus fruiting bodies emerging from the mulch.  A yellow rose bloomed.  The red aster had a bud.  The sunflower was a disaster.  Something turned the ripening seeds into sawdust.  I looked for the spiders but their webs were full of debris from the lawnmower so I guess they're gone.  When I looked at the picture of the ground cherries I took, there was a two-lined spittlebug or froghopper, Prosapia bicincta.

After dark, I went outside to photograph the moon and saw several fireflies in both back and front yard. The moon was low to the South and thus behind the pecan. The branches created some weird kind of lens effect.  That's why I switched to the front yard.  But none of those pictures were in focus.  Anyway, I don't recall fireflies this late in the year, before.  

Cloudbeams

I was up an hour early but the wildlife wasn't.  In the afternoon, wet looking clouds passed over but nothing happened except for the shadows they cast on the sky. 

The feather-shedding pine warbler wanted to know if I was going to refill the barkbutter balls.  A bluebird had the same question.  The hummers were hungry. 

Bees, wasps and the same tattered duskywing worked on the mountain mint and occasionally the butterfly milkweed.  I saw a monarch, but either it missed the milkweed or it wasn't interested.  In the pool I rescued a sharpshooter and a green Junebug beetle.  A sidewalk tiger beetle had drowned.  A damselfly blinked in and out of the sunlight as it cruised inches above the water.  Fireflies were still blinking in the twilight.  

The hackberry (sugarberry?) made berries this year but they were still green.  A squirrel went through gymnastics to reach the wild cherries.  I got sticky and bugged picking blueberries.  To each his own berry. 

Insects

Three crows inspected the patio but they didn't give us a report.  Lots of daylilies bloomed in a variety of shapes and colors.  An adult skink chased another across the patio too fast for me. 

A female slaty skimmer fought for possession of a bamboo stake perch.  I didn't get a good look at the other dragonfly.  An assassin bug clung to the window screen.  I disturbed a common whitetail which then flitted around and tested light colored spots on the ground.  This behavior might make sense for the male, which actually has a white tail that blends in, but the brown female was very visible.  

While swimming, I saw a damselfly resting on a floating leaf.  I rescued a firefly.  A leafcutter bee feasted on the butterfly milkweed.  I saw a black bee and a wasp doing the same.  The cage K made seems to be protecting the strawberries while they ripen.  The bluebird pair was back for more barkbutter, but found mostly crumbs and dust.  A female goldfinch only wanted a drink.  A two banded leafhopper settled in on a mountain mint leaf. 

Speaking of settled in, the dog rolled in the violets again.  A male hummer visited the new feeder but flew away before I got him in focus.  Toward evening, I tried to photograph fireflies.  The moon overhead was nearly full, so I photographed it too.  

Between seasons

Sunshine on the glassy creek spoke of Fall thought the heat and humidity belonged to Summer.  The third chrysalis still had not opened.  Black swallowtail caterpillars continued chowing down on rue. A Carolina wren speared a bark butter ball and wore it like a clown nose, alas out of focus.  Hummers started drinking early.  

At lunch, a squirrel flattened its belly against a cool patch of shaded patio.  A fiery skipper insisted on a place at the mountain mint.  Afterward, I saw a juvenile night heron hunting along the edge of the creek. 

A female pondhawk guarded the rue while a bird grasshopper hung out on the hibiscus.  A sharpshooter was also on the hibiscus, but I was too close to it.  In trying for a photo, I disturbed the grasshopper who flew to the gladiolus leaves.  I saw a tiger and a palamedes swallowtail, and some sulphurs, but they didn't pause. A black swallowtail was more cooperative. 

I rescued a skink despite its best efforts to drown.  Many other skinks were out and about.  The rabbit hopped past me while I was in the deep end of the pool.  A female eastern amberwing dragonfly hung out with the wasps around the mountain mint.  Wikipedia claims that both appearance and behavior mimic wasps. 

We had to refresh the hummers' juice.  I heard a crow and then saw a red tailed hawk fly away.  After that lots more birds appeared.  Great crested flycatchers appeared to find plenty to catch in the trees.  A young mockingbird might have been after dogwood berries or hackberries.  Brown headed nuthatches wanted sunflower seeds and one made the ratcheting squeak for which they're known. 

I came in to shed my swimsuit and when I next looked, a brown thrasher and a downy woodpecker confronted each other across the barkbutter.  Then two squirrels chased madly up the feeder pole and back, disturbing a female bluebird.  After that, it got quiet again. 

Clearing

There must have been more rain in the night because there were drips everywhere.  Dragonflies reappeared, mostly blue dashers, and later some great blue skimmers  I saw a little brown leafhopper on a mint leaf.  A hummer visited and seemed to find the juice acceptable so I put off replacing it.

The gray overcast began to tear apart in the late morning on a wind from the East.  The greasy titmouse argued with a Carolina wren over who got the seed feeder perch.  Four squirrels played silly games with the post.  By noon the sky was blue with wisps of cumulus. 

I saw a yellow tiger swallowtail and an orange variegated fritillary. Wasps were busy with the rue.  A 12 spotted skimmer darted around the treetops. Some of the parsley heads were going to seed.  Late in the afternoon, the clouds congealed again and the air got very humid. 

Foolish frog

The morning disappeared into various projects.  I just had time to notice dogwood leaves blushing with the onset of shorter days.  At lunch time, dueling monarchs danced above the milkweed.  One seemed more interested in laying eggs and the other in getting a meal.  A fritillary stayed away from the milkweed.  I glimpsed a red spotted purple but it did not hang around. 

A succession of hummers came for refueling. A flock of birds flew over but the camera didn't want to focus.  I wondered if they were tree swallows.  A couple of blue jays came for bark butter balls.  One begged the other so I guess it was a fledgling. 

The absence of Argiope spiders had begun to concern me, but I stuck my hand right into a web while reaching for a stalk of money plant seeds pods.  The spider didn't look full size but it had picked a good spot to catch its meals.  A female common whitetail buzzed around the patio. The perch was occupied by a bar winged skimmer. 

I got the silly green frog out of the pool but when I walked away it jumped back in.  No doubt tomorrow I'll have to dispose of its corpse.  Yuck.  I also rescued a mama wolf spider, a click beetle, a tiny green caterpillar, and a buffalo leafhopper (or treehopper). A long-bodied cellar spider was handing out on the top step just above the water.  I left it alone since it seemed to be satisfied with its location.  

Heavy clouds blocked the sun in the afternoon and then dissipated before evening.  I sat outside to listen to the varied cicadas and saw a few fireflies.  Two egrets flew over and I missed both. 

Around 11pm, something banged on the window a couple of times.  I went out to see what it was and found a cicada.  I tried to persuade it onto my finger but it threw a loud hissy fit and disappeared.  So I cannot say which kind it was, but it seemed small.  The past-full moon had not yet cleared the trees.

Warm, indeed!

It was a beautiful day, but I had promises to keep.  At breakfast, several titmice joined chickadees for sunflower seeds.  Meanwhile a blue jay ate mealworms but dodged the photography fee.  A titmouse played nuthatch on the pine trunk. 

I went out and added mealworms to the dish but the blue jay never returned.  After I'd come back to breakfast, I felt a tickle on my leg. I shook it a little and suddenly there was a sizable mama wolf spider on the floor.  I was able to gently shoo her outside, not just for humanitarian reasons, but to make sure all her babies went with her. 

The full moon rose through thin cloud streaks that added interest.  A bright green treehopper was attracted to the window, along with midges and small moths. 

Hot and windy

Rambunctious titmice scared off a hummer and a wren.  A very persistent squirrel was determined to get into the feeder.  A blue jay wanted mealworms.  The digger wasp was back and so was the buckeye butterfly. 

A humongous roach was floating in the water, dead fortunately.  It looked like one f those strange creatures from the Burgess Shale.  A spider built a web across a corner of the pool.  I rescued a mama spider and a few of her minute offspring that jumped ship.  

Dragonflies held their own despite the wind.  The herbs - rue, mint, parsley, rosemary - attracted a host of bees wasps, flies, and other insects.  I saw a sharpshooter land on a morning glory leaf. 

A male towhee flew across the yard and then popped out from under the azaleas. 

More heat

Titmice were up earlier than usual today.  I didn't replenish the food supplies fast enough and didn't the blue jays and hummingbirds let me know.  But they could only stay miffed so long with fresh sugar water and mealworms to be had. Dragonflies were obelisking before noon.  A yellow crowned night heron stalked lunch along the spartina.

The dragonflies were mostly blue dashers but I did see one female pondhawk.  Leaf miners started working on the hibiscus leaves.  I rescued a click beetle, a ground beetle, and a couple of fireflies.  When I picked up a floating oak leaf, the backswimmer darted away.  I fished out a buffalo treehopper but tossed it back to see if the backswimmer would eat it.  A damselfly rode a floating leaf.  Several half eaten mating-size ants lay around the patio.  Wasps searched the rue for the remaining flowers.

An egret and a great blue heron fished in the late afternoon.  I think at least two female hummers have been visiting, one with a dark tummy and one with a white. 

Cloudy

Sunshine was predicted.  Humpf.  A couple of blue jays raided the mealworms and got away before I had the camera fired up.  Hummers visited.  At least three doves were hanging around.  The birdbath had dried out which disappointed a squirrel.  She came to the watering can and peered through the window at me.  I say "she" because another squirrel was following and attempting the sniff test. The sky cleared at lunch.  A downy woodpecker visited the feeder.

Afterward, I started to dismantle the birdhouse that blew down and discovered a paper wasp nest inside.  Now I know how hard a yellow-kneed wasp can sting.  It seemed to be hunting me for a while so I was reluctant to take the camera outside - too much to remember if I had to run. Naturally I saw all kinds of cool stuff without any pictures to prove it.  A cicada killer roamed the steps.  A palamedes and a black swallowtail hung around.  A yellow sulphur flitted through.  Skippers, dusky and fiery, fed on the lavender and the morning glory.  And a lovely emerald female pondhawk also hunted around the steps.  I rescued a spider. a two-lined spittlebug adult, a bristletail, and a blue tailed skink. 

In addition I saw a bird in the trees that I couldn't identify, especially as all I could see was its tummy and the head it cocked curiously at me.  The closest match seemed to be a red eyed vireo, which would be a new bird for me if I could be sure. The snowy egrets were still attracted to the dam outfall which was still emptying the excess rain from three lakes.