Gray

Wind and rain were predicted from the remnants of Hurricane Isaias, but the day was just overcast.  The wildlife must have gotten the forecast because I saw little sign of anything but a wasp and some chickadees.  Sassafras leaves turned orange.  The saltbush bloomed.  I assisted some milkweed seeds to disperse.  A cricket's corpse was caught in an abandoned spiderweb.  

In the front yard, a magic leaf fluttered from an invisible spider thread.  Purslane and lantana still bloomed and buds on a goldenrod stalk began to yellow.  A pepper ripened.  So did magnolia seed pods.   

Dull day

Bluebirds mad frequent trips to the buffet.  A squirrel did prairie dog popups in the cinquefoil.  Brown headed nuthatches packed off a surprising amount of seeds.  The cardinals were courting again.  Blue jays ate barkbutter balls.  A couple of great blue herons went chasing upstream.  A titmouse joined the barkbutter queue. 

The Southern magnolia trees have started blooming.  The sakaki was covered with buds.  The creek was placid in the morning, but there was more wind inn the afternoon.  I noticed trash afloat on the water.  Also, the sky became overcast and the temperature dropped from its noontime peak on 81°.  

Still summery

Turtles were out basking on their log.  Contrails turned to cirrus wisps.  I thought I found a puffball.  I definitely found an empty monarch chrysalis.  The fungus by the oak appeared to be finished growing.  Beautyberries were disappearing, helped by a mockingbird.  

A great blue heron stood on a piling at low tide while mallards paddled around.  Sassafras leaves turned yellow.  Small clusters of golden leaves popped out of the green oak foliage as well.  Milkweed parachutes opened.  Red magnolia seeds poked out of their pods.  Yellow rumped warblers jittered among the trees. 

Nesting

The overnight rain left everything wet and clean.  Bright sunshine and wind soon dried the outdoor furniture.  The temperature only reached the low 70s, unlike last week.  A mockingbird was making display gestures all over the yard.   Brown headed nuthatches came for seeds in a steady stream.  Bluebirds picked through the barkbutter mush left by last night's rain.  A red bellied woodpecker came for suet lunch.  

The yellow roses were coming on just as the red roses faded.  Between the roses, the rue, and the daylilies, the yard was dominated by yellow.  But the magnolias were also starting to bloom.  Bluebirds were definitely feeding nestlings in the bluebird house.  And it looked like mockingbirds were nesting in the witch hazel bush by the sidewalk.  

I looked up cavity-nesting birds that might use a birdhouse:

wrens: Carolina, house

woodpeckers: downy, pileated, flicker, red bellied

titmice, chickadees

bluebirds

brown headed & white breasted nuthatch,

great crested flycatcher

prothonotary warbler

tree swallow, purple martin

wood duck

house sparrow, house finch, starling

barred owl, barn owl, screech owl

kestrel

Finally, dragonflies!

It was a little cooler today, but not much.  Bluebirds came for breakfast.  Because of my schedule, I had a morning swim.  I saved a bumblebee but a skink had already drowned.  A bronze damselfly danced just above the water.  It was too big for a forktail damselfly, so probably a dancer or a bluet.  (Not all bluets are blue.)  I also saw several dragonflies circling the house.  I think one might have been a female pondhawk and another a darner, but only one of them stopped briefly for me.  I believe it was a female great blue skimmer.

When I got out, I surprised a yellow crowned night heron.  The yellow daylily bloomed and the other plants had buds.  There were blossoms on the magnolia.  Three cabbage whites flitted around the plants but didn't alight.  Another skink saw me and dashed under vegetation, but forgot its tail.  

Three crows hunted something along the shoreline.  Earlier, one of them had tried to figure out a way to get some barkbutter balls.  A Carolina wren cleaned up spilled bird food. 

Temperature dropped

It was a beautiful blue-sky day but too cool to get into cold water.  A Carolina wren drank from the ant moat in the hummer feeder.  The pair of wrens were busy around the feeders all day.  Geese came calling twice, uninvited.  I ran them off, but not before they fertilized the grass. 

Suet eaters behaved like they were starving.  Even crows, blue jays, and brown thrashers attempted to eat from the cage.  Of course the woodpeckers were better equipped to do that.  And the starlings and bluebirds managed.  

Blueberries were getting fat thanks to K's watering.  A magnolia tree was blooming.  Toward evening, I finally caught one of the speedy little brown headed nuthatches on camera.  It was after seeds as there was no suet left at all.  

Catbird seat

A rather shredded red spotted purple visited the wild cherry leaves.  I found a cicada shell in the mulch.  A few wasps were hungry enough to ignore the breeze.  A few magnolia seed pods were splitting to show the red seeds.  Since it was too cold to swim, I pruned the witch hazel that was obscuring the view of the bluebird house.  K continued to cut away arbor vita.  

An egret took up residence on one of our pilings while mallards paddled past.  It is very hard to photograph a white bird in the sun.  The crows got upset about something, presumably a hawk.  I was annoyed at them because something carried off a nearly full tub of bark butter. 

I missed shots at a Carolina wren and a brown thrasher, but a pine warbler was kinder to me.  Then I spied a catbird in the beautyberry bush.  

Flowers

The morning was a loss.  I saw a dragonfly in front of the garage when I came home.  The wind was fierce so I'm not surprised it preferred the more sheltered South side of the house.  After lunch I spotted the pine warbler again.  A house wren investigated the seed feeder.  Wasps were getting competitive on the rue.  A small bird chased a larger across the sky.  The white breasted nuthatch and the blue jays got away without photos. 

The slime mold looked unchanged.  Jasmine and forget-me-nots bloomed nearby.  Coriander and freesias shared space.  The false indigo was already making pods.  Magnolia blossoms were open all over the neighbor's tree.  And the white and red lily flowers had opened.  I found a red russula mushroom in the grass. 

Five titmice rushed around the yard.  One sampled all the different feeders.  A downy woodpecker liked the bark butter tub.  A hummer got her fill of juice.  In the late afternoon, a pair of geese made a V through the still water as they escorted one large gosling.  It is amazing how fast geese grow

Humid

At breakfast, a female blue dasher dragonfly landed on the watering can.  The molting blue jay was back at lunch.  Bark butter balls made the bird thirsty.  An egret fished below the dam.  A few drops of rain fell. 

I wanted to gel the last seeds in the ground before I'm immobilized.  Lots of mushrooms popped up thanks to the rain.  I saw a skink on the West wall of the house, but the camera decided I wanted a photo of the fence between us.  Some of the oxalis growing in between stones was pink, whether from the minerals or a mutation, I don't know.  I transplanted some to see it the color would change.   The magnolia began blooming. I saw the remains of a crane fly on a wall.  It had interesting wings. 

The pool crew ran into geese with two goslings frantically trying to get out of the water.  The molting jay returned several times.  Toward evening, the feral cat showed up.  I hope the jay avoided it.  And the day concluded with a male hummingbird, but the overcast meant there was no hint of a ruby throat, just a black head.  The temperature dropped in the afternoon but the humidity made me very sweaty. 

Front passed through

The front left behind much cooler, less humid air, with sun and a lot of wind.  Osprey and buzzards rode the wind, but small birds stayed under cover.  I did see cardinals, house finches, and wrens.  The wrens were still singing at each other - their territories deem to border over the pool.  Two male cardinals faced off in the dogwood that seems to be their no-bird's-land.  I tried, without success, to get a photo of the bit of brown thrasher nest I can see from the kitchen.  I haven't seen the parents this week.

A friend mentioned that their hummingbird has been scarce for a while, just like ours.  The wren sat on the branch just above the bird house and sang ownership.  The cardinals continued their territorial squabble all day.  The neighbor's magnolia began blooming.  The sunflower volunteers reached the stage where they follow the sun quite visibly, changing from this \ angle in the morning to this / in the afternoon. A yellow jacket pollinated the rue. 


After dark, a sickle moon and Venus hung in the clear sky to the West. 

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.