Warmer

The day got warmer than predicted and stayed humid.  Cloudy periods alternated with burning sunlight.   A heptagonal orbweaver spider with red legs and a yellow abdomen tried to take possession of the door and another dangled over the pool steps.  I found two grown skinks basking, one by the pool steps and the other by the deep end.  The skink by the steps disappeared into a crack but later it emerged and ran across the concrete with its head held high.  Two frogs were hiding in the skimmer but I chased them down.  

I found another praying mantis castoff exoskeleton afloat.  There were mosquitoes, but nothing worse.  A blue dasher was standing watch when I came outside and a bigger dragonfly glittered in the sunlight when I got out of the water but I never got a good look at it.  A third skink wanted something behind my chair but didn't stay there long.  I saw a weevil sitting on a chair arm.  A titmouse watched from the dogwood.  As we ate supper, there was a flash and a loud crack of thunder, then nothing.  Sometime later a light rain began.   

Thunderstorm

The sun was hot when I went out to swim.  I caught four frogs and found another cast exoskeleton from a praying mantis floating on the water.  But clouds boiled up in the Southwest and ten minutes after I came inside, the storm arrived.  The rain waxed and waned through the afternoon, finally finishing before supper  Enough rain fell to bring the water level to the top of the skimmer opening.  The fledgling cardinal was hungry by then.  The sky cleared around sunset leaving a golden band of cloud.  

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.  

 

Hot wind

The sun and the wind both felt hot.  A leaf fluttered in the air under the sakaki in a way that made me think it was entangled in a spider thread.   I checked on the chrysalises and the spiders and all seemed well.  

There were lots of leaves and some acorns in the pool but no wildlife.  When I got out, I found a Carolina mantis on one of the patio chairs.  

Brown thrasher

If the Weather Service can be trusted, today was the last of the unseasonably cool days.  A mockingbird and several blue jays helped themselves to barkbutter balls.  Then a brown thrasher finished them off.  

The Argiope spiders hadn't moved and the cobweb spider was well away from my chair.  The finches continued to fight.  Hummers too.  A molting Carolina wren looked for something to eat.  It was not impressed by finch belligerence.  When a red bellied woodpecker arrived at the seed feeder the finch left without protest.  A tiger swallowtail attacked its reflection in the window. 

A skink was clinging to the outside of the pool skimmer opening so I helped it up to the pavement.  It was not grateful.  A frog was hiding in the outer part of the skimmer and I didn't see it till I'd finished dumping the basket. I'm glad it didn't get sucked down the pipe.  It swam off and later I found it hobnobbing with another frog.  I evicted one and the other used my climb out stick.  While in the pool, I saw a red spotted purple butterfly on the wild cherry beside the oak. I also found a couple of largish insect exoskeletons floating but I couldn't tell what they were.  Then I found another on the pavement and it was clear that it had been shed by a praying mantis.  

A few wasps were all I saw on the mountain mint but something left a lot of webbing and frass under one of the flower heads..   Birds. especially blue jays, have begun eating acorns.  A great blue heron rested on a post attached to the neighbor's dock.  

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.  

Praying mantis

When I left home for an appointment, a Cooper's hawk flew across the street right in front of my car.  A bluebird thought the breakfast selection lacked something, so I hustled out with more barkbutter balls.  Then I decided to check on the plants.  A lone goose hunkered down by the shoreline.  A gray toadstool looked freshly emerged.  I could see many little green figs The female common whitetail dragonfly preceded me, unless there are more than one around.  

A green praying mantis crawled through the clover.  *I moved it closer to the peppers. There were flower buds on the coral honeysuckle.  The green blueberries were swelling nicely.  There were numerous spiders walking on water. 

A male great blue skimmer was back on a bamboo perch.  A large, intimidating fly turned out to be a flesh fly and thus not a biter.  I was too late to rescue an assassin bug nymph.  Leatherwing beetles met up on the parsley flowers.  

We replaced the suet that the birds had with eating with a hummingbird feeder.  A male hummingbird tested but left quickly.  And the lighting gave him a black throat, not a ruby red.  While I was in the water, a small, pale moth fluttered erratically into vegetation, pursued by a female cardinal trying to catch it in flight.  

At twilight a small mallard family gave the dog some exercise.  In addition to the male and female adult ducks, there was a half grown duckling.  

Hot & sticky

Apparently more rain fell in the night but the sun was out in the morning.  Bluebirds came for breakfast.  I was slow getting outside and the temperature had reached 80°.  A baby praying mantis was still guarding the strawberry planter.  A paper wasp sat on a mountain mint leaf.  A daylily bud looked ready to open.  A fitful breeze made little impression on my comfort and none on the creek surface.  By the time I had planted eight sunflower seeds, sweat was dripping off my nose so I retired to the air conditioning.    

An orange butterfly was too fast for me.  It did not pay attention to the milkweed so I don't know if it was a male monarch or some other kind of orange butterfly.  There may have been a few dragonflies but I couldn't be sure they weren't wasps.  Birds flitted through the tree leaves - I think one was a goldfinch.  There were at least three blue jays.  

K came up with more outdoor work that bathed me in sweat.  As I recuperated inside, the cardinal pair acted their rom-com.  He landed on the feeder, she on the hanger above.  And she waited.  When it was past time he should have offered her a seed, she descended by increments to see what was keeping him.  He was stuffing himself, so she tried to land beside him.  But the feeder is calibrated to close at the weight of two cardinals (or one blue jay).  So the perch tipped them off and they both left.  I hope she gave him a good scolding.  

The sky stayed hazy with many clouds blowing out of the West.  I hope it's not too cloudy for the eclipse.  A Carolina wren found where I had spilled barkbutter porridge attempting to drain off rainwater.  The wren happily helped itself.  A male red belied woodpecker came for suet.  The suet had got turned so that I couldn't see smaller birds like the nuthatch but the woodpecker was too big to hide.  I went out afterward and turned the suet around.  

The eclipse is supposed to begin at 10:30 and be full at 11:30pm and last into Monday.  The May full moon is at perigee, its closest approach to Earth this month.  Apparently perigee does not always coincide with a full moon, but neither does an eclipse.  And the shadowed moon is supposed to be reddish because of Rayleigh scattering. 

Tiny praying mantises

The pink evening primroses were blooming in the morning.   Mama bluebird got a quick barkbutter snack.  Canada geese parents escorted their four goslings downstream.  A pair of mockingbirds picked up suet crumbs. 

Kayackers paddled upstream and I went out hoping to photograph them coming back.  I never saw them but I did see chickadees dangling from pine branches.  Unfortunately they were right-side up in the photos.  Birds were not very cooperative today.  The blue irises had also begun to bloom.  Skinks dashed about their business under the pool cover.  

I went out front to see if I could see the bluebirds.  One gloriously red strawberry was almost ready to pick.  I found a centimeter-long praying mantis on the wall and moved it to the strawberries only to discover another had already begun guarding them.  I did get to see the bluebirds ferrying bugs to their chicks.  

Windy

The remnants of Hurricane Ida brought more wind than rain, though there was a brief shower in the early afternoon. The palamedes swallowtail frustrated me again.  I caught a couple of small bees pollinating the purslane.  And I found one of the caterpillars I moved to the butterfly milkweed.  It had grown and was apparently feeding on the milkweed pods.  An amberwing flitted off from a perch in the mountain mint.  Some sort of skipper, or other small butterfl7ylooked for flowers around the birdbath, then flew off unsatisfied. 

The green bee also refused to pose.  A very tattered female great blue skimmer used the perch outside my window, and next to the new Argiope web.  A bad neighborhood for insect prey.  And speaking of predators, the mantis was still hiding in the lavender.  A black swallowtail egged the rue where I could see a half dozen caterpillars at various stages of development.  I saw a hummer feed so the rain must not have gotten into the sugar water.  The bracket fungus was round and glossy.  Unfortunately, the yard workers cut off all my parsley before I finished harvesting seeds.  Rain did come well after sunset.  

Storm in the night

I found the green bee again and the mantis.  I thought the Argiope had gone missing but it reappeared.  Since there were still some buds on the hibiscus, I neem-oiled it some more.  In doing so, I discovered a scary form hanging in the rue. I believe it was the shed exoskeleton of an assassin bug, possibly a wheelbug.

After dark, I heard thunder, wind, and rain.  That won't be good for the neem oil,or the barkbutter balls.  Because the birds disappeared, i put out barkbutter balls in addition to the suet.  I saw a Carolina wren make off with one of those.  Hummers found their feeder, eventually, after an inspection of the barkbutter balls.  

 

Green bee!

A male cardinal fed a fledgling that still had a dark beak.  I got both birds separately but not the tender moment.  I went after spider mites with neem oil and surprised a small brown mantis on the lavender.  I wonder if it was eating them?  

A cicada was floating on its back and when I fished it out, it proved quite alive and clingy.  My best guess is Megatibicen auletes.  It's the largest N. American cicada and I know I've heard them. I also evicted a frog.  A palamedes swallowtail teased me but never landed.  A summer azure flitted past the mountain mint and kept going.  

But then I found a bright green bee on the mountain mint. Because of the spider mites, I cut away a lot of the mountain mint flowers and I also sprayed neem oil on some that remained.  I don't know if the bees and wasps will forgive me.  One flew around my head urging me to go away. 

A flicker of movement revealed an amberwing dragonfly in the grass.  The Argiope by the rue still seemed prosperous.  Because a thunderstorm was in the forecast, I put out a fresh block of suet.  Despite that, I didn't see much in the way of birds except for chickadees.  The day seemed hot and muggy, especially while I was cutting mountain mint, but it wasn't as warm as it has been and the fitful breeze came from the North.  

 

Sweaty day

 A blue jay wanted a barkbutter breakfast but was nervous about actually landing on the dish.  

I felt it was time to spray Neem oil again but when I started to spray the lavender up popped a small brown praying mantis.  I scooted it to the side and tried to interest it in another location.  Nope.  Back it went to the lavender.  I learned that mantises too young to have wings can hop.  The mantis was excellently camouflaged.

The sun transformed a perched male blue dasher into a jewel.  A fiery skipper joined the bees and wasps on the mountain mint.  Then a duskywing showed up.  Several skinks hotfooted it across the concrete.  Two black swallowtails flitted around but only one laid eggs in the rue.  A female blue dasher perched on an old gladiolus spike. 

Hummers were very thirsty.  A pair of wrens investigated.  A swallow flew by, calling,or I would have missed it.

I passed a larger slaty skimmer on my way to pick figs. There were plenty that had ripened since the rain, but even more fermenting, rotting,and growing mold .I didn't realize till I came back inside how hot I'd gotten. K said there was another praying mantis among the figs, but it was green. 

Too many photos!

I took nearly four hundred pictures today.  I was reasonably sensible in the morning.  Mostly I took the hummers and the mountain mint gang,  A Carolina wren needed some suet.  So did a pine warbler.  A bald female cardinal wanted seeds.   Another female hanging around had all her face feathers still attached.  The sky was variable, sometimes overcast, sometimes with puffs of cumulus, and sometimes almost clear.  The hibiscus and daylilies were nearly finished. 

At lunch time, a male widow skimmer found one of my perches convenient.  A hummer found a perch on a dead twig in the dogwood that let her monitor the feeder.  Later she used a hibiscus twig. 

A great black digger wasp Sphex pensylvanicus, has been dominating the mountain mint pollinators.  It's just as twitchy as the great golden digger wasps.  Another big wasp looked like a relative of a cicada killer, or a sand wasp.  

A fiery skipper and a snout butterfly managed to get some mountain mint nectar.  A hairstreak landed on a hibiscus leaf.  A summer azure settled on a violet leaf, then sampled the mountain mint.  A female bar-winged skimmer took over the perch the widow skimmer had vacated. A female pondhawk rested on the steps. I found one of the caterpillars I relocated.

Two brown thrashers were dust-bathing and possibly anting.  They had their beaks open, heads lolled back, feathers sticking up, and glassy eyes, like they were drugged.  They looked so funny I took many photos.  

An osprey flew over, then a turkey vulture passed by.  Downstream, an egret fished.  Then a brown headed nuthatch, maybe two, came for seeds.  A mockingbird landed in the oak.  I suspect it had been eating wild cherries.  A large fungus erupted next to the oak.  

As I was dripping after I got out of the pool, a praying mantis asked to use my chair to climb up onto the glass door.  For some reason it wanted to lurk at the top of the glass.  

Intermittent showers

A Carolina wren started the day with some suet, then a pine warbler wanted some.  A female bluebird was next, then a downy woodpecker pair.  Rain filled the ant moats and the pool to near their brims.  My only rescue was a scarab beetle but a green six-spotted tiger beetle rescued itself using one of my carefully placed sticks.  

When I got out of the pool I found an orange assassin bug nymph on the glass door.  A blue mud wasp fussed around the mountain mint but wouldn't pose for me.  The bees and wasps ranged widely in size.  But none were as big as the praying mantis I found lurking on the mountain mint.  I didn't see it catch anything so I don't know what size it preferred.  

I was surprised by the lack of dragonflies but finally a blue dasher landed on the feeder hanger.  It didn't stay.  A female cardinal acted like she was starting a nest in the camellia.  That would be a first.  

Toward evening, a blue jay took a turn at the suet.  I thought I saw a brown headed nuthatch but a chickadee bullied it and it didn't come back.  The overcast began to break apart into individual clouds.  

Weather went downhill

We started out at room temperature even though the sky was gray.  But that was the high point and the chill set in quickly.  Mallards napped on the dock. Something yanked berries off dogwood branches but I never got a good look at it. 

At lunchtime I discovered a Carolina mantis (Stagmomantis carolina) clinging to the wall.  K showed me a wheelbug that had gotten trapped between window and screen.  I persuaded it to leave.  By then fine rain was spitting drops on the window.  In the afternoon I had some errands but I left them too late and had to deal with real rain driven on cold wind gusts.  The few feeder birds looked miserable. 

Wet and gray

The hibiscus put forth what I expect was its last blossom.  A glass snail wanted to cross the patio for some reason.  I moved the praying mantis which appeared to still be alive though something had been chewing on a fore-wing. 

The meteorologists said the rain was the remnant of Hurricane Beta. The rain wasn't heavy and there wasn't much wind, but it just felt dank like an old cellar.  The birdbath only got half full.  Tides returned to normal and the creek was still between the bands of rain that dimpled the surface.  The cloud cover had thinned enough at dusk to show the moon.  First quarter was last night so it was overhead and waxing gibbous this evening.  

Dreary

The overcast sky began to drip in the afternoon.  It was not enough rain to water plants, just enough to wet the patio furniture and discourage insects. I did find the praying mantis lying on its side, still moving a little.  I wonder if it ate a caterpillar full of rue and was poisoned.   

A beach ball or balloon floated downstream.  A great egret fished from out floating dock and almost fell in. 

A mockingbird feasted on beautyberries while a brown thrasher went for the dogwood berries just a little higher.  Two Carolina wrens snatched bark butter balls.  Then a red bellied woodpecker took over the bark butter feeder.  Pine warblers wanted some too.  A titmouse slipped in for a share.  The downy woodpecker wasn't going to be left out.  But then they all disappeared. 

Another lovely day

It was cold overnight!  The sky was cloudless but more hazy than yesterday.  The tide was high again, but not quite as high as yesterday or the day before, probably because the wind was no longer fierce.  But as the day warmed, turtles were out on the lake logs.  I saw a few small skinks. 

Blue jays came for breakfast.  At lunch I spotted a mockingbird in the cherry tree.  Later, I think I glimpsed a brown headed nuthatch.  A Carolina wren was definitely watching me in return. 

A red spotted purple posed.  It was missing quite a few nips from its hind wings.  The bees were back with the wasps on the mountain mint.  

I found the praying mantis again.  It appeared to be ill or dying, or possibly trying to lay eggs.  It's wings were distended and it couldn't even hang on to a rose stem. 

Autumnal equinox

It was a gorgeous day, still a bit on the cool side, but a crystal blue sky full of sunshine.  The wind was down to a stiff breeze, but the tide still ran high.  The tail-less wren was up for breakfast. 

We went shopping at the garden center and came home with a purple celosia plant that had been covered with butterflies including a painted lady and several skippers.  The butterflies at home didn't react to it.  Oh well, it's pretty.  

There were butterflies at last.  A red spotted purple spent time on a daisy leaf.  Then it moved to the pool step and I thought I'd have to rescue it but it didn't fall in.  A sliver spotted skipper was interested in a rose.  A fiery skipper preferred the aster.  A monarch just kept going. 

Lots of young skinks scurried around.  I spotted one in the pool that had no tail.  It let me lift it out with no fuss.  The loss of its tail transformed its shape and may have made it harder to swim. 

A praying mantis lurked in the rue.  The usual insects sipped mountain mint.  A jumping spider was hanging out on the pool railing.  I admit I harassed it a little to see it jump.  I fished out a leaf that had an earwig drowning on it.  

The saltbush buds were about to open.  I believe we had a bald eagle fly-by.