Fungi

When I got back in the late morning, a flock of crows were attacking the magnolia next door.  I think they were after the berries.  After they left, I took a look around the yard to see what the rain Monday might have brought up.  Small white balls might have been puffballs or simply the first stage of something else.  In any case, something had dug them up.  Do we have a truffle seeking squirrel? Gill mushrooms and a decapitated stinkhorn grew in the mulch.  The mushrooms may have been what the white balls turn into. 

A Carolina wren scolded from the crape myrtle.  The mahonia was in bloom and so was the fatsia. The fig had lost most of its leaves.   A grasshopper perched on the window.  Turtles were out on the lake above the dam.  An egret came and went quickly. 

Glorious day!I

It was cool (70s) and a bit breezy with intense sunshine in a sky so clear it was purple rather than blue. Humidity was only a bad memory.   Titmice again mobbed the seed feeder.  Hummers were happy to get fresh juice. 

When I went to pick figs, though most were rotting from the rain, I saw a common whitetail dragonfly that evaded the camera.  A green russula mushroom popped up under the fig tree.  Wasps, including a hornet and a cicada killer, feasted on the fermenting figs.  Some could not fly straight afterward and banged into the wall.  I saw a green lacewing lying in wait on a fig leaf.  A squirrel also came for figs. 

A half dozen yellow Genista broom moth caterpillars sheltered in a web while they ate the wild indigo in the front yard. Not far away, a jumping spider lurked on another indigo leaf.  Around on the West side of the house, leaf cutter bees had scalloped the redbud's leaves. 

As usual, a blue dasher guarded the pool. There were other dragonflies around, but they didn't pose.  A hackberry emperor butterfly did, very nicely. Wind and rain had raised toe water level in the pool and filled it with pine needles and other debris.  I caught a frog hanging out by the skimmer, but it refused to pose.  And I rescued tiger, click, scarab, and common ground beetles, but not much else.  The tide was very high for a first quarter moon.  An egret monitored the dam outfall.

Drying out

The squirrels were hungry but also romantically inclined.  Cardinals also were courting.  And the hummer was guzzling at her feeder.  In between drinks she sat in stakeout in the dogwood. 

Titmice got busy at lunch time. By mid afternoon there was even some muted sunlight. I thought I should clean out the bluebird box but when I extracted the nest there was an egg in it.  I probably waited too long. 

A few mushrooms popped up in the mulch in response to the rain.  There were nubbins of fruit on the fig tree.  I spotted a small damselfly with a red thorax that I'm guessing was an Eastern fortkail.  A male goldfinch landed on the feeder hanger but didn't stay.

A yellow crowned night heron prowled around the dam outfall.  The hummer still guarded her feeder and chased off a male.  She also sampled the lavender.   A titmouse fledgling perched in the dogwood to get fed.  A female bluebird came for some mealworms as the light was fading.

Morning sun, afternoon rain

A leaf-footed bug landed on the window after breakfast.  Egrets fished in the dam outfall but elsewhere the creek was quiet.  A great blue heron showed up later.  Doves foraged under the feeder.  A Carolina wren poked its head in then disappeared.  The morning glories didn't close till noon.  Something hopped around the cherry and never let me get a clear photo but I think it was a white eyed vireo.

The tide was high at mid day.  The same or another argiope appeared in the same part of the spartina as the one I saw back in August.  I saw a cloudless sulphur and a red spotted purple flitted all over. Something else zipped past leaving an impression of eyespots.  I rescued a skipper from the water.  Also a spider, beetles, crickets, bristletails, and a two lined spittlebug.  Orange aphids infested one stalk of milkweed.  Despite the chewed leaves I could not find caterpillars.  One half grown black swallowtail caterpillar was finishing off a nearly denuded parsley. 

A sizeable gray russula mushroom popped up under the hackberry.  Speaking of which, I tasted a hackberry berry and it was kind of sweet and gritty like a pear.  A few stalks of goldenrod were blooming.

After lunch, a titmouse joined the regulars on the feeder.  The rain that had been threatening for hours finally arrived at 4pm.  It did not last too long.  But it got birds excited and I saw some kind of warbler with a yellow breast, possibly a yellow breasted chat.

The sun reappeared but not for long.  The sky was overcast when the sun set. 

Cloudy

I was gone all morning.  At lunch time, blue jays zipped around the yard. A fledgling cardinal discovered beauty berries. Egrets patrolled the creek.

A Carolina wren thought about mealworms but scared off.  A dove hung around the mulch.  A skink made it to the rosemary before I got the camera on.   I toured the spider webs.  The argiope caught a monarch butterfly.  The aranea barn spider moved to above the spinyback orbweaver which was repairing its web.  I did not see the smaller spinyback.  Some fiery skippers worked on the lantana.  I also saw a cloudless sulphur and an orange butterfly. Birds nest fungus popped up in the mulch all around.  The mushrooms I saw before were gone but a new one showed up out front. 

I rescued a mama wolf spider, a stink bug, an assassin bug nymph, a cricket, and a couple of beetles.  Carpenter bees visited the rosemary.  Blue jays argued over an acorn and a red bellied woodpecker complained.  A couple of great blue herons argued over the egrets' fishing hole while the egrets ignored them.  A soaring osprey made a U-turn and disappeared behind the trees.  There were more clouds than sun in the afternoon though it was warm enough.  Sunset was spectacular with fractal clouds catching color.  And I saw fireflies!

Cool

At times it looked like rain and then the sky would clear completely.  Ever since the flooding rains, the creek has been a milky brown.  Egrets continued to haunt the dam outfall but today they had to compete with a great blue heron.  A dove foraged below the feeder. 

When we got home, a buzzard buzzed the house.  It or another harassed a great blue heron at the dam outfall.  Mallards paddled around.  The yellow crowned night heron came back in the late afternoon. 

A couple of monarch butterflies dueled over the milkweed.  Three big spiderwebs protect the yard.  The argiope built in front over the dry stream.  On the West, a barn spider used the bathroom window.  And further along toward the bench, a very strange web appeared to be hyphenated with thick and thin areas and center rays.  It was the work of a spinybacked orbweaver Gasteracantha cancriformis.  White mushrooms popped up in a couple of clusters near the webs.  I found a couple of potter wasp pots on the wall - much more elegant than mud dauber wasp nests. 

Sunshine!

The egrets were back at the dam.  Ne squirrel definitely had a warble.  A fine new bird I'm pretty sure was a red eyed vireo appeared in the cherry.  It kept flying at a branch and swinging under neath.  I wonder if it was after a caterpillar?  The light was bad and the bird active so the photo is fuzzy. 

A female downy woodpecker visited the feeder along with the regulars and titmice.  Blue jays stayed up in the trees.  Birds began to show interest in the beautyberries.  In the late afternoon I spotted a yellow crowned night heron on the dock, but it spotted me too.  A flock of gulls circled overhead.  I heard a wren scold. 

The perplexing bumblebee was still visiting flowers, including zinnias.  Two of the black swallowtail caterpillars looked ready to pupate.  Lots of snails of all sizes clung to the pool coping.  I found a very dead cicada and thought I could still hear live one.  An argiope spider appeared in the front yard over the stone stream bed.  Yet another mushroom popped up in the vine flowerpot.  No wonder the vines have been looking sad. There were still fireflies in the evening.

Rain

There was steady rain punctuated by downpours.  It did not deter hungry hummers, titmice, or blue jays.  Yesterday's mushrooms expanded into parasols. They looked like aminitas.

At lunch time the rain slacked off but never quite quit.  A very yellow bumblebee (possibly bombus perplexus) worked on the rosemary.  A slug climbed the glass.  A great and a snowy egret haunted the dam outfall. 

As I drove down 264 a little after 6pm, the crows converged despite the rain.  They were between the Military Highway overpass and Broad Creek.  

Warming up

When I got up, the creek was a mirror of warm colors.  The tide was still running high and egrets were still fishing at the dam outfall.  A great blue heron stood statue-like on the bulkhead across the creek while Canada geese moved in.  And a night heron stood on a boathouse with wings cupped.  A female goldfinch visited the hummer feeder for a drink.  Hummers did too.  Butterflies flitted too fast for me, but I saw skippers, snouts, a cloudless sulphur, and a black swallowtail. 

The sky was a clear blue but the wind was very gusty in the afternoon, and seemed to change direction unpredictably.  I was too late to save a blue tailed skink, but rescued a handful of black field crickets and a couple of ground beetles.  A few bees, butterflies and dragonflies braved the wind: a female blue dasher, a male slaty skimmer, and this tattered variegated fritillary.

The milkweed began to recover from the caterpillars' appetites.  However the marsh fleabane was uprooted by the storm.  A rosette of bracket polypore fungus popped up in the grass after the storm, probably from a dead oak root. 

There were fireflies blinking away at dusk.  I don't remember seeing them this late in the year before.

Sunny day

There was a nice breeze and it was cooler, but humid when I picked blueberries.  They were fat from the rain.  A duskywing discovered the opening sunflowers.  The grass was full of inky cap mushrooms and a big bracket was expanding where the front yard oak used to be.

There were more butterflies today than I remember seeing this year thus far.  Tiger swallowtails, an Eastern comma, and something in a dogwood that I didn't recognize, all got away without a photo.   I rescued a gorgeous metallic blue-green bee from the water but it flew off immediately.  Blue dasher and amberwing dragonflies were more cooperative.  A Hentz jumping spider landed on me and posed. 

The goldfinches visited separately.  A hummer had a good meal at the feeder and later it, or another, examined the sunflowers, but took alarm at the camera.  Blue jays were around and one left me a lovely feather.  I heard a mockingbird and a woodpecker but didn't catch sight of them.  A male brown headed cowbird landed on the feeder but didn't stay.  A dove hopped up the steps and had a good drink while we sat there.  It was interesting to watch it swallow without lifting its head as other birds must. At supper, a Carolina wren visited the seed feeder, ignoring the mealworms I had just put out, and intimidating birds twice its size.  A downy woodpecker also wanted seeds.

Misty

As the light grew stronger, the fog thickened.  The air was warm and wet.  Egrets came flying from the North about 7am, followed by cormorants.  The cormorants flapped at least twice as often as the egrets.  Somewhat later a woodpecker shot across my field of view. A little after 8am a flock of cormorants drove fish upstream.

Chickadees and squirrels were out and about.  A handful of hooded mergansers plunged into the creek but the light was too dim for the distance.  Cardinals and house finches showed up.  The Carolina wrens were singing behind the house.  Lots of birds were flitting about the bushes, including a tufted titmouse and a yellow rumped warbler. 

Around 11am three or four juncos poked through the mulch along with a white throat.  A blue jay and a couple of titmice hung around the edge of the yard.  The rain just dripped.

The rain trailed off in the afternoon and the sun was almost visible briefly.  About 4pm, a great blue heron perched on the dock bench while hooded mergansers paddled around.  The water was quite placid but the light was low  And, of course, there were mallards and Canada geese.  A marigold was still blooming in the warmth.  And there were mushrooms. 

Sunny and still

A white throated sparrow and a dove showed up at breakfast.  Later, lots of chickadees were joined on the feeder by a titmouse.  Finches and cardinals hung around, along with a blue jay.  Squirrels frisked and chased.  Geese disturbed the creek.

There was a heavy dew overnight and the air stayed damp with no wind, so surfaces didn't dry out.  Nothing ate the mealworms I put out yesterday and they may have gotten soggy.  When I went down to the dock in the late afternoon, the bench felt damp and cold.  On the way down hill, I played with some puffballs trying to capture the green smoke. 

Mallards and hooded mergansers were out on the water and cormorants flew over the creek.  There were five males and two females.  I saw one male catch a fish.  Two goldfinches in winter drab hopped around a branch overhanging the creek.  A muscovy duck hung out with geese in the neighbors' yard.  When I came back up, the male downy was on the suet make soft keening cries.  I hope he finds a mate! Streaky clouds obscured the sinking sun but I didn't stay to see it set.

Blue sky

Fluffy cumulus decorated an intense blue, occasionally giving relief from the sun.  I rescued a couple of spiders and saw a very delicate crab spider that needed no help.  A glass snail was all tucked in on the edge of the pool.  A cicada was floating but something had eaten most of it.  A couple of cast leaf-footed exoskeletons also floated, as did many acorns  A skink with a very short tail dashed away from me.  A blue-fronted dancer damsel fly rested in the sun.  Bumblebees and yellow jackets were hungry.

I only saw the regulars on the feeder.  The mushroom under the oak has grown. A sizable spider moved into the space outside the kitchen window, probably to take advantage of the light inside attracting bugs. 

Gray sky cleared

At least the windows were not fogged at breakfast.  The regulars, a titmouse, and the hummers were hungry.  A squirrel went by with a large raw area on its right side between front and rear leg.  I suspect it was bitten by a warble fly and then scratched.  Another squirrel carried a large green pecan off, the second I've seen this week doing that.  A gleam of sun came through around 9am but it didn't last.

By lunch the clouds had lumped up and  the sun was bright.  A very tiny skink tagged its tail across the patio.  A female goldfinch watched from the cherry.  A pair of doves poked through the mulch.

I rescued two blue tailed skinks from the water and K saved another.  I also fished out a lacewing and a cicada, but it seemed dead or dying.  A fresh mushroom popped up under the oak.  A spindly legged true bug was waiting for me on the glass door.  A hummer watched the feeder from the dogwood, when not drinking.  The other birds were more wary. 

Fluffy cumulus clouds flowed East on a gusty wind while higher, thinner clouds moved more slowly.  Just about the time the sky was clear, the sun disappeared behind a low bank of cloud on the Western horizon.  That was around 6:30pm.  At 7:30 the cloud wall hit and the power went down and up twice.  So I shut down the computer and found myself in pitch darkness except for lightning.  I just made it out to close the feeder when the rain began to hammer.   The whole storm lasted about 20 minutes then grumbled away East.

Wet

The only rain this morning was blowing off the trees but everything was dripping.  A brown thrasher forged in the mulch at breakfast, followed by a female towhee.  I had only seen the male for at least a month.

A fine mist began to fall at lunch.  The wren hatchlings were louder today and their parents cursed when I got near the birdhouse.  A hummer rejected the juice in the feeder so I took it down to clean.  A dragonfly clung to the wall of our house. The air outside felt dank and mushrooms were popping up. 

The regulars competed for feeder space because the number of chickadees increased.  I think I glimpsed a Carolina wren on the feeder too.  Meanwhile the house wrens relayed bugs to the family.

A fox went by on the far side of the pool, too fast for me to pick up the camera. 

Cold and bright

Again, there was frost on the mulch, but no ice.  Pelicans and gulls and some small ducks were up early but the songbirds slept in.  Eventually the regulars were joined by juncos and white throats.  Robins and blue jays showed up too.  And a downy was back.  A finch drinking from the birdbath looked a bit crusty around the eye.  I hope it's not another case of conjunctivitis.

A female bufflehead and several cormorants fished at lunch.  Finches and chickadees came back to the feeders.

The day got quite warm and we went walking at Lake Lawson.  We saw more mushrooms than birds, though we did see a big nest up in a half-dead pine.  Juncos, white throats. and a female cardinal were grabbing last minute supper when we got in.  Sunset was streaky orange and the moon flaunted its craters. 

Fog burned off

It was misty over the creek but an absolute whiteout on the Lesner Bridge.  By my return, the fog had lifted but I could see it as a solid layer over the Bay.  It was all gone by 10:30am.  Finches came to the feeder early.  Later it was chickadees.

After I got all my errands done, I sat outside and heard lots but saw little.  An egret circled over the trees.  A kingfisher zoomed downstream.  Hooded mergansers sailed by on the glassy creek.  Black swallow caterpillars were still growing and bees were busy.  The puffballs doubled in size. 

At lunch a crow chased off a red tailed hawk but I couldn't get the camera operating fast enough. The sky stayed clear through sunset.  At dusk, a katydid showed up on the window along with the ubiquitous little beige moths.  Overall, it was very pleasant with a light breeze. 

White sky

The first pelican of fall sailed upstream at breakfast. Not much else happened in the morning.

In the afternoon, birds flitted all around the edges of the yard while only chickadees ventured out to the feeder.  A brown creeper hitched its way up and around the oak trunk.  It was two far to get a good photo of such a small bird.  A yellow rumped warbler landed among red dogwood leaves.  Mallards dabbled in the creek while a flock of cormorants came over the dam from the lake.  Gulls were wheeling over the lake as well. 

The ugly lump in the grass softened enough that I broke it open and proved it was a puffball. The day was warm but I felt chilled, perhaps by the lack of sunshine. The overcast showed pleating at times.  A basilica orb weaver left a strand of pearl egg cases dangling in a different dogwood. 

The nearly full moon looked misty as it rose. 

Fair weather for voters

Honking geese flew in and splashed down on the creek.  A honeybee sunned on the feeder post.  Gulls circled very high over the creek.  Egrets hung around the dock.  Mallards and friends paddled and dabbled in the creek. I think one was a Northern pintail duck.  I think I heard a kingfisher, but far off. 

At lunchtime a dove arrived.  Then four blue jays appeared and one tried the beauty berries.  A red bellied woodpecker investigated the dogwood.  A hawk hung around the creek.  A flock of cormorants drove fish upstream, then down. A great blue heron stalked around the dock across the creek - the tide was very low.  The heron caught at least one fish. 

The yo-yo temperature has the Carolina jessamine blooming.  I hope it saves some buds for spring!  Some small honey-brown mushrooms popped up since yesterday.  And a mahogany bracket is growing where the front yard oak was.  Some kind of big raptor sailed overhead, maybe a juvenile eagle?  Those ubiquitous little beige moths flitted everywhere.  The sky got fairly white as the afternoon wore on and the wind got colder.