De gustibus non est disputandum

I caught two frogs this morning but neither offered to eat the mosquito that was bugging me.  I also, gingerly, fished out some small wasps.  Something has been eating green dogwood berries and dropping bits around the skimmer.  As I came dripping up the steps, I saw a small monarch caterpillar on the butterfly milkweed.  Looking closer, I found three more.  They seemed to prefer eating flowers instead of leaves.  I suppose that could be because their mouths are still small and the petals are thinner.  Or, maybe there is some advantage to stopping the milkweed from blooming?  

A robber fly lurked on the railing.  The Argiope was missing again.  K refilled the seed feeder, changed the ant moat water, and took down the suet cage.  We could hang a second hummer feeder but that has to be changed a lot more often than suet and I'm no longer surefooted enough. 

 

Pleasant

Sunshine was reflected by the quiet creek.  K put peanuts for the crow but two squirrels squabbled over them till they were all gone.  Titmice came early for seeds.  Then, at lunch, a mockingbird was determined to get barkbutter balls, even while K was outside at the grill.  A bumblebee staggered across the patio - too much mountain mint?  I saw hummers at the feeder several times throughout the day.  Also, a monarch and a tiger swallowtail flitted past but only the fiery skippers posed.  

In the afternoon, fluffy cumulus blew past from the WNW.   A skink lay on the step wall mostly in the shade.  I discovered that the Argiope was not missing.  It had simply moved to the other side of its web.  A hummer guarded the feeder from an old hibiscus stalk.  A robber fly and a lacewing did not revive after I fished them out of the water.  I twice caught a frog but I think it was the same frog.  

 

Arthropoda

I got in a nice, early swim which was fortunate for a crane fly, a tiny moth, camel and field cricket nymphs, and a big May beetle.  A larger moth and a robber fly were, alas, defunct.  I did not rescue a Japanese beetle.  More interesting insects feasted on the mountain mint and the butterfly milkweed.  The green bee was back along with several other kinds of small bee.  A feather-legged scoliid wasp joined the thread-waisted wasps.  A Macrosiagon dimidiata beetle also fed there.  The orchard spider prospered but I fear the Argiope must have been eaten.  

The fallen cherries were fewer but instead there were hackberry leaves with what looked like shattered galls.  The beautyberry was finished blooming and was making little green berries. Two blossoms opened on the hibiscus.  As I ate supper, I could see a dragonfly in each stake, except when they dashed after prey.  The blue dasher took the shorter stake and the slaty skimmer the larger.   I took that as testimony that it was buggy outside.  Besides, it was very hot and we are at the edge of the smoke hazard from Canadian wildfires.  

Butterflies

There was no hibiscus flower today but there was a bud.  The aster was about finished blooming.  The day was still very hot.  A very large bird with dark wings and yellow feet swooped across the yard so fast that those were the only details that registered on my brain.  My first thought was a heron, but it was too dark and the only wading bird with yellow feet that I know of is a snowy egret.  So now my guess is a young eagle.  

In the water, I rescued a bunch of beetles but was too late for a wheelbug nymph and a robber fly.  A mama spider I fished out of the skimmer jumped back in.  The second time I was not gentle and her babies ran in every direction.  Speaking of spiders, the infant Argiope disappeared.  While swimming I saw a monarch descend upon the butterfly milkweed.  Later a black swallowtail wandered from bush to tree around the yard, perhaps wondering why there was no parsley this year.  A duskywing skipper nectared on the mountain mint.  

A dragonfly watched from the top of the cherry tree.  It was silhouetted so all I can say is that it had unmarked wings.  Wasps and bees worked on the mountain mint.  I was particularly happy to see the first great golden digger wasp of the season.  

 

!@#$% fly

For various reasons I didn't swim till late in the day.  There was still a lot of tree trash in the water but also some interesting critters.  I rescued a bumblebee, a mama spider, a robber fly, and numerous scarabs.  The twig I propped on the ladder gave escape to a beetle and a spider.  I found an odd-looking insect on a floating leaf.  It appeared to be a small yellow-green fly but the hind legs were splayed like a frog.  It didn't move and its wings may have been stuck to the leaf.  But as I was looking at it, a tabanid fly came at me.  It chased me dripping all the way to the house and I left puddles inside.  I have no trouble understanding why Beelzebub is demon.  And that is why I got no pictures.

Chilly water

The brown thrasher pair nibbled at the barkbutter balls K put out for the crow.  The crow did get some to.  Mockingbirds and blue jays preferred to eat from the hanging dishes but the mockingbird also ate some on the ground.  When the food on the ground was gone a brown thrasher protested.  When I got in the water, the sky had become clouded and the wind had grown stronger.  I rescued an assassin bug, a crane fly, a robber fly, a scarab beetle, a spider, and something that looked like a sawfly.  None of them hung around for a portrait.  

 

Another spider

A new, small Argiope appeared in the window next to the one I've been watching.  I don't know if it is a recent hatchling or if it is a hopeful male.  The Wikipedia article shows a male as a solid light brown, not black and yellow, so it must be a young spider.   While in the pool I rescued a young skink and a robber fly.  Another skink had already drowned, alas.  I saw the tatters of a huge web between the trees beyond the deep end.  

The male pileated visited the suet.  The barkbutter balls found favor with bluebirds, a blue jay, and titmice.  A pair of cardinals wanted seeds and she told him to wait his turn!   He looked henpecked but probably was molting.  A dragonfly perched atop the wild cherry, too far to be sure of the identity but it might have been a Needham's skimmer.  A blue dasher hung out on a bamboo stake.  The bird I thought was a Mississippi Kite soared in circles.  While photographing it I missed a possible saddlebags dragonfly that showed up as a blur on the photo.  A wasp ran around the patio which was kind of creepy.  Toward evening, an egret preened on the dock.  I saw a feather float away.  

Butterflies

The male goldfinch was back this morning.  I glimpsed a towhee for just a second.  A Carolina wren argued with a downy woodpecker but in the end they both got some suet.  A great blue heron preened on a dock post in the afternoon sun.  I didn't see any nuthatches or bluebirds till late in the day. 

The party on the mountain mint expanded to include a fiery skipper and a buckeye butterfly.  A blue dasher chaperoned.  The bee with the pantaloons was back.  A big carpenter bee showed up.  So did the first great golden digger wasp of the season.  Cicadas sang in the trees though I didn't see any.  I rescued a robber fly from drowning. 

A black swallowtail was more interested in the rue.  A Guinea paper wasp agreed, but for different reasons.   A bud on the hibiscus looked ready to open.  Unfortunately, the sawflies got way ahead of me and chewed up all the leaves and damaged many flower buds.  What I think was a tiger bee fly, Xenox tigrinus, landed on the retaining wall.  

Arthropod day

Two female pileated woodpeckers started the morning.  It appeared that the one eating suet was feeding the other, but behind the post so I couldn't be sure.  Later the nuthatches slipped between the cardinals and house finches to get seeds.  Chickadees and titmice also visited the feeders and a titmouse asserted its status.  A female bluebird noticed that I had put out fresh barkbutter balls.  A juvenile bluebird visited the seed feeder.  A crow found the mealworms that the bluebirds tossed out.  A blue jay also got into the mealworms. 

The largest Argiope spider refurbished its web in the window.  All three of the smaller ones seemed to be doing well, though the web in the aster was still fingerprint shaped, not a straight stripe like the other three made.  A dragonfly hunted from one of the perches.  It might have been a bar-winged skimmer.  Later a prince baskettail flew loops over the pool.  Pool rescues included a centipede, a mama wolf spider and babies, and a bumblebee.  I don't know if the centipede revived of became someone's lunch, but it disappeared.  When I got out of the pool, a robber fly landed on my arm.  I persuaded it to move to my left hand but that was still too close for the camera.  After a moment it flew off and I have no idea what my attraction was.  

Two duskywing skippers fed with the wasps and bees on the mountain mint.  There was at least one honeybee.  I think one bee might be a two-spotted longhorn bee.  It certainly had hairy hind legs.  A large wasp with a striped abdomen That I think was a horse guard wasp Stictia carolina also fed on the mountain mint.  While I'm delighted that they attack biting flies, it is concerning that one expects to find prey here. 

This year, the gladiolus flowering has been more sporadic than I remember from other years.  A few fresh flowers opened on the butterfly milkweed but there was still no sign of caterpillars.  I just noticed that the blueberries ripened before the wild cherries.  The temperature peaked at 93° then yo-yoed with the clouds and sun.  Twice, raindrops spattered me when I went outside but didn't wet anything for more than a minute.  

Elusive butterflies

It was another scorcher so I swam in the morning.  Floating in the water were a queen ant,  a robber fly, a firefly, a woodlouse hunter spider, a largus bug, and many more ants, flies, little wasps, and mulch roaches.  I thought the spider was a goner but when I next checked it had disappeared.  I complained because there weren't any butterflies or dragonflies, but they appeared in the afternoon.  I think I captured a wasp killing another insect, but it might have been mating.  

A blue jay came for barkbutter balls and brown headed nuthatches for seeds.  The sakaki was nearly finished blooming.  A great crested flycatcher made a commotion chasing something through the oak leaves.  A skink wanted to get behind my chair and made a detour through the grass.  A female downy had a go at the suet.  A pair of geese with three half-grown goslings paddled upstream while a fish jumped in the background. 

A tiger swallowtail and a dark butterfly proved impossible to photograph.  Wasps and bees were more cooperative.  A very dark skipper visited the mountain mint.  I could see insects going to the asters but I couldn't tell what they were.  One might have been a Southern purple mint moth and another some kind of beetle.  Prince baskettail dragonflies patrolled the hazy sky.  A different dragonfly perched on a dead twig at the top of the wild cherry.  And a Needham's skimmer used one of the perches.  

Mosquitoey

There was some rain late yesterday and the day was cloudy, humid, and buggy.  The hummer feeder was empty and a fresh one not out yet when a male ruby throat stopped for a drink.  How frustrating for the bird and me!  K hung the fresh feeder but the male did not return.   Female hummers approved.  

I expected more dragonflies than the one that perched briefly.  A robber fly lurked on the railing, looking like a Hulk-size mosquito.  I believe it was an Eastern hammertail (Efferia aestuans).  A blue mud wasp fidgeted around the mountain mint.  I saw leaf-cutter bees and other wasps, including great golden digger wasps.  

Pool rescues included a fig beetle and a green metallic tiger beetle that had the nerve to bite me.  In revenge, I made the tiger beetle pose.  Technically, it was a six-spotted tiger beetle, (Cicindela sexguttata).  I also hauled out a huge leaf-footed bug although it was a goner. 

A mosquito got into the house.  After buzzing around, it lit on the bug repellent!  And there it sat for a couple of minutes enjoying the smell of camphor, I guess.  It certainly told us the worth of that spray.  Sunset was very pink. 

White breasted nuthatches

Under a gray sky the creek was flat and still.  A song sparrow came early to poke around the birdbath.  Soon the goldfinches arrived, then the nuthatches.  After breakfast, the sky began to clear. 

The Prince Baskettail Epitheca princeps  dragonfly I found yesterday had disappeared so I don't know if it revived or if it was recycled.  The sun helped me get better pictures of the spiny-backed orbweaver which was clearly dead since it had not moved. Other living dragonflies took up their duties.  Slaty skimmers perched and blue dashers obelisked.  I watched something tiny and white that I wasn't sure was alive or just drifting on the breeze till a blue dasher snatched it out of the air.  Higher in the air, a Carolina saddlebags patrolled.  A living prince baskettail was up there too. 

The usual suspects crowded the mountain mint.  I do love watching the great golden digger wasps fidget and twitch as they feed.  They also pose nicely.  One landed on the black feeder hanger and turned all gold against that background.  It only wanted to wash its face.  I noticed that some wasps have hammerheads like the shark.  

The ailanthus moth was back along with fiery skippers and a red-banded hairstreak, Calycopis cecrops.  There were lots of flat-tailed leafcutter bees.  What I thought were small sand wasps were feather legged scoliids.  The bee with woolly legwarmers is Melissodes.  The solid black bee is a carpenter-mimic leafcutter bee, Megachile xylocopoides.  A green Junebug scarab beetle flew up into the maple.  Turns out it's actually a green fig beetle.   A big robber fly landed beside me with its catch.  A skink with a replacement tail marched across the step.  Later a skinklet with a red head and blue tail came back the other way. 

A hummer gave the goldfinches a scolding.   She found a perch in the wild cherry.  A blue jay lurked in the dogwood. 

Overcast

The goldfinches wanted an early breakfast, or maybe they just wanted to eat in peace.   A half dozen hibiscus flowers brightened the day.  Hummers found their feeder.  I located three baby Argiope spiders today, two of them only inches apart.  They were looking more like adults than last week even though they didn't seem bigger.  The female downy pecked crumbs from the barkbutter dish because I didn't want to put out more while rain was predicted. 

With only a light breeze, the air was stifling even without the sun.  As I headed down the steps I saw a duskywing in the mountain mint.  On my way back, I surprised a skink.  While swimming, I rescued another mama wolf spider with babies and a robber fly with white on the abdomen.I don't know if I rescued the same one twice or if there were two.  The same dragonfly hung out on the perch by my window all day and was still there until it got too dark to see.   I'm pretty sure it was a female bar-winged skimmer. 

A couple of swallowtails danced together and at least one looked like a palamedes.  A hummer that appeared at the same time was about the same size.  I glimpsed what I took to be a jellyfish bobbing in the creek.  A different dragonfly with a dusty blue abdomen perched on a taller bamboo stake.  The brown headed nuthatch returned at supper time.  I have seen no goslings or ducklings this year.  The goose excluder certainly worked!  But not even out on the creek have I seen the usual little convoys.  The rain never arrived.  Firefly season seemed to be over, unless the drought cut it short.  

Monarch

The weather report claimed almost two inches of rain fell, but the bucket I left out had more than that.  I believe it was watering the blueberries that did the trick.  A monarch visited the butterfly milkweed in the morning.  When I went over to the aster to see what had become of the camouflage loopers, I startled the bullfrog.  It dived and I did not see it again.  I rescued another robber fly and some more beetles.  The sawfly larva denuded the hibiscus leaves because I hesitated to spray when rain was predicted.  And the Japanese beetles ate holes in the petals. 

Four or more fiery skippers fussed over the mountain mint at mid day.  I saw a couple of skinks.  A female widow skimmer buzzed the mountain mint repeatedly.  Birds were scarce since I was reluctant to put out food in case of more rain.  But a Carolina wren foraged here and there.  A few fat drops of rain fell on the way home from my meeting.  A female blue dasher perched in the front yard.  A twelve spotted skimmer worked the upper air.  The crape myrtlle was blooming, as was the lantana and the leatherleaf clematis.  Two peppers were getting big. 

Mydas fly

The goldfinches couldn't wait for the sunflower seeds to ripen.  Two osprey soared in circles.  A female hummer came for an evening meal.  She was antsy and wouldn't settle on a perch.  A downy woodpecker decided I was harmless. 

I saw more butterflies today - skippers, snouts, and a red admiral.  Lots of wasps and bees gathered on the mountain mint, also a wasp-mimic mydas fly.  I rescued a robber fly along with several beetles. 

A damselfly with orange eyes lurked beside the water.  Orange bluet, Enallagma signatum, seems the best fit for identification.  In the evening, I glimpsed dragonflies, but they were high and moving fast.  The smoke haze didn't help. 

The orchard spider still had its web slung from the dragonfly perch.  It had caught a fly, I think.  I tried to catch a firefly with its light on, but all I got were blurs.  

Rescues

The juvenile cardinal was back.  Red hibiscus and blue morning glories both bloomed but not together.  The creek was flat under the hazy sky. 

I sprayed the aphids with soapy water and wiped them off the milkweed.  I also sprayed the spider mites on the rosemary.  It remains to be seen if that did any good.  While I was over there, I saw skinks in the water and rescued three of them, all bluetails.  I also found a dead one in the skimmer and later another skink swimming.  The skimmer contained three frogs in addition to the skink corpse.  Several beetles, crickets, a robber fly, and a black bee got a second chance at life.  

A blue dasher watch my rescue operations.  A megachile leaf cutter bee enjoyed the mountain mint. 

Camera trouble

I couldn't get the camera to turn on.  So from memory, there were lots of dragonflies.  I rescued a threadwaisted wasp, a horntail, and a green metallic tiger beetle that was rafting on a leaf.  The last I saw, the beetle was still clinging to the leaf.  There were still blueberries to pick but the heat and humidity were awful.  A mating pair of robber flies landed on my berry bucket.  

Hot and dry.

The afternoon thunderstorm never materialized.  A hummer was thirsty.  Bees were too. 

I fished a ball of furious motion out of the water and it resolved into a bee and a robber fly.  The bee flew off ant the fly just sat still on the concrete.  I don't know if the struggle in the water was each insect trying to use the other as a float, or if the fly had attacked the bee.  I also fished out an assassin bug nymph but it was dead.  

Hot wind

The wind gusts were a lot stronger than the weather service claimed.  And because the wind came from the Southwest, the water was pushed out of the creek.  Probably the wind was flooding Back Bay and Pungo. 

A brown headed nuthatch was up early to get a turn at the feeder.   The hibiscus flowers were already open.  I swapped out the hummer feeder but the hummingbird visits were very short, making me wonder if the sugar-water had gone bad. 

The butterfly milkweed produced more flowers.  Something big banged into the window, maybe a sphinx moth or a cicada killer?   At least four all-black carpenter bees fed on the mountain mint.  Leafcutter bees and others were there too.  A black swallowtail egged the rue.  A grown skink crossed the patio several times. 

I rescued a couple of click beetles, a firefly, too many brown May beetles and black ground beetles to count, leaf hoppers, and a half-drowned robber fly.   I also fished out a drowned stink bug and a damselfly.  A live damselfly perched on the pool rim.

Something yellow flew or blew up from the beautyberry into the dogwood.  I don't know if it was a tiger swallowtail, a goldfinch, or a dead leaf.  However, later the goldfinch pair landed on the ant moat.  They were gone before the camera was ready.  And I did see a tiger swallowtail yesterday.  

A beetle had gotten itself into the watering can.  I was able to extract it with a long grass-like leaf.  The overcast formed nodules of cloud in a pattern that looked like a botryoidal mineral deposit.  Tropical Storm Colin was not to blame because it dwindled to a depression and wandered off to sea. 

Rain at last

The morning sun was pretty fierce but thick clouds kept rolling North so the UV exposure was intermittent.  I didn't see any wildlife till I headed out for a swim in the late morning.  The female common whitetail was back. A robber fly had seized what looked like a housefly.  Yay for insect predators! 

The maroon daylily had seven flowers.  I rescued two mama spiders each with a pearl full of eggs bigger than the mother.  They resisted rescue, but they were sitting on the handle of the skimmer basket so I insisted.  Leafcutter bees and other insects fed on the butterfly milkweed flowers that were half hidden by the mountain mint.

Meanwhile the clouds were getting more frequent, darker, and more ominous.  I saw a dragonfly with spotted wings zip overhead.  A wasp approached from beneath the foam of a spittlebug on a mountain mint stalk.  I don't know if it was after the larva, or what.  The all-black bee reappeared on the milkweed.  A bumblebee visited too, and a little sweat bee. 

A male goldfinch sought a drink from the ant moat.  The water was a good inch below the rim - remember this.  An egret stalked upstream. That caused me to notice that the sassafrass came back. 

Yesterday someone predicted a "drenching thunderstorm," a meteorological label I had not heard before.  The prognosticator was off by a day, but this afternoon we did indeed have a drenching thunderstorm.  It saved me from having to water.  It refilled the ant moats and washed the guano off the mountain mint that sprouted too close to the barkbutter dish.  

Speaking of which, after the rain passed a female red bellied woodpecker reluctantly ate mushy barkbutter balls.  A blue jay followed.  I missed catching bluebirds, a Carolina wren, and a brown headed nuthatch on camera. Hummers visited but stayed on the far side of the feeder.  

In the evening I startled a mockingbird.  A snail on the patio headed for cover.  A small slug had ascended the wall part way.  I began to feel bugged and went inside to type this while fireflies signaled outside the window.