2 too big spiders

A Carolina wren visited at breakfast.  After stuffing its crop with seeds, it perched on a chair back to peer in at me.  A string of ten geese paddled upstream.  Today was considerably warmer and I would have gone swimming if the pool had not been covered.  I went outside hoping to see birds eating beautyberries but instead I was surprised by a skink that dashed across the pool cover and then hid under it.  I could hear birds but they were shy about coming into view.  Asiatic dayflowers were still blooming.  The Christmas fern made spores.  

I wandered over to the fig patch and discovered two large webs.  The owner of the lower one scuttled into hiding, sort of, as a ball on the underside of the gutter.  The one in the middle of the higher web ignored me.  I believe they were some kind of Araneus orb weavers.  They were in a good location to catch mosquitoes, I discovered.  After I circled back I saw what I thought was a young eagle.  

Lovely day

Another summer day strayed into October, so I went swimming again and the cool, clear water sparkled.  A blue tailed skink perched on the handle of the skimmer waiting for rescue.  Its tale was not blue from the cold water but I let it warm up instead of posing.  I rescued some black ground beetles and a small brown click beetle.  A fat, tan spider lurked on the one remaining rescue twig.  When I came back with the camera it was hidden behind the stick.  A drowned wasp or bee floated amid bubbles.  Another big web was going up between the house and the dogwood where the birdhouse hangs.  

Chickadees came for seeds, blue jays chattered in the trees, and I heard a rattle that might have been a woodpecker.  The saltbush was budding and the milkweed seeds bobbed in the breeze.  

Summer's lease

In Sonnet 18 Shakespeare wrote, "And summer’s lease hath all too short a date" which always comes to my mind at the autumnal equinox which occurs a little after 8pm here which is 1am Wednesday at the prime meridian.  Today was mostly cloudy, warm, and intermittently breezy.  I swam in the late morning and rescued two ground beetles and a two-lined spittlebug,  Afterward as I dripped, the sun found a rent in the cloud cover.  I saw a dark butterfly that never alighted and a Southern purple mint moth that posed.  A small skink flowed down the step.  Chickadees and house finches visited the seed feeder.  A squirrel had an itch.  In addition to the beautyberries, dogwood berries and hackberries were ripe and waiting for migrating birds.   

Hot sun

Thinking that the sun would be less intense this close to the equinox, I didn't wait for shade.  The larger bullfrog awaited me in the skimmer.  It acted lethargic but eventually it hopped off my palm and into the water.  I didn't see it again.   A skink rafted on a sinking leaf and I assisted it onto a rescue stick so it could have the satisfaction of saving itself.  A field cricket was also rafting so I set its leaf raft on the concrete.  I also fished out a couple of black ground beetles and a mint moth.  Something tickled my back and after brushing it off  my skin, I saw it was a very tiny spider.  The long-haired yellow cat sneaked past while I was swimming and I yelled at it.  An egret flew behind the trees and something that might have been a kite soared in the hazy blue sky.  The seed eaters were all I saw at the feeders.  Squirrels were busy up in the trees.  The only photos I got were plants.  

Steamy

A thunderstorm arrived at midnight with bright flashes.  It brought a needed soaking rain but also stifling humidity.  I wonder if it diluted the hummingbird juice because I didn't see any of them.  The dragonfly nymph appeared to have died in the night.  The frog was back in the skimmer again and eluded me again. I rescued a paper wasp that was swimming hard and a yellow jacket that may have drowned.

A few butterflies flew across the yard but only a cabbage white was identifiable.  A Carolina wren was hungry.  A skink was cautious.  It might have been the one I rescued yesterday.  I found four monarch caterpillars on the milkweed.  A couple of black swallowtail caterpillars ate parsley stalks.  A drizzle began in the late afternoon and the sky darkened early.  

Dragonfly nymph

I found the monarch caterpillar again and it was growing fast and dumping fress.  A couple of black swallowtail caterpillars ate parsley stems.  A small sulphur butterfly alighted briefly.  I also saw a red spotted purple. When I went for a very late swim, there was a bigger frog with a green jaw under the lid of the skimmer.  It jumped down into the basket full of leaves so I let it stew there for a while.  When I lifted the basket to empty it, the frog jumped into the pool.  I saw it a couple more times but then it disappeared so I think it must have jumped out.  Just in case, I checked the skimmer again and here came a young skink swimming out,  I carried it out onto the patio and took photos.  

I also encountered a dragonfly nymph, perhaps the same one I've seen before.  This time it obligingly clung to the side of the pool steps where I could photograph it.  A kingfisher landed on one of the pilings but didn't stay long.  The Berkley's polypore looked bigger. The hibiscus bloomed again.  The beautyberries were colorful.  A lot of cloud cover and a North wind kept the temperature down but the air was humid.  

 

Hot sun

Today got a lot warmer.  There were clouds and some haze but mostly sunshine.  My morning was taken up with meeting the mayor.  After lunch, I sat outside and saw a blue dasher dragonfly and a damselfly landed by my foot.  Some butterflies did not cooperate but I found a tiny caterpillar on the milkweed.  Caterpillars were deserting the parsley because it was all eaten.  I went swimming after 4pm for shade.  A small frog let me lift it out onto the pavement.  I also rescued two wasps, a spider, and a May beetle.  Hummers visited the feeders.  I saw two skinks.  One climbed the cedar tree and the other climbed the retaining wall.  An egret landed by the dock.  

Chases

The hibiscus bloomed like a firecracker for Labor Day and the weather was perfect.  Between the drought and the recent yo-yo temperatures, leaves looked burnt, not just autumnal.  The parsley was overrun with caterpillars.  A strange little plant with pink flowers popped up beside the birdbath.  The tentative ID was swamp loosestrife.  

This skink chased another across the steps.  One hummer chased another multiple times to protect her feeder.  I chased a small frog and sent it out of the pool.  Alas, I also found a drowned skink, a dead frog, and a couple of soggy crickets.  I did save a beetle.  A Carolina wren preened on a dogwood branch but too many twigs were in the way for the camera to focus.

National Mushroom Month

I had a meeting Tuesday evening and I forgot to post when I got home. The creek was quiet with a hint of Autumn.  It was humid and there was a little water in the birdbath.  There was another hibiscus flower on September 1st which I think is the latest ever.  A frog entertained me.  The polypore under the oak tree emerged and began to grow.  Hummers visited their feeders.  More beautyberries reddened.  The Nature Conservancy shared photos of fungi.  

Wednesday, I was busy morning and afternoon and meanwhile the temperature got into the high 90s so I swam late. I believe I glimpsed frogs on the concrete walkway around the deep end but, if so, they disappeared.  However, I found two skinks that had more-or-less rescued themselves.  An adult had wedged its toes into the crack under the coping but couldn't negotiate the overhang.  I gave it a gentle boost.  The other was half grown with a blue tail and had found one of the twigs I left for rescue purposes.  It only needed a little lift. A mosquito bothered me for a while and I may have killed it.  A couple of black beetles needed rescue and I found another pink and green caterpillar drowned.  Hummers and the male goldfinch and the seed-eating regulars visited.  In one day, the Berkley's polypore had doubled in size.  

Hibiscus blossom

I forgot to make an entry yesterday but it wasn't a dull day.  The male goldfinch seemed to be getting a drink every time I looked.  I camera-chased a tiger swallowtail.  Also I've been noticing wild cherry leaves carefully sculpted by caterpillars to hide that they've been partly eaten.  A spider was rafting on a sculpted leaf so I brought it to land.  It spun a bit of web then launched itself up into the dogwood, at least six feet up and away.  I thought it was one of the heptagonal orbweavers, but it was more brown with a butterfly shape marked in beige.  Turns out it is a butterfly orbweaver Araneus pegnia.  I also got pictures of the floating pine needles making occult symbols in the breeze.  A buzzard flew over and a hummer visited the fresh feeder.  

The morning looked nice but I had a meeting.  I think this may be the latest in the year that the hibiscus has bloomed.  There was a hummer and a goldfinch.  In the afternoon, I waited for some shade but almost waited too long and got sprinkled upon.  A cicada was submerged on the top step so I fished it out. Later I carried it up the steps for a photo and it began to revive!  iNaturalist identified it as a Northern dusk-singing cicada Megatibicen grossus.  

A frog in the skimmer seemed dead so I disposed of it.  Another in the pool was bigger and fairly lively, but I caught it. A determined mosquito bit me on my face since that was all it could reach.  I did my best to drown it.  I saw a monarch and a little skink as I dripped off.  I couldn't find any monarch caterpillars but the parsley plant I bought had a first instar black swallowtail caterpillar.  There were flashes of sunshine between the thunderheads while I was outside, but thunder and real rain began before 6pm.  It cleared after about half an hour.  

 

Accident

A storm overnight brought down leaves and needles but little rain.  The pool skimmer was packed with needles.  When I had removed most of them, I lifted out the basket and a frog jumped out and into the pipe leading to the pool filter.  I left the basket out in the hope it could swim back, but it didn't reappear.  Eventually I gave up and put the basket back in place.  I did catch another frog later and I rescued a heptagonal orbweaver.  And I think I must have fed several mosquitoes.  Earlier, a dragonfly hunted from a garden stake.  A dark butterfly passed by.  While I was dripping off, a very small skink with a very long tail ventured out, but I didn't have the camera.  Today was just as gloomy as yesterday and I didn't want to risk rain on the camera. The thirsty goldfinch was back.  

 

Cloudy

The sky often looked like rain but none fell and occasionally there was sun.  The male goldfinch was thirsty but also quick and hard to catch on camera.  I took the camera to the pool edge and got one frog inside the skimmer.  There were two but the other dived.  I eventually caught it.  The one that didn't dive tried to hide beside the camera, I guess because it was dark.  A black ground beetle rode a leaf around the skimmer.  I caught a dragonfly nymph in my hands and we studied each other, but I couldn't figure out any way to take a picture so I released it.  

As I dripped, a skink crossed the steps and climbed the retaining wall.  I counted 27 full size milkweed pods and didn't include some smaller ones.  but no caterpillars.  A cloudless sulphur flitted across the patio.  Hummers focused on the one-hole feeder and I discovered the bigger feeder was dry.  

 

Beautiful weather

The day was sunny and warm enough with a breeze and low humidity.  In the morning the sky was so blue it seemed to have a tinge of purple.  I found two live frogs and a dead amberwing dragonfly in the pool.  A glass snail may have been estivating.  A tiger swallowtail egged the cherry but I got only glimpses of other butterflies.  The camera caught a snout and a mint moth.  I heard a goldfinch and then it alighted for a drink.  But the second I moved, it was gone.  I fed a few peanuts to the squirrel with the tuft of pale hair.  It had scratched bare spots around its neck, maybe warbles.  

A blue dasher perched on the rosemary.  One hummer vigorously defended "her feeders" from another.  The mountain mint was no longer attracting pollinators and even the milkweed wasn't getting much attention except for very tiny insects.  Cicadas sang at least three different tunes.  I suppose I could use my phone to record and ID them.  A Carolina wren indulged in barkbutter balls.  A skink and I spotted each other on the steps and it disappeared immediately.  

Hummingbirds

The wild blue morning glories were blooming when I replaced the low-hanging hummer feeder.  When I went for a morning swim, three frogs awaited me but two hopped away and only one dove into the water.  I caught and released it on land too.  A black swallowtail egged the gone-to-seed parsley and a dragonfly flew fast over the water while I swam.  I found a tiny, pretty beetle afloat but it never revived.  It was about the size of a ladybug but not so round.  iNaturalist identified it as a shield-backed cryptocephalus, Cryptocephalus mutabilis.

A hummer came to the little feeder but did not stay long.  Maybe rainwater diluted it?  A tiny orb web hung between the feeder and the post.  Later, a hummer visited the 3-hole feeder and still later, two hummers argued about it.  

As I dripped dry, I noticed ridges in the clouds coming from the Southwest.  They were perpendicular to the wind direction, sort of like ocean waves.  They're classified as altostratus undulatus clouds.  A red spotted purple rested on a dogwood branch.  A little skink followed the edge of the concrete to cross the patio but on the way back it took a shortcut.  A downy woodpecker hung below a branch it was hammering in the section of the dogwood that lost its bark and died.  A titmouse fussed because I was too close to the seed feeder.  

 

Sunny day

The day was quite warm but the breeze made it very pleasant.  A female downy woodpecker had a seed breakfast.  A Carolina wren also visited.  Hummers found the new feeder, which was fortunate because the old one was empty.  (I'll put the other out tomorrow.) There were at least two hummers because I saw one chase another away.  I spotted one preening in the wild cherry.  

A  bird circling very high was a Mississippi kite. Another, I think, was a vulture.  Again, there were two frogs but they didn't put up much of a chase.  I rescued a spider from a mostly submerged twig.  The pool steps had a lot of drowned greenhouse millipedes.  A cicada's cast-off shell was lying on the patio.  I also found some cicada wings that had been discarded by whatever ate one.  There were plenty left to sing in the afternoon sunshine.  

The sky was mostly clear blue with clouds being hurried along by the West wind.  Occasionally, they cast sunbeams against the upper atmosphere.  I saw skinks of all sizes running errands and basking in the just right temperature.  Alas, they always dodged out of sight when I moved the camera   A blue dasher kept my space clear of small fliers.  

The butterfly milkweed had more pods developing than I have ever seen, probably because it wasn't feeding any caterpillars.  I think wasps got them.  Tiger swallowtails flew around the trees and a dark butterfly swooped through closer to the ground.  I saw something that might have been a snout heading into the dogwood.  A strange feather blew around the patio.  I thought it was white till I caught it and realized it was half black.  It was a big body contour feather so it came off a large bird, possibly the kite?  

 

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.   

Little and late

A juvenile cardinal hunted for breakfast under the feeder.  A hummer and a Carolina wren showed up around lunchtime but neither posed.   A red spotted purple butterfly was more cooperative but the sun overexposed it.  In the late afternoon, I chased three frogs and several chunks of mulch around the water.  A skink surprised me, or I it, as it walked on the concrete outside the pool.  I didn't find any insects of note while I was outside.

 

Uncomon insects

An overcast sky looked like a storm was brewing, but it blew away. Then the sun was scorching and a buzzard soared ominously overhead.  A skink scuttled into a crack.  The blue was almost gone from its tail.  There were three frogs to chase and I caught them all.  I found an Asian horntail in the water along with an expired dragonfly nymph and a sidewalk tiger beetle that was still alive.  

A wheelbug climbed one of the milkweed pods.  Some dogwood leaves showed Fall color but I wonder if it was drought stress.  

Time outside

Morning was cloudy.  I spotted a morning glory flower.  A brown thrasher was an early visitor.  A female cardinal was beginning to lose head feathers and a male fledgling was getting orange, but with a black beak.  A female goldfinch was thirsty.  The molt-ragged Carolina wren had a barkbutter ball.  

Carrying the can of bug killer, I went swimming earlier than usual and found three frogs.  I evicted them but after I got out, they hopped back into the water.  A big, all-black bee was swimming frantically and I assisted it onto dry concrete.  Wind gusts tossed leaves into the water.   I put some peanut bits on the patio for the crow but a squirrel ate them.  The crow may have given up on us.  

After lunch, I went back outside.  There was more sun but a breeze and the shade made the heat endurable.  A blue dasher stood guard.  I saw two other dragonflies, one dark and the other yellowish, but I didn't get pictures to ID.   A hummer had a long feed before she saw something that sent her away.  Sometime later I spotted her preening on a dead twig in the dogwood.

A well-grown skink crossed the steps and later rain under my chair.  Its tail was not original but was full length.  A few wasps and bees and a duskywing skipper fed on the mountain mint.  A big dark butterfly never alighted and I couldn't guess if it was a red spotted purple or some kind of swallowtail.  A skipper with some orange joined the mountain mint crew.   

One wasp was new to me, a Tachytes guatemalensis.  

Siesta time

Can a frog look sheepish?  When I took the lid off the skimmer, two frogs were crammed together in a corner, blinking at me.  One hopped away but the other dodged around to dive into the water.  I caught them both several times before they took the hint.  Aside from that, I fished out dead June beetles and a drowned woodlouse hunter spider.  

After lunch I spent some time outside.  Despite being 90°, it was pleasant in the shade with a breeze.  The sky was cloudless but hazy.  I saw a few skinks, a hummer, a blue dasher obelisking, and a tiger swallowtail.  A Guinea paper wasp prowled through the mountain mint.  An osprey flew up the creek and a hawk flew across the yard.  

After the hawk was gone, a couple of mourning doves landed in the shade of the sakaki. A male cardinal tried to discourage his son from following and begging.   A small black bee landed on the concrete at the edge of the house shadow and appeared to do a honeybee dance.  I didn't watch it continuously but I think it staggered into the sunlight, keeled over and died.  I came inside not long after.