Rainy solstice

It just didn't seem right to have gray skies all day on the longest day.  Yesterday was gloomy too and felt chilly despite being in the 70s.  Slugs feasted on the rue.  I rescued a lot of scarab beetles and saw a damselfly while I was swimming.  The mockingbird was a regular presence.  It didn't like getting wet. 

A couple of downy woodpeckers squabbled over the disappearing suet.  A blue jay found the re-hydrated mealworms in the dangling blue dish.  The female pileated woodpecker helped the suet disappear. 

Between the wind and the moon phase, the  tide was exceptionally high.  After dark, fireflies were out.  

Midday downpour

At last the wind left us.  The morning started off foggy, then cleared and the sun warmed us up to a reasonable May temperature, though humid.  The tide dropped back into its normal range and the creek surface was glassy.  Red bellied woodpeckers worked on the suet.  Occasionally one would forget that only the bottom was accessible.  The brown headed nuthatches took suet or seeds, whichever wasn't in use. 

I felt sorry for the birds and put some barkbutter balls out hoping it would all get eaten before the predicted storm.  Blue jays certainly tried!  Bluebirds were more interested in defending the territory than eating.  Titmice stuck to seeds. for some reason.  A Carolina wren ate suet then hunted for any fallen barkbutter balls.  The male pileated woodpecker had a turn at the suet but something disturbed him and he hiked down and up the post.  I thought I saw an osprey but maybe the woodpecker knew better? 

By noon the sky clouded over and the light dimmed.  Around 1pm, the thunderstorm blasted through, followed by a drenching rain the likes of which we haven't had for weeks.  Eventually the rain passed and the sun returned, but the humidity was horribly sticky.  I dumped rainwater off the remains of the barkbutter and the female bluebird pronounced it acceptable.  Slugs had ascended into the rue and were hanging out atop the flowers.  I had never seen that before but it makes me fear for our strawberries.  I found a glass snail among the pebbles in the french drain.  Haze in the East reflected the sunset, which would really confuse a forensic auditor of photographs.  

Yellow bellied sapsucker

A rain squall hit as we were getting up and I think there had been more rain earlier. The 99% humidity dropped as the temperature climbed.  They met somewhere around 70.  A brown thrasher hit the bark butter balls several times but was always too fast for me. So were a blue jay and a Carolina wren.  Titmice were more cooperative but I have all the titmice photos I ever want.  Both cats wandered through, the feral black-and-white and the tabby with a blue collar. 

As we were finishing Thanksgiving dinner (Mole Con Pavo), a heron landed on the dock and a kingfisher zipped past.  Then the red breasted nuthatch rewarded my patience. It didn't even flinch when a squirrel got on top of the feeder.  Downy woodpeckers went at the suet, of course.  

Finally the clouds broke apart and a half dozen turtles bunched up to sun themselves.  Then I spotted the sapsucker on a pine tree and I ran the battery down taking pictures of it.  When the sun came out, I went outside though it still seemed quite damp.  I wandered around taking pictures of sunlit leaves. A slug was chomping into the fungus.  

But I heard something scolding sotto voce so I came inside to let it appear.  It was a red bellied woodpecker, making the third woodpecker species in one day.  

Great blue heron

Something caused a downy woodpecker to freeze on the post for a while.  I found a slug on the bark butter ball feeder.  Then there was a moment of drama: a great blue heron swooped down on another that was standing on the bulkhead and shoved the other bird into the creek.  The victor proceeded to do a heron war dance above while the vanquished hiked upstream below the bulkhead.  I wasn't fast enough to catch the confrontation, but I did get photos of the territorial display. 

At lunch, I saw the pied bill grebe again.  Afterward, titmice and a red breasted nuthatch joined chickadees and house finches on the sunflower feeder.  A Carolina wren took a bark butter ball.  But focus was not my friend.  I spotted a turtle on the lake, not on the preferred log because that was occupied by a goose.  The lake water was rushing to the dam though the creek was fairly placid.  Maybe that was because of the overnight rain?  Toward evening I saw a few hoodies. 

Dank

The cold front pushed the temperature down to something more like November.  High humidity made the sky misty gray and kept surfaces damp.  Titmice, downy woodpeckers, and a red breasted nuthatch joined us for meals.  

Only mallards were out on the water but I saw an egret roosting in a tree downstream.  

The storm beat the paperwhite flowers to shreds but there were more buds. Lichens turned green.  The fungus was buried in fallen leaves.  When I uncovered it I found a slug chewing on it. That's probably why the surrounding mulch used to have silvery speckles.

The sky seemed to be clearing around sunset.  A couple of hours later, the raccoon came to wash its paws in the birdbath.  Thanks to reflections on the inside of the glass, all I got was its ringed tail.  

Slime

Bubbles rose in the creek shallows, whether methane or some critter I've no idea.  I caught the male bluebird in a tree.  He had been after something in the grass.  

Honeybees, bumblebees, wasps, and syrphid flies crowded around the rue. The parsley also had syrphid flies and leatherwing soldier beetles. A red bellied woodpecker made its querulous warble which alerted me to look for it up in the oak. 


I found a large white slime mold under the purple witch hazel in the front yard.  After reading up on this strange life form, I think it is a tapioca slime mold Brefeldia maxima. 

 A pine warble showed up for bark butter, the first I'd seen since winter.  A female hummer found the juice acceptable. 


The late afternoon rain brought out slugs.  I found one in the feeder eating the soggy remains of bark butter balls, another crawling over a parsley flower head, and another inside a day lily flower.  Others were just eating leaves.  Also on the parsley was a tiny orange caterpillar pretending to be a dead stem. 

The bullfrog was quite loud today, morning and evening. K thinks there's a frog under the pool cover, but I doubt it.  I wouldn't be surprised if there were decaying, drowned skinks, but how would a frog stay alive?  I suspect the bullfrog discovered how to use the pool as an amplifier. 

Gray sky

As I ate breakfast outside, I noticed a slug on a leaf that had come to the point and was figuring out how to turn back.   A hummer joined me for breakfast.  

The air seemed very damp and toward evening there were showers.  A frog was in the skimmer.  It leapt into the pool but eventually I caught it and told it to leave.  I don't mind swimming with frogs but the water seems to poison them. I rescued a green June beetle and a metallic green tiger beetle. 

And after I got out, I found a monarch caterpillar climbing a bamboo stake and persuaded it to relocate to the butterfly weed.  A green pondhawk perched on the feeder handle by my window.  

While I was on the phone in the afternoon,all sorts of things flew by.  I saw a cicada killer, butterflies, and dragonflies.  A flock of robins landed in the cherry tree.  A Carolina wren thoroughly inspected the redwood trunk.  Chicadees and cardinals hunted in the saltbush while house finches poked through the cherry. 

Rain

The morning was just overcast and humid.  And I was running errands anyway.  After lunch we tried to figure out where to put the second bluebird house, but no luck.  The redbuds on the West side had grown too big.  The posts on the dock were too hard to reach.  And the already installed house is unoccupied as yet.  Hmmm.  

Bolted parsley started to bloom but one stalk was being nibbled by a black swallowtail caterpillar.  A cabbage white wafted above the vegetation.  Blooming Japanese honeysuckle invaded the wooded area.  The coral honeysuckle, however was nearly finished flowering.  Poison ivy popped up all over, but the rain should help me pull it out.  Oak leaves carried the marks of leaf cutter bees. A patch of elderberry bloomed a couple of lots downstream.

The mud shore of the creek was covered with bright green algae or seaweed.  I've no idea if that's good or bad.  Lots of periwinkles were available to graze on the green stuff. 

Two wrens appeared.  one sat on the hummer feeder and sang.  The other hopped all around the feeders in an agitated manner, coming closer and closer till both flew off.  Were they courting or arguing over turf?   A blue jay slipped in while I was changing camera batteries.  The downy was around and the male cardinals were still chasing each other.  An osprey flew over while we were looking for a location for the bluebird house. 

I finally settled on a set of pottery for the vines in front and went off to buy them. I had just got back and got everything unloaded when the rain began, very tentatively at first.  A goose family drank from the pool puddle before the rain got harder.  And waves of downpour rolled through with breaks when insects reappeared.  Something had a web waiting in a corner of the door.  Slugs were climbing the walls to escape the wet.  Thunder growled sporadically and a few lightning flashes were close, but it was mostly just rain. 

Great crested flycatcher

Because rain was predicted, I planted seeds and set the plants out close to where they will live.  That's when I discovered that something had dug up the day lily I bought Tuesday. I replanted it, but it looked pretty sad.  A downy woodpecker had some suet. 

I went to a lecture about Filipiino-Americans in Norfolk and got drenched when I came out.  The rain followed us home. But just before it got heavy, I saw the flycatcher.

The rain was followed, briefly, by sunshine.  A cabbage white, wasp, and skink ventured out.  The wasp became very interested in the mountain mint even though it wasn't blooming.  A very wet squirrel tried to dry out.  An egret fished downstream.  Then fresh clouds rolled in and we had another downpour around 5:30pm.

When that cleared, a couple of Carolina wrens flew in.  Then the lurking feral cat kept birds away from the feeder for too long.  Gastropods crawled on the window to escape the wet.  There were slugs and what I thought was a slug wrapped around itself, till it dawned on me that it was a snail. Another oozed across the patio.  More clouds blew in and the sun set. 

Stormy

The sky was gray when we got up and the air felt humid. The first wave of storms hit in the early afternoon with fierce gusts and hammering rain. A second line passed through around quitting time.  Wildlife made itself scarce except for a crane fly and a slug on the window.. 

Very warm

It was humid under a gray sky that did not completely block the sun.  The South wind brought the temperature up to the sweat zone. Last night three slugs crawled on the glass.  This morning a small one headed back down to safer spaces.  A white throated sparrow breakfasted on the seed feeder. A downy woodpecker hid in the dogwood.  When a blue jay visited the bark butter, a female cardinal shot out of the camellia and drove the jay away.  It was all to fast for me to get a picture. 

Pollen puddled on leaves and marbleized the surface of the creek.  It also coated the shore and made it look like a sandy beach.  I wonder if it adds nutrients to the water?  Skinks were out at lunchtime.  A couple of buzzards circled. 

The wind tore petals off the dogwood that was first to bloom.  Egrets fished around the dam.  A dragonfly landed on the patio, possibly because of the wine.  A single crow chased an osprey downstream.  Perhaps it was defending a nest.

Queen yellow jackets hinted suitable nesting sites.  The coral honeysuckle was a mass of flowers.  Beetles mated on the trunk of the cedar.  The rust-colored fungus was back on the cedar.  Mammoth carpenter bees also scouted suitable ground for nests. Buttercups, vetch, and bedstraw took over the front grass.  I planted cilantro and a very odd violet I found with just four petals. 

Gray

A slug traversed the window at breakfast.  There was a bit of mist around noon but no real rain.  This was the day for measuring the "King Tide" but I never figured out the phone app. 

The overcast began to break up in the late afternoon.  I saw a small yellow fly or wasp and a milkweed bug nymph.  They seemed sluggish from the cold. 

Rain

I awoke to the sound of heavy, steady rain. It tapered to a fine mist as the day went on but the clouds continued to menace.  The wind was gusty.  The wrens stayed busy.  I was gone all afternoon. 

The big drama was a stinkbug flying into a web in the upper corner of the glass door.  The spider had quite a job subduing it.  In the evening the slugs came out.  A lacewing clung to the glass well away from the spider. 

Changeable weather

Fluffy clouds crossed a blue sky.  The creek was flat in the morning.  Wrens scurried around.  An egret occupied the dam outfall.  A duskywing skipper sampled the mint.  The cardinals were beaking again.

 I wasted time trying to photograph the dragonflies zipping around through the air.  A goldfinch pair checked out the feeders, then left. A sulphur butterfly visited the miniature rose.  The day grew very hot. 

Clouds piled up during the afternoon.  The wind grew very gusty.  That didn't stop the hummers.  Several showers passed through.  We didn't put out bark butter balls because of the threat of rain, so there was nothing for the blue jays. The day ended in streaks of pink and fireflies.  Bugs banged on the glass and a slug ascended it.  

Gray day

Light rain fell in the morning as we scrambled to get to an appointment.  We surprised the female bluebird with nesting material.  Of course there was no camera handy.  After the appointment, I waited a while for K and observed the shopping strip parking lot ecological niche.  A male English/house sparrow had a lovely bath in the gutter.  A crow watched from a street light.  A laughing gull cruised  over the asphalt scanning for junk food.  A bird I didn't recognize perched on a light pole.

At home, I persuaded K to put out fresh hummer juice which was very popular. One hummer chased another away, then kept watch from the dogwood.  A blue jay came to see about bark butter but it had turned to soup.  A crow watched while a great blue heron and egrets, both great and snowy, fished in the water rushing from the dam.  I sat out front but never saw the bluebirds again.  A slug toured the window glass toward evening.  The sky to the Northeast grew pink though the rest was still gray. 

Wood ducks!

The rain was pounding  at dawn so I went back to sleep.  It was still raining hard when I unbricked the feeder.  During breakfast two pairs of wood ducks moseyed up the hill and puddled around on the pool cover.  Then they headed over to the East side gate and out of my sight.  Since there were no ducklings,I assume their first nests failed and they were looking for new tree cavities.

During a lull in the rain, a female hummer visited. Slugs slid up the glass.  An egret and then a heron fished in the water rushing from the dam. 

The rain quit by lunch time but the day stayed gloomy ant threatening.  Titmice showed up at supper, but so did geese and shooing them away scared off the songbirds.  I glimpsed the yellow rumped warbler in summer plumage.  The feral cat wandered in from wherever it stayed dry. 

Rain

Dawn was pink, then misty.  It soon turned to rain, sometimes light, but all day and into night. I saw white throated sparrows, downy woodpeckers, cardinals and chickadees.  Coming home from the morning meeting, I annoyed the bluebird who popped out of the box and flew off. The wild cherry was beginning to flower.  Slugs climbed the windows. 

Eclipse day

A red-spotted purple flitted around the cherry.  The hummer made frequent visits.  And the male goldfinch came back.

There were lots of butterflies around lunch time.  I saw a monarch several times.  Also a sulphur, black and tiger swallowtails, and smaller skippers and such.  The monarch investigated the yellow birdhouse.  The tiger tried to drink from the hummer feeder and appeared to sip from the orange fungus on the morning glory leaves.

We used a pinhole, a mirror, my fingers waffle-style, dogwood leaves, and passing clouds to view the eclipse.  The mirror failed but the other methods worked.  The clouds were the best and I thought they would just be a problem. 

I rescued a very lively skink that tried to out-swim me.  Then after its photo session, it didn't want to let go of my hand. I saw several more skinks during the afternoon. 

The two argiopes were back at opposite ends of the shoreline.  A female red-backed jumping spider prowled through the violets.  The angle wing katydid perched at the tip of a hibiscus stalk.  There were a few dragonflies but I guess there was less to catch today. 

Something dropped a whole (but pecked) fig in the pool.  A night heron appeared at the edge of the dock, then flew up into the trees.

I thought I was finished for the day, but as dusk turned to night, a barn spider, AKA Charlotte, began an orb web across the patio door. Several slugs, a foolish plume moth, and smaller bugs all clung to the glass.  I believe the web took about two hours. 

Rain, rain, rain

In between the waves of rain, brief interludes of sun and blue sky deceived me into thinking it was over.  The longest window opened while we were eating lunch.  I saw dragonflies and swallowtails - black and tiger.  But I didn't get pictures.  Hummers warred over the feeder.When I went out later, I could see that the next wave of rain had diluted the sugar water, so I took the feeder in.  A hummer buzzed through, saw it was missing, and zoomed off. 

I saw a little green grasshopper nymph in the mulch.  A duskywing fed on the mint.  I rescued a spider and saw a snail exploring the edge of the pool. The mosquitoes were thick and the dragonflies had given up.  The orange dog caterpillar had moved and had eaten a stalk of rue. Small moths clung to the windows and a slug climbed the glass. 

Clearing

The day began as dreary and wet as the last few.  An egret fished below the dam.  A slug crawled on the window.  A female hummingbird indicated the feeder in back was still good - K brought in the one in front to clean.  The short-tailed squirrel visited.  I also saw white throats, blue jays, and a Carolina wren.

A hummer watched the feeder.  Two chickadees got into a spat beneath the hummer in the dogwood. A male cardinal took mealworms that it only eyed askance a month ago - must be feeding babies.  Then a catbird landed on the bench!

By late afternoon the sky was blue.