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.  

Humid

While not especially hot, today was stuffy with humidity.  The hibiscus had another flower today, the third in a row.  Lots of cherries were on the ground and in the water, but I didn't see as many birds eating them.  I spotted a downy woodpecker doing chin-ups in the tree.  A catbird popped up on the fence.  Something that I think was the kingbird perched atop the redwood, briefly.  A hummer visited the feeder but didn't feed, so I will replace the sugar water tomorrow.  A Carolina wren was more satisfied with barkbutter balls and a brown headed nuthatch with seeds.  A crow hesitated, but finally ate K's peanuts.  A songbird chased a bigger bird into the trees too fast for me to react. 

I rescued three mama spiders and a very big scarab beetle, also smaller scarab and ground beetles.  The humidity brought dragonflies.  A female blue dasher used one of my perches.  A female great blue skimmer used another perch.  And prince baskettails zoomed overhead.  A tiger swallowtail and a small pale butterfly moved too fast for a picture.  I found a firefly under a gladiolus leaf.  A snail floated in the water but I suspect it was a land snail so I rescued it, maybe. 

Monarch

Today was sunny and beautiful, cooler but not as windy.  A monarch discovered the patch of butterfly milkweed and fed off-and-on for half an hour.  When a Carolina wren landed on the nearby barkbutter dish, the butterfly seemed to be harassing the bird, flying toward it as though trying to drive it away.  

Later, blue jays and a mockingbird visited the dish but I did not see the butterfly.  I went for a late swim and saw a damselfly.  I fished out a spider, a ground beetle, a ladybug, a snail, and an earwig.  The spider and the beetle ran off but I'm not sure the others were alive.  Even though it wasn't windy, the air felt cold on my wet skin so I didn't linger to take pictures.  

Rain

A pine warbler made a breakfast visit to the barkbutter balls.  A crow wandered through the yard.  Titmice hid in the sakaki.  A small, brown click beetle was in the bottom of the blueberry bucket.  A black and white wasp and a yellow skipper drank mountain mint nectar.  A blue dasher used a perch.  A leaf cutter bee drank from the milkweed. 

I thought I'd beat the rain by swimming early but it started sooner than predicted.  Before that, I fished two snails and a bee out of the water.  A large feather floated by.  As I hustled indoors I noticed that the Argiope had caught something as big as it was and they were still wrestling.  A brief interlude of sun came between the morning rain and the afternoon thunderstorm.  A brown headed nuthatch extracted a seed from under a finch's tail feathers.  A wet Carolina wren got some suet.  A hungry fledgling bluebird got some seeds. 

The storm lasted till nearly 4pm and left the air very humid.  The Argiope worked on its web.  A widow skimmer glittered on a perch.  A black swallowtail flitted around the rue, then perched on the rosemary and annoyed the dragonfly.  Some skinks emerged into the wet sunshine.  

Blueberries

The day was sunny but, thankfully, the temperature moderated and stopped at a normal summer mid-80s.  I had back-to-back meetings and didn't get outdoors till 6pm.  A skink scampered across the step.  I went for a swim  and rescued a spider, a snail, and a couple of beetles.  There was a lot of tree detritus in the water but the wind wasn't noticeable.  After I got out, I picked a pint of blueberries.  Some were as big as cherries from all the rain.  A couple of nuthatches and some cardinals came for seeds while I ate supper.   The solstice moment happened at 10:42pm when there was no Sol in the sky.  

Butterbutt

The sky was the clear blue that suggests low humidity.  Certainly, the sun was very hot though the air was not.  After lunch, I found a little snail lying in the sun and moved it into some vegetation.  The Berkeley's polypore was getting orange.  The bright red juvenile cardinal was camouflaged among the dogwood leaves.  He appeared to like dogwood berries.  They were disappearing fast.  I thought I glimpsed the grosbeak again but this time it was a yellow rumped warbler - first of the season.  Lots of spider threads caught the sun.  This late in the year must mean that they will winter over as hatchlings instead of eggs.  

Gray

It's too bad I was indoors yesterday instead of today.  There was a little rain overnight and overcast skies all day.  The juvenile male cardinal and his mother were back.  The fledgling hovered while the adult sat on the feeder perch and fed him.  Titmice were not impressed.  A white breasted nuthatch waited for a chance at the unoccupied feeder.  

I went swimming despite the cooler air, bugs, and lack of sunshine because it might be the last time this year.  There was a yellow jacket in the skimmer which I very carefully rescued.  Several snails clung to the side of the pool and I found a black swallowtail caterpillar on the bottom.  I also rescued at least eight black ground beetles and one assassin bug nymph.  Reduviidae nymphs look utterly alien.  The white breasted nuthatch came back after I got out.  So did the cardinal mother and son. 

Mosquitoes

Some early flickers of sunshine encouraged me to brew some solar tea.  When I went to collect it later, a kingfisher noticed me and flew from the dock.  The sky was mostly low stratus clouds making the sun no brighter than a table lamp.  Still, that was enough to pull the temperature up to 80° and the humidity high as well.  Mosquitoes were ambitious and in my face while I was in the water.  I saved a young skink, evicted a good-size bullfrog, and rescued a half dozen black ground beetles, and a tiny snail.  None of them stayed for a portrait.  Yesterday I removed the rescue stick just in case I wasn't able to do it later.  Is that why the water was full of beetles?  A stream of chickadees came to the feeder, and sometimes dodged a cardinal.  I heard a blue jay.  A yellow butterfly fluttered out of sight at lunch. The saltbush began blooming. 

Humid

Morning was still wet and gray.  That did not stop the nuthatches, brown headed or white breasted.  A male cardinal fed his daughter.  A mockingbird tried the rehydrated wild cherries.  The rose drooped to shed rain.  A sparrow, I think was a song sparrow, landed on the railing but the camera insisted on focusing on the raindrops on the window.  In the afternoon we got some sun.  A two-lined spittlebug drowned in the bucket.  The tide rolled over the dock again even though we had a third quarter moon.  

All I found in the pool water was tree trash, snails, a cricket, and a leaf footed bug.  While dripping off, my eye was caught by a really colorful Southern purple mint moth.  Another mockingbird surveyed the scene from the maple, then flew in for a drink.  Two female cardinals tolerated each other, one on the seed feeder, the other on the barkbutter.  I think the one eating seeds was older.  At any rate, she was feeding her son.  Interesting that the parents fed the offspring of the opposite sex.  She looked like the joys of motherhood were wearing thin.  

Buggy

A couple of seedling sunflowers popped up.  The hibiscus put on a real show with six flowers.  The fungus under the oak was visibly bigger.  The canna was blooming as though inspired by the nearby hibiscus.   Only two seedpods survived on the stripped butterfly milkweed.  Some dogwood leaves turned red or yellow, marking approaching Fall.

Although the monarch caterpillars departed, the black swallowtail caterpillars were visible all over the rue.  I rescued two blue tailed skinks from the water and evicted a frog.  I was too late for a bumblebee.  A glass snail floated on the surface but I put it out of the water too.  A busy honeybee was one of the few insects on the mountain mint.  The spiders hadn't moved since yesterday. A mosquito followed me into the house and feasted as I took off my wet suit. 

Bluebirds came for seeds.  A brown thrasher slipped into the mountain mint stalks.  The red bellied woodpecker was back.  Blue jays were happy about the barkbutter balls.  

 

Humid

A little rain fell overnight, not enough to dissolve the barkbutter balls.  A bluebird got one while evading the camera.  I missed photos of the white breasted nuthatches as well.  The hummer was back with an appetite.  The yellow cat prowled around.  A blue jay thought the barkbutter balls were still edible. 

More rain fell at lunch time but brown headed nuthatches didn't care.  The female bluebird chose seeds for lunch.  After the rain, the temperature rose and we went for a swim.  The humidity brought out bloodsuckers which kept getting in my face.  I saved more beetles, but spiders were stubborn.  The snail had not moved so I was left unsure whether it was alive. 

Hummingbird

At last, the hummer seems satisfied by my offering.  A blue dasher enjoyed the heat as he took up a post on a bamboo stake and feasted on no-see-ums before they feasted on me.  I found a snail floating in the pool.  Several spiders walked on water but other species had drowned.

Hibiscus sprouts popped up so I must get out the Neem oil.  Mysterious rings appeared in the creek at twilight.  A mallard drake cut through them and left his own wake.  

Beautiful day

The Carolina wren was first to breakfast.  I thought I saw a giant, or maybe a palamedes, swallowtail flitting around the rue, but my one snap shot was a blur.  The fledgling cardinal was growing up fast.  The cloudless sky was a deep blue but a gusty wind filled the pool with tree debris.  I caught the two green frogs again - I swear one was waiting for me.  A skink insisted on rescuing itself by climbing my suit.  The spartina down by the dam was being grazed by periwinkles.   Goldenrod was getting ready to bloom while the beautyberries were turning red.  The butterfly milkweed was loaded with pods.  A different skink posed up on the patio.  Wasps kept at the mountain mint.  Clouds rolled in toward evening and mallards flocked on the creek.

Rain at last

The hibiscus exploded with flowers.  A late gladiolus spear blossomed.  Hopeful bluebirds wanted a handout.  I had put out some mealworms and the male scattered them everywhere.  Hummingbirds found the feeder.  A downy woodpecker inspected a pine tree. 

A glass snail wedged itself into the door frame.  There was a crab in the pool that I'm guessing escaped from a raccoon.  I rescued a robber fly and some other bugs.  A female blue dasher dragonfly paused a moment on the door to munch something it had caught.  Another dragonfly buzzed the pool too fast for me to identify.  A small skink crossed the patio. 

Insects fed like they knew the weather was changing.  I saw the mydas fly, a tiger swallowtail, a cabbage white, and I think a monarch.  Many honeybees and an assortment of other bees and wasps, including leafcutter bees and a great golden digger wasp, made the mountain mint move as though it itched. A small, green bee disappeared before I returned with the camera but then I found an ailanthus moth, Atteva aurea. 

The first thunderstorm finally arrived around 3pm.  A pine warbler showed up drenched for some suet.  It was followed by a wet Carolina wren.  The storm that came through next brought darkness along with heavy rain and noise.  There was a lull after 7pm, then another storm.  

Fresh and clean

Judging from the ant moat, we got between one and two inches of rain over night.  I hope the seeds I planted were encouraged.  This morning, I was planting some more moonflower seeds when I uncovered a glass snail.  The sky was lapis lazuli blue with shreds of cumulus. All the leaves looked scrubbed and shiny.  Loads of buds crowded the red rose and the yellow rose had a new bud too.  The money plant flowers got very small.  I wonder if they will be bigger after this good soaking rain? I saw what I think was a silver spotted skipper and a tiger swallowtail. 

A mockingbird was the first to notice that I had put out fresh food, but it got away.  Then a blue jay visited but I only caught it flying away.  Finally a male bluebird posed.  He got feisty and evicted a female downy woodpecker from the suet.  Chickadees and cardinals went for seeds. Skinks were busy in the middle of the day and I may have saved them from the feral cat.  I saw one with a blue tail, one with a regrown tail, and one with a very red head. 

The male pileated woodpecker came for supper.  So did the mockingbird, so I got a picture after all.  

Indian summer

Clouds streamed North on a hot wind making the sunshine intermittent but keeping the air warm.  I caught a squirrel doing a Tarzan leap, but not in mid-air as I'd hoped.  Maybe next time.  Later I caught a pair of squirrels having sex.  They went up the cedar for more privacy. 

A Carolina wren perched on a chair back to get a better look inside.  A kingfisher landed on a dock post but took off again immediately.  

I checked on the peppers but they were still green.  A ladybug beetle was protecting them.  The sunflower next to the peppers had made seeds, but after teasing them out of the flower heads I found almost all were hollow.  I don't know if they weren't fertilized or if the drought kept them from filling out.  Glass snails lurked in the mulch between the peppers and the sunflower.  

The grass on the West side of the house was full of gill mushrooms.  There were brown, gray, red, and moldy green caps.  I know the red ones were russulas and I suspect the others were too.  

A monarch butterfly came looking for a meal but the only flowers left were camellias and by afternoon the bees and wasps had drunk them dry.  The saltbush released its seed fluff which coated the creek.  But the milkweed kept its seed parachutes under wraps.  I couldn't figure out how the weather could be right for one kind of airborne seed and not the other.  

About then the camera battery ran down and the replacement wouldn't work.  So I missed some great shots of a bold jumping spider.  As I sat picking out the sunflower seeds, the spider came marching across the table to me.  We made eye contact and I tried to wave my pinkie at it.  It decided to jump onto the chair so I got up and let the spider have it.  But soon it was climbing up the wall and away.  I hope it caught the roach I saw lurking under the soffit.  After dark the camera quit sulking so I took some practice photos of a moth on the window.  

Then I went outside to see what I could do with the moon.  A bright planet was leading the moon up from the horizon.  I checked online and learned it was Mars.  "Later, by November 30, Mars will be closest to Earth for this 2-year period (50.6 million miles, or 81.4 million km, away). And Mars will continue to brighten between now and December 8, when Earth will catch up to Mars in the race of the planets around the sun, bringing Mars to its once-in-2-years opposition."   No wonder it was bright.  

 

Empty threats

I slept in and didn't see anything in the morning.  But the afternoon made up for it.  Hummingbirds drank and drank, packing on the grams.  The brown headed nuthatches couldn't get enough of the fresh sunflower seeds.  The hibiscus was still performing.  

When I got outside after lunch, the sky looked like rain was imminent, but it was an empty threat.  A red spotted purple butterfly, Limenitis arthemis astyanax, fancied cherry leaves.  It gets three names because it is a subspecies.  The other subspecies is the white admiral up North.  Coincidentally, the red spotted purple is also an empty threat - it evolved to mimic the poisonous pipevine swallowtail.  One stalk of the newly planted milkweed was coated with milkweed aphids.  I was hoping for caterpillars. 

When I opened the skimmer there were three frogs.  One hopped away but the other two pretended to be invisible.  When I came close with the camera, one dived and the other hopped out.  Eventually I caught up with two in the water and flipped them out.  A glass snail was under water on the top step so I put it on the concrete in the shade.  Later I found another on the upper patio.  I rescued several beetles including one big Junebug that was more bronze than green.  It was nonetheless iridescent metallic like the green Junebugs.  It kept lifting its elytra (stiff forewings) to flick water out of its hind flying wings.  

I wasted many pixels on dragonflies in flight and only got blurred images.  Soaring birds kept distracting me.  I think they were Mississippi kites!   They seemed to be having fun with the gusty West wind. 

Megachile bees nectared on both mountain mint and butterfly milkweed.  A venusta orchard weaver had a lovely orb web outside my window.  I also found the sheet web that attracted my attendion the other day.  Something ate a lot of ground cherry leaves, probably a hornworm, but I couldn't find it.  A duskywing skipper stuck to the mountain mint.  Several skinks bustled along on their business and I startled one that was sunbathing along the steps.  

The sun set in a blaze of orange. 

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.  

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.  

Hot wind

Since yesterday, the wind's been roaring from the Southwest, pushing clouds and heat and making waves run down the creek.  I believe the temperature rose above 80° but I forgot to look after I saw it had hit 79°.  The sky cycled between blue and white but distinct cumulus clouds made up the white.  It had a very March look.  Unfortunately, the wind was hard on birds, and my timing was bad.  I saw the pair of pileated woodpeckers and a brown thrasher but got no pictures.  The pair of wrens also visited but were never close enough to get in one frame.  A junco flitted around in the trees, as did myrtle warblers.  Bluebirds and house finches were thirsty.  

I went down to the dock to look at the repairs.  On the way I found a periwinkle shell in the grass.  A few mallards were out feeding on the creek.  Seaweed draped the mud bank because the wind had pushed the water out.  Barnacles were shut up tight.  Some kind of bivalve was interspersed among them, maybe a clam or scallop.  They looked too symmetrical for oysters or mussels.  On the way back I found a couple of violets in bloom.  Then I found an ebony spleenwort fern poking through the fence clear across the yard from where I'd planted it years ago.  I need to mark it before someone comes through with a weedeater.