Wind shift

Yesterday there were squirrels and chickadees.  The wind and sun popped more milkweed pods but the fluff wasn't ready to let go.  A yellow jacket got a little too friendly.  I didn't stay outside long.  

Today was again sunny and breezy but the clouds rushed from East to West across the sky.  Down where I was, the wind seemed to come from every direction.   Gulls played with the gusts.  Milkweed seeds tried to escape.  Nothing was visiting the goldenrod when I checked.  The sky clouded over in the late afternoon.  Out on the creek, a great blue heron hunched on a post.  Then it stretched.  Cormorants commuted.  

High winds

The wind tore apart the overcast and dried off surfaces.  It grounded most birds - all I saw were cardinals.  A squirrel was thirsty.  He appeared to have a warble on his neck.  The day stayed chilly despite some sunshine.  I kept expecting the wind to bring some migrant birds to eat those luscious-looking beautyberries.  

Record heat

Yesterday was very hot.  It broke the record by 4°.  We spent most of the day on a trip to Yorktown where I was giving a presentation.  On the way I saw a half dozen pelicans in the water near Willoughby Spit.  Coming home, I saw a couple of gulls.  The bridge-tunnel work may have discouraged birds or perhaps it was the heat wave.  This morning was cloudy and gusty.  Dry leaves blew across the yard.  It was in the 70s and humid.  All I saw was a squirrel making off with a nut.  

 

A summer day

By mid day the temperature reached 80°.  A squirrel splooted on the cool concrete in the shade.  The poor thing was limping and looked very chewed up.  K poured water in the birdbath and I left a few peanuts nearby.  But I don't know if the squirrel returned.  

A dozen gulls played with the Southwest wind high in the air under a blue sky.  A small red spotted purple landed in the sakaki.  I also saw a cabbage white.  The oak had patches of leaves that had caramelized.

A mockingbird found the beautyberries.  I heard other birds and saw some zip across the yard too fast to identify.  A wasp and a bee were busy.  Tiny spiders webbed twigs.  The Berkley's polypore appeared smaller and kind of moldy.  

White sky

Despite the overcast there were sharp shadows.  A female rose breasted grosbeak was busy in one of the dogwoods but I didn't see any activity in the beautyberry bush.  Still, that's a "life bird" for me!  A thirsty squirrel dived into the watering can and retreated in good order so I didn't have to rescue it.  The camellia had two flowers.  

Sunshine at last!

After four days of gloom with little rain to show for it, the sun's return was very welcome.  A chilly wind still blew and the tide still ran high.  We took down the hummer feeders.  I heard birds commenting in the trees and caught a squirrel in a funny pose.  Alas, I was in a meeting all afternoon and the sky clouded over by the time I got home.  

Gale

I found five monarch caterpillars.  One was determined to eat a pod instead of a leaf.  I moved it and it found another pod.  A squirrel with a pecan paused before climbing the maple.  A hummer made frequent feeder visits.  She intimidated a downy.  The wind filled the water with debris almost faster than I could collect it.  Lots of pine needles and leaves damaged by lack of rain kept blowing down.  The frog awaited me under the skimmer lid.  Later, I caught a frog but it didn't look like it was the same one.  There were more beetles in the water.  

Steamy

The weather was beastly again, hot and humid.  At least there was a little breeze late in the day.  Another hibiscus flower opened and I saw a bud.  Fearing the green-eyed fly, I put off swimming until late afternoon.  A disgustingly dead frog floated in the water.  A larger live frog hopped out when it saw me.  They are trainable!  I didn't see anything else and I didn't get bit.  Buzzards soared while I dripped.  Beautyberries ripened.  A small plant produced a spray of pink flowers.  Squirrels played under the oak while the polypore fattened.  

Cool

The temperature overnight crept below 70°.  Morning felt cool and damp, in part because a large, heavy cloud seemed stuck overhead.  Once again there were two frogs which I caught.  I have been persuaded that they are young bullfrogs.  In addition, there was a half-grown grasshopper in the skimmer, which amazingly revived.  When I tried to urge it away from the water, it shot straight up into the air.  Is it "pronking" if an animal has six legs?  

A few beautyberries were beginning to blush.  A tiny wasp drowned in the one-hole hummer feeder.  The hummers did not approve.  They were happy when a fresh feeder appeared.  The squirrel was back but, alas, I had no peanuts.  A black swallowtail hunted for parsley, of which there was none.  It shamed me into going to the nursery and buying a pot full.  Toward evening, a little flock of eight mallards gathered on the creek.  The males were in eclipse and only their yellow bills indicated their sex.  

 

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.  

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.  

Thirsty

Another day in the 90s, but the wind shifted a couple of degrees North of due West.  Chickadees and titmice were thick at breakfast.  A downy joined them and a goldfinch arrived later for a drink.  A hummingbird showed up at lunchtime.  It sampled the milkweed as well as the sugar water.  Then a Carolina wren wanted a barkbutter ball, but not until I went indoors.  It was molting and looked rough.  It inspected the hummer feeder too.  I thought I saw a white breasted nuthatch but I never caught a picture to verify it.  A fledgling cardinal came to supper.  

I found another little monarch caterpillar eating milkweed flowers and got curious about whether insects are deterred by caterpillar toxicity.  This says, "Only about 5% of monarchs reach the last larval instar."  Three butterflies, a yellow, an orange, and a dark one, flitted over the yard but didn't give me a chance for a photo.  I think the yellow was a sulphur.  The orange seemed small for a monarch, so maybe a fritillary?  A fiery skipper made the rounds of the mountain mint.  So did the usual bees and wasps,  In the afternoon, dragonflies gathered.  A yellow one zoomed over me and disappeared, but a blue dasher and a widow skimmer used the perches.  

While I was in the water, I evicted two frogs and two spiders, and rescued a moth.  The dragonfly nymph was still active,.swimming very fast.  A thirsty squirrel dangled over the water to drink.  Either that, or it was having a Narcissus moment.  

More rain

The hibiscus bloomed and a titmouse came for breakfast.  A hummer fed from the milkweed and the feeder. At lunch, the sun came out and a tiny skink appeared.  The squirrel raided the seed feeder again.  A skipper drank mountain mint nectar.  

Ultraviolet sky

The sun burned in a clear ultra-blue sky, but a breeze from the North kept the temperature pleasant. The squirrel Einstein was back.  A tiger swallowtail stayed a flit ahead of the camera.  A cabbage white was more willing to pose.  A hummer visited the milkweed.  Its feeder was dry so I put out fresh but I don't know if it noticed.  Chickadees and titmice were very busy at the seed feeder.  A titmouse that was molting looked very untidy.  

I had a mixed-up schedule that put me in the water with little shade.  A few beetles needed rescue.  A dragonfly zigzagged inches above the water.  Meanwhile, the bees and wasps made drama on the mountain mint.  Thread-waisted wasps were mating.  The common whitetail zoomed across the patio and out of sight.  All was well with the orchard spider but I couldn't see the Argiope.  

A genius among squirrels

Crows cam looking for peanuts at breakfast.  Birds, and squirrels, continued to eat cherries, though fewer remain on the tree.  A very athletic squirrel hung by its toes from the feeder roof so that only part of its weight rested on the perch and thus did not trip the counterweight that closes access to the seed trough.  At least once, the toes lost their grip and the squirrel landed in the mulch.  But back up it went for another try.  Toward evening, a great blue heron perched on a dock piling.  

 

Hottest 4th

A Carolina wren visited before it got too hot.  It hopped, rather than flying, from the lower dish to the upper.  An venusta orchard orbweaver spider constructed an intricate web over the azalea next to the window.  That should work excellently after dark with a light in the kitchen.  For identification, on the Internet I found lots of pictures of the spider but none of the web.

Because of the predicted heat, I went swimming earlier than on previous days.  I fished out two crane flies but only one recovered.  Also, one of the water-walking spiders, but this one had no babies.  Many more May beetles (southern masked chafer Cyclocephala lurida) plus some black ground beetles, a yellow jacket alive and a honeybee dead.  An interesting moth, possibly a tulip-tree beauty Epimecis hortaria secreted itself just below the coping where it was safe from anything not in the water.  Wasps were active but the only other insect I saw was a tiger swallowtail.  

The outdoor thermometer showed 104 at 4pm.  The sky was hazy with thicker patches so the sun was intermittent.  I had changed the hummer feeder in the morning and I thought I glimpsed a hummer, but I'm not sure.  A mockingbird flew into the cherry tree.  A squirrel found K's peanuts but took the last one into the shade to eat.  

Hummingbird

The holiday weekend began today.  By 9am, the air was already hot and stuffy with humidity.  A mockingbird landed on the patio and flashed its wings repeatedly.  It was a youngster - freckled breast, no yellow eye - but flashing is not food begging.  I could not see what set it off and it did not seem fearful as it paused to eat something.  Maybe it was just practicing?  Finally it scared a cardinal off the feeder.  

Then a female hummer visited its feeder and actually fed.  That was a relief because I was beginning to think I needed to toss the whole batch of sugar water.  She looked disheveled and tired.  The pool was full of May beetles.  I stopped counting after I rescued a dozen.  I also very carefully rescued some wasps.  The spider was more of an eviction than a rescue but I am twitchy about swimming with them.  I fished a two-lined spittlebug out multiple times.  Sadly, I found ladybug elytra (the hard wing covers) floating.  A leafcutter bee fed on the mountain mint.  

K experimented and we learned that the crows like peanuts better than barkbutter balls.  Carolina wrens, however, want their barkbutter, so it all works out, except for the squirrels.   A mockingbird took exception to the crow on the roof and buzzed it repeatedly between visits to the cherry tree.  A squirrel also enjoyed the cherries.  There were fireflies after sunset and the air still felt like an oven.  

Rodent robbery

The squirrel continued to raid the blue dish.  In fact, the last I saw, it had been overturned.  Meanwhile, a Carolina wren  stayed above on the glass dish.  I saw cardinals and finches on the seed feeder.  It was a nice day though cloudy but when I got home I wasn't feeling well enough to go outside.  

 

The tale of squirrel and crow

After the storm it was much cooler and very nice.  The crow came looking for a handout.  The squirrel helped itself to the birds' food in the hanging dishes.  The crow watched and thought about trying to do the same but didn't quite figure out how.  At one point they were nearly nose to beak and the squirrel was feeling feisty.   The pool was full of water and detritus.  I helped a bumblebee and a wasp and a few beetles.   A skink rushed across the steps faster than I could focus.  

Donner und Blitzen

A small sunflower bloomed yesterday.  Then it rained substantially overnight.  More was predicted so I swam in the morning.  Beetles, ants, wasps, and roaches were afloat but I only rescued beetles.  Afterward, I glimpsed a dragonfly and a cabbage white.  The New England aster was blooming.  So was the beautyberry.  At lunch, crows and squirrels ate mealworms.  Carolina wrens and bluebirds were unhappy that the dishes were covered against future rain.  A blown leaf fragment fooled me into thinking it was a mantis.  

A thunderstorm arrived around 2:30pm  and rain hammered the pavement.  By 3pm the thunder was loud and the lightning close, while the light was very low.  We lost Internet connectivity for about 22 hours.