Bugs

At breakfast, a pileated woodpecker visited the suet but left so fast I don't know which sex it was.   Again the afternoon temperature was in the 90s and the water was a little warmer.  I rescued spiders and beetles and one small wasp, very carefully.  Some of the spiders were goners as was a green stinkbug.  When I deadheaded a rose, I disturbed an assassin bug nymph.  The little butterfly made the rounds again.  

Northeaster

High tide flowed over the low end of the dock, pushed by the gusty Northeast wind.  Leaves, twigs, and lots of pine needles blew into the pool.  I emptied the skimmer at least three times, maybe four.  And a drowned skink got away from me and went down the pipe. 

Most wildlife was in hiding but I found a colorful green stinkbug nymph (Chinavia hilaris) on the mountain mint. Neighbors fished in the high water but I didn't see them catch anything. Geese huddled in the lee of the bank across the creek. 

Goldenrod bloomed and the saltbush showed white tips.  Fern fronds were lined with spores.  But the sky was gray on gray.  Towards evening, a great blue heron stood on the dock facing into the wind.  Even so, its feathers took a beating.  Up on the lake, an egret preened while cormorants watched.  They were much more sheltered by the ridge on the east side of the lake.  .  

The gloomy sky turned crimson at sunset, but I had just downloaded the day's photos and the camera refused for cooperate.  I missed the vivid reds behind the commuting cormorants and only got the pale lavender twilight. 

Hot

A hummer came to breakfast.  A brown thrasher was up early scouting for crumbs.  Wasps and bees went for the mountain mint, as did a brown stinkbug.  

I rescued a horntail that was still actively struggling and must have just fallen in the water.  It didn't take long to recover.  I also rescued a mama wolf spider and her progeny. An odd green floater turned out to be a stinkbug.  I rescued scarab and ground beetles but not the Japanese beetle. 

A widow skimmer spent the day on the perch outside my window.  A pondhawk used the stalk that had held daylily flowers as an observation post.  A blue dasher perched delicately on a long, thin leaf.  Another later obelisked on a lavender pod.  Lots more blueberries had ripened and I got very sweaty picking them.  

Still hot & humid

While I was doing dishes after breakfast, there were two hummer visits.  A female bluebird had some suet.  A perched dragonfly, a female bar-winged skimmer, turned iridescent.  Much later, I spied a blue dasher.  A damselfly hung around to pool making me wonder if I was bait. 

I rescued a bunch of brown scarabs and a woodlouse hunter spider that was clinging to an oak leaf.  That spider species drowns very quickly so it was fortunate to have found the leaf.    A great golden digger wasp appeared on the mountain mint.  So did a brown stinkbug, rusty carpenter bee and a big yellow bumblebee. 

Huge dark cumulus clouds looked like rain and there was loud thunder in the afternoon but no precipitation.  The hibiscus sawflies were leaving eggs on the hibiscus leaves so I will need to spray more neem oil.  At twilight the tide was quite low and the fireflies were thick.  I tried once again to catch them on camera and actually succeeded!  

Creepy critter

It was a very hot day, so I waited till the sun wasn't hitting the patio any more before going outside.  There were dragonflies and butterflies, bees and wasps, as usual.  And I could hear cicadas.  But suddenly, a strange creature ran past me across the concrete and dived into the pool.  I scrambled to catch up before it was sucked into the skimmer.  It was a mole cricket, only the second one I've ever seen, and the other was at Back Bay decades ago.  I  rescued it and made it wait till I had some pictures.  Then it took off like an Olympic runner.

Blue dashers, a male widow skimmer, Carolina saddlebags, 12-spotted skimmers, and other skimmers with unmarked wings were all hunting.  A buckeye fed on mint and a black swallowtail rested on a dogwood leaf. I found a drowned skinklet, also a drowned lacewing and a drowned metallic green bee.  I left a Japanese beetle and a brown stinkbug to their fate but rescued an earwig and some other beetles.  The Argiope had a fresh zigzag in its web.  I startled a little katydid near the web, but it stayed away. 

An egret chased another off the dock.  Hummers weren't happy with the feeder.  Blue jays were around.  I saw something flying very high that had a raptor look. 

The moon was nearly full.

Rain, finally

Overnight rain left drops on water-repellent leaves.  A blue jay toyed with me and the camera sided with the bird.  First a great shot was waste because the camera focused on the background, then the camera cut off the bottom half of the blue jay.  Then I went off to do things all day.  When I got home, a wren came and sang at me until I pointed the camera at it.  A downy woodpecker tried to pretend it only was interested in the dogwood, not the suet I was sitting beside.

There were lots of interesting insects.  An assassin bug nymph delicately tiptoed down a juniper trunk.  A skipper loved the lavender.  So did some bumble bees.  Wasps were happy with the rue, as were flies.  A stinkbug dangled from a hibiscus leaf.  A larger assassin bug nymph lurked on the rue. 

The sky had looked threatening at mid day but became sunny again later.  It was hot but not as beastly as the last two days.  Clouds returned about the time I got home.  They thickened as they slowly rolled East.  And after the fireflies had been out for a while, there were lightning flashes and a long pause, then thunder.  The temperature seemed to be dropping too.  The weather sites attributed the heat to a high pressure ridge across the Southeast that also caused a deep dip in the jet stream to be stuck in place over the Rockies. Thus the West was cold, the Midwest flooded, and we sizzled. 

Summery

A male goldfinch came for a drink.  Then the feral cat walked through the yard.  The twitchy male cardinal made frequent, nervous visits to the seeds, but the balding male and his lady love did not appear.  On one occasion, Twitchy was scared off by a chickadee.  There were lots of female hummer visits.  Other birds buzzed around in the trees. I'm pretty sure one was a great crested flycatcher. 

But the arthropods were more interesting.  I rescued three spiders, one twice, from drowning. Another spider worked on a web in the parsley.  Dragonflies included a male common whitetail, a female great blue skimmer, and a Needham's skimmer.  A wide variety of bees and wasps (and a few flies) feasted on the rue.  There were fewer butterflies, but I saw for certain a tiger and a black swallowtail and a silver spotted skipper.  A green stinkbug nymph was stupidly trying to climb the edge of the pool steps. 

Nice day

The hummers sucked the feeder dry during the day.  The romantic cardinals (bald forehead male) carried on courting.  The fully feathered male sneaked in for seeds that must have given him indigestion, he was so twitchy.  The blue jay beat me again.  Late in the afternoon, a pair of Carolina wrens snacked on the suet. 

A white moth spent the day on my office window.  A big stink bug landed on the glass too.  Dragonflies were everywhere despite the gusty wind.  I put out stakes for them to perch on.  Butterflies ventured out but I couldn't catch any of them.  Tiny ants were up to something on the mountain mint.  I pruned myself a view of the turtles.

Clouds in the afternoon looked like immanent rain, but they lied.  In an hour, blue sky was back.  A chunk of driftwood fooled me into thinking I was seeing a dead goose.

Knitting Mill Creek

It was chilly when I left for the breakfast meeting but plenty warm afterwards when we walked down to see the restored wetland.  And it was humid and buggy.  The mosquitoes were so big I thought the first one I saw was a spider.  I could see the stripes on its legs and its green head.There were lots of flowers in bloom. Then I stopped at a garden shop to look for wild flowers.  I bought two plants and a friend gave me a third at the meeting.  By then I was dripping with sweat and very tired.  So I didn't accomplish much for the rest of the day. 

The azaleas in back were finished blooming and so were the dogwoods but the blue and yellow flag irises were beginning.  I spent some time photographing a venusta orchard spider beside the steps. 

I found three young caterpillars on the rue leaves.  Wasps fed on the rue flowers. The hibiscus sawflies crawled on the violet leaves, waiting for the hibiscus to emerge from the ground.  A brown stinkbug ascended a rose cane. 

I must have been very quiet because a downy woodpecker landed on the suet beside me.  But as soon as I moved, he fled. 

Fooled

After an overly heavy Sunday dinner I did not hurry to get into the water.  Besides, the sky was blue.  When I finally went out around 4pm, I saw the blanket of clouds rolling up from the South.  I was only able to do a basic cleaning before the leading edge arrived and raindrops started falling.  Remembering yesterday's deluge I was worried and decided to come in.  That, of course, meant that the rain did not last.  Nor did it return until 7pm.  But I'd already showered and washed the suit before I realized I'd been fooled.

I did rescue a cricket and two spiders, one a mama wolf bigger than yesterday's.  I didn't rescue a brown stinkbug that looked like the invasive kind.  I also found a drowned skink, alas.  Bees disputed access to the milkweed with a black swallowtail.  A blue dasher watched from the perching stick while a saddlebags patrolled above. A jumping psider was reflected on the riling and abasilica spider webmade a trap of the rue.  And a live skink flicked its blue tail around as though it was practicing to be a squirrel. 

The male goldfinch visited at breakfast and again when we got home and twice at supper.  He was too fast for me every time.  The hummers drank the feeder dry.  The juvenile cardinal was a messy seed sheller. An egret preened on the dock. A silver spotted skipper greeted me as I got out of the car. 

Lovely day

It was mostly blue sky and sunshine once the fog evaporated from the windows.  A male goldfinch came for a drink from the ant moat.  There were more butterflies today.  I saw a variety of swallowtails and several orange butterflies. 

The creek was quite placid.  Hummingbirds were not.  They had glaring contests and chases.  And in between they fussed at the bigger birds.  One actually chased a chickadee.  Dragonflies perched on every available upright twig. Skinks were out in the warmth. 

A titmouse was back at the seed feeder in the late afternoon.  At twilight, a juvenile cardinal beginning to turn red popped out of the undergrowth and took to the feeder.  The newspaper's nature column was all about silk moths (Saturniidae) but all that came to our windows was a green stink bug. 

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. 

Nice breeze

 A squirrel was eating something in the hackberry when I got up,  A fledgling titmouse liked the ant moat as a water dish.  A goldfinch and a hummer briefly shared the feeder area.  An egret preened on a piling.  Then I had to leave. 

The morning's mackerel sky cleared in the afternoon. A skink crossed the steps.  The wren in the birdhouse had its head in the doorway and beak open - panting?  Later she cussed me out for sitting too close. 

A black swallowtail visited the skeletal parsley.  Dragonflies were all around.  I saw blue dashers, amberwings, slaty skimmers, a four spotted pennant on the pine, something that cruised along the spartina, and I think the one that never perched was a Needham's skimmer.  Wasps were all over the mint, as usual.  A little brownish butterfly -- hairstreak, copper? -- was also on the mint.  A stink bug trekked all over the window. I saved a couple of spiders. Then, after midnight, I discovered a 12-spotted skimmer banging the window by the watering can.  The light was still on and attracting other bugs.

Misty

Mist washed out the pines across the creek when I got up.   A titmouse came to the feeder briefly.  Hummers were up early.  So was a very handsome red cardinal.  A thin trickle of sunlight came through after breakfast.  The morning battle with the geese continued.  Egrets fished in the turbulence from the dam. 

Later there was a light sprinkle of rain.  By lunch time, there were shadows again.  A skimmer perched on the feeder hanger while a hummingbird got lunch.  A cabbage white flitted around the rue while wasps fed.  Skinks dashed about their business.  A stinkbug crawled around on the window.  Since there were no bark butter balls, there were no blue jays.

In the early evening, dragonflies were zipping back and forth over the patio and I tried to catch one on camera.

Dragonflies

The last few days have hatched out a wide variety of dragonflies and also the little fliers they eat.  I wish I could have captured the way a dragonfly caught the sunlight while the vegetation behind was still in shade.  I wasted many pixels trying. Wasps also were spotlighted by the sun. The insects had to battle wind gusts. 

Blue jays kept coming for bark butter balls.  Egrets worked up and down the creek.  Fireflies appeared at twilight. K saw the almost full moon through a break in the clouds. Two green stinkbugs landed on the window along with lots of tiny moths and a lacewing, attracted by the light. 

Wet

A stinkbug was on the inside of the patio door glass when I got up.  I put it outside.There was more mist when I went back to the conference, but I arrived reasonably dry.  When I left, mid afternoon, puddles indicated that there had been real rain.  I saw a great blue heron in a trashy swale and a minute later a monarch butterfly through the Tide window.  The mist was moving toward rain as I exited and drove home.  By 5pm it was definitely rain.  And a strong wind was driving the tide up into the grass.  The saltmarsh fleabane didn't mind. 

Hot

I squeegeed the window in order to see out at breakfast.  The overnight rain wasn't heavy and it left the air humid.  A Halloween pennant perched on a dead rosemary twig.  Hummers got fresh feeders.

A variety of butterflies defeated my attempts to get pictures.  I saw a palamedes swallowtail, a monarch, a cloudless sulphur, a couple of red spotted purples, battling snouts, and all I got was a duskywing. Skinks of all sizes were all over, including one at the bottom of the pool, alas.

An angle-wing katydid kept popping up among the retaining wall plants.  I saw both a male and a female amberwing.  A slaty skimmer took up the post the Halloween Pennant had left.  Both argiopes were hanging in their webs.  A stinkbug climbed a stalk of rue.  The usual variety of wasps made the rounds. 

A small cicada clung to the stick I wedged on the pool ladder so insects could climb out.  It was under water and not climbing but when I lifted the stick and attempted to remove the cicada, its vibrator went off like a firecracker.  We argued and eventually I got it to sit on my finger for a photo session.  It soon took wing.

Some clouds finally appeared in the South, but they dissipated into an overall haze.  As we ate supper, a white breasted nuthatch landed on the feeder.  A chickadee hassled it and it left.  Then a male goldfinch appeared.  It drank from the ant moat and then left. 

The haze turned golden then rose.  A cardinal was the last bird at the feeder.  A few fireflies greeted the twilight.

Warm sunshine

It was quiet at breakfast till a blue jay and a brown thrasher came for mealworms.  We put out fresh hummer juice before we left and a female found it.  I had to chase goslings several times. I saw a mock strawberry in the grass (AKA snakeberry, Indian strawberry, Duchesnea indica) and learned that it is not a native but rather an invasive.  Who knew?! 

Titmice were up by lunch time.  An egret watched the water flowing out of the lake.  A couple of doves foraged in the mulch.  In the afternoon, I saw an odd looking duck, possibly a female wood duck.   An osprey and a couple of swallows flew over the creek. A male towhee whistled piercingly, but kept behind foliage and kept flitting around.  Two song sparrows hopped around the birdbath.  A house wren sang for an hour then sneaked up on the rosemary. A downy woodpecker dithered over visiting the seed feeder. 

Cabbage whites and one little blue butterfly, a few dragonflies, and the first beetle rescue of the season all escaped my camera.  I also fished out a banded tiger moth that may have been dead.  The little orb weaver spider was still waiting inside the iris.  An earwig wrapped itself up in a hackberry leaf.  A stinkbug landed on the window. I saw an adult skink but no blue tails.

At supper, a third titmouse tried to join the two that have been coming but was scolded and chased away. A great blue heron lurked by the dam outfall.  Fireflies were flashing at dusk. 

Cloudy

I was gone all morning.  At lunch time, blue jays zipped around the yard. A fledgling cardinal discovered beauty berries. Egrets patrolled the creek.

A Carolina wren thought about mealworms but scared off.  A dove hung around the mulch.  A skink made it to the rosemary before I got the camera on.   I toured the spider webs.  The argiope caught a monarch butterfly.  The aranea barn spider moved to above the spinyback orbweaver which was repairing its web.  I did not see the smaller spinyback.  Some fiery skippers worked on the lantana.  I also saw a cloudless sulphur and an orange butterfly. Birds nest fungus popped up in the mulch all around.  The mushrooms I saw before were gone but a new one showed up out front. 

I rescued a mama wolf spider, a stink bug, an assassin bug nymph, a cricket, and a couple of beetles.  Carpenter bees visited the rosemary.  Blue jays argued over an acorn and a red bellied woodpecker complained.  A couple of great blue herons argued over the egrets' fishing hole while the egrets ignored them.  A soaring osprey made a U-turn and disappeared behind the trees.  There were more clouds than sun in the afternoon though it was warm enough.  Sunset was spectacular with fractal clouds catching color.  And I saw fireflies!

Hot

Hot sun alternated with dark-bellied clouds that promised rain but didn't deliver.  A stinkbug walked around the window at breakfast.  That was about it.

Later in the morning I rescued beetles from the water.  A couple of Carolina wrens ran around on the trunk of the oak.  A black swallowtail worked hard at laying eggs while a cloudless sulphur just flitted through the trees.

At lunch a downy woodpecker and a titmouse tried to get turns at the feeder.  The hummer was distressed by all the activity so close.  A couple of grackles got nowhere with the feeder.

Dragonflies prowled the afternoon air.  A four spotted penant perched on the same spartina as the argiope - a lethal combination. A yellow crowned night heron perched on a piling, then flew up into the redwood.  Egrets hung out at the dam. 

At supper, I saw a hummer, a wren, and a snowy egret.  Tonight, tomorrow before dawn actually, is peak for the Perseid meteors.  The prediction is cloudy, alas.