Sunny

The sky was hazy with fuzzy cumulus coming from the West.  It was a little too warm and humid to be pleasant, unless in a swimsuit.  I caught three frogs and sent them away.  One seemed to be in poor shape so I carried it to the birdbath in the hope that rainwater would wash off the pool chemicals.  Other than that, there were beetles.  On the mountain mint there were the usual bees and wasps and a skipper.  A Yellow-legged Mud-dauber Wasp found something interesting in the patio surface.  Some other wasps and bees were acting oddly too.  

I saw an orange butterfly (monarch?) and a yellow (tiger swallowtail?), neither of which cooperated.  Little skinks teased the camera.  I could not find the Argiope.  A great egret rested on the dock.  A very high-flying bird might have been a swallow.  A mockingbird looked grumpy from molting.  It dined on barkbutter balls.  

Camera trap

The rain really lowered temperatures.  Apparently, it also caused the orchard spider to disappear.  Instead, I found an Argiope in the azalea and a messy funnel web in the camellia.  A skipper joined the bees and wasps.  Female slaty skimmer and blue dasher dragonflies kept watch.  A tiger swallowtail sailed around the trees.  A hummer discovered that I'd put out fresh sugar water.  A Carolina wren was hard to see in the dogwood.  

In the afternoon, a guy from the gray fox research project showed up to place a camera trap.  After reading about the project, I had filled out their form inviting them to do so.  The last time I saw a fox in the yard was before COVID, but we can hope.  The pool water was full of beetles and tree trash.  All week, I'd been seeing hackberry leaves attached to shattered galls.  Today an intact one was floating so I fetched it out for a photo.  There were actually two different galls by two different species of Pachypsylla, psyllids, a large brown ball and a small green nipple.   A widow skimmer stood guard on a garden stake.  The day was mostly sunny with a breeze from the Northeast that felt chilly on wet skin.  I saw a swallow flying but wasn't fast enough with the camera.  A heron watched me from atop a piling.  

Skinks and squirrels

It was a beautiful day in the shade.  The sun was intense but a nice breeze cooled the air and kept the bugs down.  Clouds floated out of the East.  I swam in the morning to have shade on the water.  The only critters I rescued were some ants, mainly so they wouldn't bite me.  The Argiope spider was in the same spot.  The widow skimmer and other dragonflies hunted from the perches I provided.   Note the pruinose abdomen on this male widow.  A female showed up later.  

A monarch battled with bees and wasps to lay eggs on the butterfly milkweed.  A black swallowtail flitted around but didn't try to lay eggs, so I suspect it was a male cruising for a girlfriend.  Fiery skippers also had to compete with the bees and wasps.  A tiger swallowtail was impossible to catch in a photo.  

I think I saw six skinks of various sizes.  One hungry skink dashed out of cover to snatch something off the concrete practically in front of me.  Another moseyed out from under my chair.  This one had a recent narrow escape.  The squirrels were all tracking their lady love through the trees. 

Cardinals, titmice and one blue jay enjoyed barkbutter balls.   A hummer hunted for a source of nectar in the rosemary.  Then it came for the feeder but I was sitting beside it at that time.  I froze and couldn't roll my eyes far enough so I don't know if it drank from the feeder or not.  Most of the hummer-friendly flowers were done blooming.  In fact, the only flowers left were canna, milkweed, and mountain mint.  A hawk swooped through the yard and I didn't have the presence of mind to take a picture.  I think I caught a barn swallow in flight.  

Vacation

We picked a rainy, hot, and humid time to visit Virginia's Eastern Shore.  Sunday, before we left, I admired the hibiscus flowers and the spider web.  In Cape Charles I saw a pair of osprey circling, a mockingbird, and a couple of buzzards.  A saddlebags dragonfly cruised up the main street but my photos missed it..  By the time we arrived, the sky suggested a storm was brewing.  On Monday we drove around Chincoteague.  The road to get there looked like it was only a foot or two above high tide.  Low tide revealed oyster beds around the island.  Laughing gulls and egrets were everywhere.  We discovered that NASA Wallops is powered by a field of solar panels.  The dregs of Chantel passed through adding to the humidity. 

At lunch Tuesday, we watched what I think was a white ibis probing creek mud for goodies.  Small dragonflies congregated in the vegetation along the creek.  We had good weather for a boat trip around Chincoteague and Assateague.  The ride was a bit choppy but the wind was a relief from the humidity.  Oystercatchers loafed on the oyster reefs.  Island ponies grazed near the saltmarsh.  Egrets and cormorants joined the gulls.  An eagle sat on a stump.  Swallows darted through the air.  Dolphins swam in the strait between islands.  A thunderstorm held off till evening.   

The bed and breakfast where we stayed had some garden pools and I surprised a frog.  On the way home, we stopped at a plant nursery and I saw a red admiral, skippers, and a digger wasp on the flowers.  We had lunch in Onancock.  Jellyfish were pulsating beside the wharf.   When we reached the CBBT, there were large birds atop some light poles, that I think were eagles.  The weather was horribly hot at home and the pool water had dropped too low.  Apparently none of the rain on our vacation fell at home.   A Carolina wren visited the no melt suet.  The spider relocated to a safer spot.  I saw a monarch hanging around the butterfly milkweed.  K reported that a hive of some sort took up residence in a bush between the driveway and the sidewalk.  

Streaming dragonflies

Breakfast was overcast and we didn't have sunshine till about 10am.  Humidity brought out the little biters and the dragonflies followed.  They appeared to be flowing around and over the house in a loop.  I think at least some may have been darners.  Other dragonflies perched and darted.  I believe those were great blue skimmers, slaty skimmers, and bar winged skimmers.  Wasps were also hunting but I think they wanted larger, meatier prey to feed their larva.  The only butterfly was the ever-present cabbage white.   A bumblebee fed on the rue.  The creek was placid in the morning but after lunch, the wind picked up. 

As I watched the dragonflies I also saw a couple of swallows hunting bugs higher in the air.  A gorgeous male hummer came to the feeder as I was sitting beside it.  He seemed very affronted but the juice had gone off anyway.  I replaced it and K spotted his return.  Brown headed nuthatches ignored me.  A titmouse was hungry and wary, but hunger won and it got some food.  Cardinals and bluebirds were too wary too eat.  A boater scared off a heron.  Something flew high over the trees, probably a buzzard.  The horse nettle bloomed and, finally, some of the milkweed buds opened..As the afternoon went on, the sky grew more hazy and bigger clouds passed.  By 4pm it was mostly overcast again.  A Carolina wren came for supper. 

 

Mackerel sky

The heat wave continued and the humidity seemed higher too. The West wind brought cirrus and altocumulus clouds making a classic "mares' tails and mackerel sky."  Some of it coalesced around contrails.  K said the sky was red at dawn.  Rain would be welcome but it wasn't in the forecast. 

I saw another butterfly but it was only a cabbage white.  A red spider mite scuttled around my chair arm.  Titmice and chickadees ate seeds.  A couple of tree swallows hunted aerial insects. 

Monarch & more

The heat brought out the butterflies, a monarch, a red admiral, a cabbage white, and smaller ones that wouldn't hold still.   

A mockingbird flashed its wings, briefly posing like an eagle on a coin.  I was sorry the dish was empty and refilled it.  Then a blue jay descended on the barkbutter balls but I didn't see the mockingbird again.  A swallow hunted in the blue sky.  And a house wren sang atop the feeder post.  

Strange weather

While it's been summery here, deep cold dropped down over the Northern plains states.  The NWS weather map resembled a rainbow flag except that the stripes dividing hot and cold were pinched very narrow.  This newspaper map isn't as colorful.  I looked up "Indian Summer" (which is now not polite) and learned that the current weather doesn't qualify.  "It’s a period of abnormally warm weather occurring in late autumn between St. Martin’s Day (November 11) and November 20."  

A mulch roach scuttled along the side of the house.  Virginia creeper turned red on a tree trunk.  The fungus developed toasty edges.  A cabbage white butterfly flitted around the trees.  Earlier I saw a cloudless sulphur. 

Despite the pleasant weather, I didn't see much else.  The female downy couldn't stay away from the suet.  A small flock of swallows zipped around the sky.  Then camera battery died and they were gone when I got back with the other battery.  They had the white underside of a tree swallow but appeared to have swallow-tails like a barn swallow.  I thing I'll go with tree swallow.

Frog and skink

At breakfast, two wrens shared crumbs, embarrassing me into refilling the dish feeders.  Two yellow roses bloomed this week.  Wasps and honeybees worked on the mountain mint.  I think one wasp was after caterpillars, not nectar.  Meanwhile, a black swallowtail was doing its best to make more caterpillars.  

I finally got back in the water which was fortunate for a skink I found clinging to the wall of the skimmer.  It didn't move much and I checked a couple of times for a heartbeat, but finally it disappeared when I wasn't looking.  I also harassed the green frog with a slow pursuit around the pool.  I didn't try to actually catch it and I wonder if it was playing too.  

The sky was hazy blue until wispy clouds appeared in the evening.  A swallow flew over and was gone before I could think of moving the camera.  a dragonfly hunted at treetop level.  Cicadas provided accompaniment.  

Monster bug

For a day that was supposed to be gray and wet, there was a lot of sunshine and warmth.  A breeze felt nice and didn't disturb the reflections on the creek.  The tree colors were visibly further along but there was still plenty of green.  But the hibiscus lost almost all its leaves.  A berry-eating bird mooned me but I can't identify it from that angle.  Finally, a female downy woodpecker discovered the suet.  

I puttered around in the yard planting strawberries and pulling up oak seedlings.  Wasps were still active, especially yellow jackets enjoying the camellias.  I saw spider threads floating on the breeze, but not the spiders.  An egret stood on top of the bulkhead admiring its reflection.  

A bluebird watched from the top of the redwood.  First gulls, then swallows zipped across the sky too fast for my camera.  A mockingbird stayed hidden while eating dogwood berries till finally it forgot to be cautious.  The milkweed seeds stayed in their pods waiting for what to change in the weather?  Blue jays were still hunting acorns.  The red aster appeared to be finished flowering. 

While admiring the beautyberries, I spotted a huge insect that turned out to be a wheelbug.  I didn't recognize it at first because the abdomen was swollen.  Eggs?  The camera ran out of juice but the bug waited patiently till I came back with a fresh battery.  Then it slowly made its way onto a different leaf with twigs in the way.  

Rows of little cotton-fluff cumulus clouds replaced the cirrus wisps and ushered in a wall of solid overcast around 4pm.  After the tricker-treaters had gone home, I tried to take pictures of the first quarter moon through gaps in the overcast.  The photos were so bad I'm tempted to pass them off as Halloween ghosts. 

Solstice

As I ate a late breakfast, so did a hummer.   The aster began blooming.  An odd-looking bee, black with a pale abdomen, preferred the mountain mint.  I saved many beetles including several scarabs with copper-colored legs and undersides and lined wing covers.  My best guess is that the were shining leaf chafers Anomala binotata.  There was also a Japanese beetle which I did not rescue.  A few wasps and a bumblebee also got lucky.  

Birds began to be interested in the cherries, or were they after bugs?   The photo I got looks like the tail of a great crested flycatcher.  After I got out of the water, a mockingbird landed on the mealworm feeder.  I didn't have my camera with me when we came out of the temple, but there was a beautiful sunset of orange cloud shreds and swallows were flying and calling.   

June-like day

A raggedy-molt brown thrasher came for breakfast.  Later in the morning while I was slicing green onions for Persian cold yoghurt soup, a pair of goldfinches visited.  Alas, no photo. The sky was intensely blue and the temperature mild with moderate humidity, more like the beginning of summer than the end. 

I saw skinks at lunch and several times in the afternoon.  Brown headed nuthatches also showed up repeatedly.  The hibiscus had a new flower and there were still more buds, thanks to the neem oil!  

The Argiope was still facing the other way on its web.  And the new Argiope was back in its web, so the one that drowned was an unknown.  In the late afternoon, the dog took a notion to have a roll in the violet leaves under the hibiscus and perilously close to the spider.  I checked afterward and found that, while the web had some damage, the spider had wisely hidden behind a dead leaf.  I found myself apologizing.  

The mountain mint continued to draw pollinators despite the spider mites damage and my pruning.  I didn't see the green bee, but there were plenty of honey and bumble bees, and flies.  Lots of digger, thread-waisted, and potter wasps, and today a butterfly!  It appeared to be a tattered summer azure.  The foolish monarch caterpillar found another seedpod to eat. And a hummer sampled the flowers on the butterfly milkweed.  I wish my other milkweeds would bloom, but I guess that's too much to ask when they're trying to survive all the insects.  Curiously, a Guinea paper wasp was sitting on the neem oil sprayer. 

A fly was very interested in a crack in the steps.  I thought it led to a skink lair but I wouldn't expect that to attract flies.  I rescued a spider carrying an egg pearl but I was too late for a big cicada, one of the same kind as I rescued a few days ago.  It may have been finished living before it fell in the water.  I also fished out a skink, an assassin bug that was still swimming, a small brown click beetle, and a big scarab with markings that reminded me of an army tank draped in camouflage.  

I believe I saw a tree swallow land in the oak but I couldn't find it in the foliage.  A downy woodpecker came back for suet.  Three titmice, including the one with no tail, also clustered on the suet.  And as the light began to fade two Carolina wrens sought suet for a bedtime snack.  

Sweaty day

 A blue jay wanted a barkbutter breakfast but was nervous about actually landing on the dish.  

I felt it was time to spray Neem oil again but when I started to spray the lavender up popped a small brown praying mantis.  I scooted it to the side and tried to interest it in another location.  Nope.  Back it went to the lavender.  I learned that mantises too young to have wings can hop.  The mantis was excellently camouflaged.

The sun transformed a perched male blue dasher into a jewel.  A fiery skipper joined the bees and wasps on the mountain mint.  Then a duskywing showed up.  Several skinks hotfooted it across the concrete.  Two black swallowtails flitted around but only one laid eggs in the rue.  A female blue dasher perched on an old gladiolus spike. 

Hummers were very thirsty.  A pair of wrens investigated.  A swallow flew by, calling,or I would have missed it.

I passed a larger slaty skimmer on my way to pick figs. There were plenty that had ripened since the rain, but even more fermenting, rotting,and growing mold .I didn't realize till I came back inside how hot I'd gotten. K said there was another praying mantis among the figs, but it was green. 

The sun came back

The sky cleared around mid day.   At lunch K noticed a very small skink. The bees and wasps came back to the mountain mint.  An odd, yellow and black beetle joined them.  At first I thought it was some kind of soldier beetle, but my best guess is that it was an elderberry borer Desmocerus palliatus.  But I couldn't see the long antennae that is supposed to have.  The Horse guard wasp was back. 

 A mockingbird scouted the suet but changed its mind.  Bluebirds took over as the fledglings joined their mother on the suet.  A blue jay poked the knothole on the dead oak limb. 

Things that got away without a picture: a swallow flew right over me,  A brown thrasher went to the feeder while I was on the water.  A monarch butterfly grabbed a drink of mountain mint, but didn't pay any attention to the butterfly milkweed.  

Hungry birds & bees

A blue jay and a brown thrasher discussed the empty state of the barkbutter ball dish.  A male pine warbler went for suet instead.  Then a female bluebird took over. The brown headed nuthatches seemed to be everywhere because they liked all the different foods.  Of course a downy woodpecker had to assert ownership. 

The blue jays came back after I refilled the dish.  I think they may have been fledglings.  I found a defunct cicada floating.  An osprey alerted me with its musical cries.  I also heard and glimpsed a swallow.  Honeybees were the most common insect on the mountain mint but I also saw a great black wasp, lots of golden digger wasps and scoliid wasps, bumble, carpenter, leafcutter, and other bees.

Figs!

Calamity!  The suet was empty, the barkbutter  balls were soggy, and the sugar water was diluted.  The downy woodpecker couldn't believe it.  Titmice didn't care.  A blue Jay discovered that soggy barkbutter balls had to be eaten one at a time.  The bird was none too pleased. 

A neighbor called for help and on my way back home I saw that there were ripe figs so I picked a handful. Then I noticed how ripe the yellow bell peppers had gotten so I tried to pick the small one and pulled off half the plant, including the big pepper.  The figs were delicious.  I haven't figured out what I want to do with the peppers yet.  

The Hymenoptera kept the mountain mint humming.  Mosquitoes were thick but I only saw a couple of dragonflies.  The caterpillar I transferred to the milkweed across the pool must have been satisfied as the plant was half eaten.  There was a drowned pink caterpillar in the water, but I don't know if it was pink in life.  I was just thinking that I hadn't seen any org webs when I noticed one next to the hibiscus.  It looked like an Argiope. . 

K went to the garden center and came home with two big pots of portulaca.   Most of our summer flowers were finished blooming.  K had gotten supplies to try "air layering" to convert a branch into a miniature tree.  An egret preened on a dock piling. Huge cumulus clouds built up in the South and then spread across the sun. It appeared to me that the tops of the clouds were being blown away.    I got a glimpse but no picture of two swallows. 

One swallow

A Carolina wren greeted the sun with a beak full of suet.  Then a male pine warbler showed up wanting suet. 

The mountain mint was throbbing with bees and wasps.  I rescued a metallic green six-spotted tiger beetle.   A large blue tailed skink paused for a photo op.  The blue was nearly gone from its tail so I guess it was close to adulthood. 

I had noticed a complete absence of swallows this summer until I saw one today over the playground at the elementary school.  The proverb, “one swallow does not a summer make" dates back to Aristotle, I discovered.  I also saw a rabbit at the library, but it saw me too.  

The reason I had the pocket camera out was the dramatic clouds closing in from the South.  But I missed quite an impressive lightening strike. And not too much later, all that drama came raining down. 

Still fairly cool

The sky was mostly cloudy without being completely overcast.  I found two black swallowtail caterpillars on the rue, one older than the other.  An adult black swallowtail enjoyed mountain mint.  The usual wasps were busy.  A blue dasher perched on the cinquefoil near the rue. Earlier I almost bumped into a skimmer on one of the perches. 

A hummer took exception to the presence of a squirrel on the post holding up her feeder.  Meanwhile, crows were screaming about a predator which might explain why the squirrel was pretending to be part of the post.   

Later, I came outside and immediately heard a kingfisher.  Hoping to see it, I nearly stepped on a skink.  A brown headed nuthatch popped up on the feeder hanger and we looked at each other.  I didn't want to scare it off and I think it hoped it was invisible. 

Summer vegetation obscured the lake but I was able to see turtles on their log. I found a small monarch caterpillar on the milkweed in the front yard.  The days of rain washed away the fig crop.  The ripening and rotting figs just disappeared.  There were still green figs, but when they ripen one-by-one, the birds get there first.  A green June beetle walked around on the driveway. 

A female downy woodpecker had bark butter for supper.  K discovered a bean-size crab in the pool and very kindly returned it to the creek. 

The sky cleared somewhat for sunset.  A bar of cloud glowed bright orange in the North.  I saw dragonflies and swallows swooping through the humid air but all I caught was a gull.

Damp

K said there was fog at 6am.  Later there were fogged windows.  Swallows cheeped as they zipped through our airspace.  I rescued some beetles (scarab and tiger), a mother spider, and two frogs that really didn't want my help. 

A squirrel decided that in the pool I could be safely ignored and came very close. There were some dragonflies but I expected more in such buggy weather.  The wasps were thick as usual but the butterflies were not.  I did see a monarch and three kinds of swallowtail.  A swallowtail caterpillar munched on the rue. 

The hibiscus flowered again and had a bud ready for tomorrow.  A titmouse posed in the cherry.  The brown headed nuthatch was back, squeaking.  A male goldfinch brought color when he got a drink.  Hummers occasionally chased one another. 

A sprinkle of rain preceded a rosy sunset. 

Another deluge

Spider threads glittered in the early light after breakfast.  The third quarter moon was overhead.  I remembered when I was a kid, the moon terminology confused me - I could see 1/2 of a moon, not 1/4. 

 A great blue heron lurked on the lake.  Lots of dragonflies wanted a foothold on one of my perches.  A little green heron prowled along the mud shoreline. 


I rescued a mama spider, a green stink bug, beetles, wasps, and a tiny millipede.  A small frog was in the skimmer.  A couple of swallowtails danced in the air.  Bees and wasps enjoyed mountain mint.  Later I saw a fiery and a silver spotted skipper. 

 Hummingbirds visited and I saw at least one chase another away.  Skinks ran about the patio.   A swallow flew over but I missed it again. 

After lunch a black rat snake passed through, scaring a squirrel. It was headed in the right direction to catch whatever made the tunnels on the West side of the house.  It or something scared a frog so it jumped into the pool.  I think I saw a Coopers hawk pursued by a crow, but it happened very fast.

Big drops of rain fell around 3:30pm then trailed off until the thunderstorm hit around 4pm.