Thirsty day

In the morning, the black cat drank from the pool.  Birds were thirsty too, including a hummer.  I discovered the sugar water in the fridge had gone off so I had to make fresh and let it cool.  A Carolina wren and a downy woodpecker ate suet.  Titmice joined the regular three seed eaters.  Late in the afternoon a blue jay had some barkbutter balls.  

I could see dragonflies zoom out of the trees and back again but had no hope of seeing where they perched.  A tiger swallowtail was equally hard to catch.  Fortunately some dragonflies prefer to hunt down near me.  A blue dasher obelisked on a stake.  Did I mention it was another hot day?   A female great blue skimmer took another perch.  The Argiope hung in its web, waiting.

 

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.

Yellows

In addition to the goldfinches on the sunflower, a pine warbler visited the suet.  Fiery skippers and a tiger swallowtail feasted on the aster flowers.  The swallowtail also sampled the mountain mint. 

A strange little bee staggered through the violet leaves as though it had gotten drunk on the rue.  But it was probably a leafcutter bee measuring where to cut. The bellflower resin bee, Megachile campanulae, seemed to fit.  Its back legs were loaded with pollen. 

After dark a moth was attracted to the window.  

Butterfly and frog

Yesterday didn't happen - I didn't take a single photo.  Actually, The pool was being uncovered which scared off the wildlife.  Plus I was busy preparing to give my opinion to the school board.  I was busy today too, but the time I was able to spend in observation was rewarding.  Morning was lovely.  The creek glowed with reflected sunshine.  Bluebirds popped up soon after I filled the feeder dishes.  The female pileated woodpecker returned.  

A frog moved into the pool.  The yellow cat came by and noticed the frog, but of course there was all that water between them.  Later I startled the frog into a dive.  Up close, the water was dusty with pollen.  

While the frog hid, the butterfly caught my attention.  It was a tiger swallowtail trying to suck nourishment out of dead azalea flowers.  I don't know why it ignored the money plant and the irises.  A blue jay loitered in the trees.  The first daylily bloomed.  

As I ate lunch, a brown headed nuthatch drank from the ant moat.  The bluebirds were back.  A mockingbird demanded a share of the mealworms but there wasn't much left.  The pileated female wanted more suet.  Sunset was a brilliantly glowing haze without discrete clouds, just fingers of colored light reflected in the creek.  

Hot

The female pileated woodpecker was back for breakfast. A bluebird waited for me to refill the mealworm dish.  A mockingbird came for brunch and a long drink from the birdbath. 

I saw 88° on the outdoor thermometer.  A black swallowtail found the bolting parsley.  A few turtles sunned on the logs but maybe it was too hot.

Certainly a great blue heron thought so.  It perched on a dock piling and let its wings drop so the late afternoon sun and breezes could reach areas normally covered.  This can be a threat pose but I saw no other bird.  

The Scourge of Squirrels

I have given the dog the title above.  Twice this morning he wanted to go out just as a squirrel had settled in to glean fallen sunflower seeds.  He blew out the door leaving ten years behind in the dust.  Of course the squirrels were faster but they had to run all out for the trees.  I wondered to K why they didn't just climb the post.  Did they think the dog could climb like a cat?  He certainly tried!  Just as he missed the squirrels, I missed a tiger swallowtail.   A skink wit a regrown tail headed for cover under the boards.  Later, I saw one on the steps with a classic blue tail.  

A pair of geese paddled by trailed by at least three goslings.  A reddish paper wasp hunted among the weeds.  A queen yellowjacket cruised low over the ground.  A bumblebee hunted for azalea blossoms that still had nectar.  Blue and yellow Dutch irises began blooming.  I think it's time to start spraying for spidermites.  Crane flies have been hanging around the patio door for a week. 

A male goldfinch in summer finery sought a drink from the ant moat that was pea-green with algae.  I hope that's nutritious?  A female cardinal sat eating on the sunflower seed perch when a male came wooing.  She made him hover instead of letting him join her.  It was poor timing on his part since she was already feeding herself.  

As I ate supper, I was joined by a mockingbird, a bluebird, and the female pileated woodpecker.  A yellow rumped warbler in summer feathers scavenged the crumbs left at the end of the day.  Brown headed nuthatches argued with a male house finch that tried to hog the seed perch. 

Butterflies

Temperature over 80° hatched out butterflies and also brought up the first skink of the season.  I saw small, beige lepidoptera in addition to a tiger and a black swallowtail, but only the black swallowtail stayed put long enough for me to focus.  The crossvine bloomed. 

Out like a lion

The first day of March was lovely.  The last day, though warm, grew windy and ended in rain.  Menacing clouds filled the sky at 5pm and an hour later melted together to rain.  I was driving, not taking pictures.    In the morning, the downy woodpeckers queued up for suet.  Orioles seemed confused after starlings ate up all the food.  Blue jays were disappointed too. 

Brown headed nuthatches continued their steady depletion of sunflower seeds.  A chipping sparrow wandered the patio looking for goodies.  A junco did the same, but in the mulch.  A bluebird foraged on the steps. 

The gladiolus bulbs sprouted!  A black swallowtail egged the rue.  Turtles basked.  

Frost

There was a pretty rime of ice on the money plant and mountain mint leaves but I don't think anything was killed.  The creek was glassy in the early light and the day warmed pretty quickly.  The sky was intensely blue though there were contrail streaks.  Male flowers on the pines joined the oaks in gilding surfaces with pollen.  Money plants formed buds and violets bloomed.  Azaleas began to flower but the blueberry buds would not be rushed. 

I spotted a pied-bill grebe on the creek but it dived and anyway vegetation fooled the camera focus.  A great blue heron supervised the turtles on the lake.  A great egret fished below the dam. 

Starlings took over the dish feeders.  A mockingbird drank from the birdbath.  Orioles savored the jelly.  in the bushes across the pool, two brown thrashers chased each other but I got no pictures.  Bluebirds eventually got some food.  A myrtle warbler foraged in the birdbath which had dried out during the day.  Then it hovered to peck suet.  Strange bird. 

Bees inspecting the rue for flowers were disappointed.  A black swallowtail only cared about the rue leaves that would feed caterpillars.  

Skink

I finally found a cooperative tiger swallowtail, right outside my window.  It sat on a cinquefoil leaf for quite some time.  A male downy woodpecker continued to check on the empty suet cage, then pecked the post in frustration.  Carolina wrens checked in as well. 

Finally after four online meetings I had time for the pool.  The water was warm but the North wind was not.  A spider tried to use me as a life preserver but I felt the tickle of its feet and brushed it off.  Then I had to properly rescue it.  My best guess is that it was a woodlouse spider but it was much paler than any other that I've seen.  

I almost didn't go to the deep end because I was cold, but fortunately for a skink, I did.  It was big enough to know better than to go for a swim and it seemed stunned by the experience.  Quite some time passed before it began to move around normally.  

In the evening, the twelve spotted dragonflies were out as usual.  Fluffy cumulus chased the sun to get a paint job.  

Back to warm

A curious bluebird watched the barkbutter balls because a brown thrasher had taken over.  The brown thrasher moved to the suet and then to the birdbath.  The heat had nearly all the trees in bloom.  That included the domestic cherry that grew from a pit I planted many years ago.

Sunshine brought out a tiger swallowtail that, alas, I mistook for a leaf fluttering on the breeze until too late.  A white throated sparrow lurked in the camellia until it dashed out to retrieve a fallen barkbutter ball.  A row of turtles soaked up solar heating.  

Blue jays gathered after lunch.  I saw crows chase an osprey.  The tide went very low, a combination of wind direction and moon phase.  The goose with the bad wing was back.  A wood duck pair grazed on the hillside above the turtles.  

Off-and-on rain

Everyone slept in except K.  Then I spent a lot of time cooking and may have missed some wildlife.  A squirrel was eating green dogwood berries.  A molting pine warbler ate bark butter and rainwater soup.  The camera only wanted to focus when the bird's head was down in the food.

Apparently the rain did not ruin the hummers' nectar, though other hummers made it too risky for good digestion.

There were moments of sun and an apparent aerial battle between a palamedes and a black swallowtail.  There was also a little snout butterfly.  I glimpsed a male widow skimmer, but he didn't linger.  A couple of sand wasps were very close.  A spiderweb held raindrops.  A grasshopper nymph climbed a bamboo stake I hadn't used yet. There was a frog in the pool skimmer again. 

A snowy egret stalked the shallows below the dam.  A molting Carolina wren took some melted bark butter.  The brown headed nuthatch ignored me five feet away and let loose with some squeaks.  A brown thrasher in the cedar observed me in the pool.

Waves of rain

I was busy during the sunny morning.  At lunch, three black swallowtails danced around the rue with occasional excursions to the parsley.  A blue dasher watched the buzzing wasps and bees on the herbs.  Blue mud wasps joined the crowd of sand wasps, digger wasps, threadwaisted wasps, and scoliid wasps. I glimpsed a skink disappearing into a hole in the steps. 

All afternoon starting at 2:40pm, thunderstorms rolled through with short intense bursts of rain.  Just before the rain began, a yellow crowned night heron landed on the dock.  In between the waves, high flying dragonflies picked off the little humidity-loving pests. 

Rare visitors

We picked the last (probably) of the blueberries and a big bowl of figs.  A spinyback orbweaver protected the figs though it was far to small to catch the wasps and hornets I saw.

I rescued a firefly, so they were still around even though I hadn't seen any flashing in the evening.   A brown thrasher hunted under the sakaki.  A blue dasher used one of my perches while a Halloween pennant rode the top of the hackberry.  A tattered skimmer made short forays from its bamboo perch. 

A zebra swallowtail feasted on the butterfly milkweed until it disappeared in a flurry of hungry birds.  The blue jays and bluebirds wanted bark butter balls so I hope the butterfly just fled. A while later, a monarch arrived on the butterfly milkweed. 

Titmice were content with seeds.  A few hummers visited.  A great crested flycatcher darted around the trees.  A red bellied woodpecker sunbathed up in the oak.

The waxing moon was gradually enveloped in clouds.  A bright Jupiter trailed behind.

Pool covered

The pool covering was yesterday, but the day slipped away without a post. I am always sad when it's pool closing time, even though I didn't want to get in the cold water Monday.  Nevertheless, I kept the camera busy.  A heavy dew made surfaces elegant.  The hibiscus did bloom.  And there was a seedpod. 

I found an orb web under the trees.  The tiny spider had an even tinier fleck of red that indicated it was an orchard spider, Leucauge venusta.  A black swallowtail visited the parsley though it's awfully late for a caterpillar to start life.  A cricked rafted on the water.  I saved four ground beetles. 

Carolina wrens worked on the dish of bark butter and mealworms.  A female bluebird looked around but didn't see anything she wanted.  Then a robin showed up.  Titmice drank form the ant moat rather than the birdbath.  A pine warbler got some mealworms. 

I was fascinated by the way the sun refracted the distorted surface tension caused by a floating leaf.  They made amazing patterns.   Later, clouds made sunset impressive, but hinted at weather to come.  

Rain began at breakfast and was light but steady.  A little before 4pm, we had a cloudburst and then the sky began to clear, but it looked strangely dark.  Blue jays competed with squirrels for pecans.  A Carolina wren was not pleased by bark butter rain broth soup.  

Peninsula garden

K gave a presentation at the UU Fellowship of the Peninsula and I discovered they had a community vegetable garden.  It included several varieties of sunflowers, one of them bushy with smaller flowers which were overrun with bees and butterflies: two tiger swallowtails, a silver spotted skipper, and a painted lady.  The profusion of bugs attracted Eastern pondhawks and a golden winged skimmer.  I didn't ask but I suspect the flowers were Jerusalem artichoke - Helianthus tuberosus.  Maybe I should get one from the grocery and plant it? The sun was scorching and there wasn't much breeze to move the sticky air.


When we finally got home, a palamedes swallowtail was fluttering around the patio, but I missed it.  There were buds on one of the new lavenders and flowers on the butterfly milkweed.  A female Needham's skimmer used a perch near the flowers.  And of course there were blue dashers.  Wasps worked on the mints.  I fished a lacewing out of the water but I think it was dead.  By then the sky was full of menacing clouds racing East while the temperature dropped. 

I thought I'd seen a hummingbird with a white crown and now I have proof.   Meanwhile, a cardinal learned a bitter lesson.  He spied a fat green caterpillar in the rue and found that it tasted nasty.  The caterpillar died but presumably some of its siblings will be saved as long as the cardinal remembers.   Blue jays took a break from the blueberries to have some bark butter balls.  Chickadees and titmice and a finch stocked up on seeds. 

Ducks joined a turtle on the lake snags.  An egret staked upstream along the far bank.  The chaste tree was nearly finished blooming.  A cicada killer zoomed all around me, frustrating my effort to get a decent photo.  Thunder rumbled and convinced me to leave the pool but very little rain fell and the sky cleared before sunset. 

Hotter

I was gone from before dawn to mid afternoon.  The day was quite hot by the time we returned.  That brought out the dragonflies that were sparse while the temperature was more pleasant.  I also saw a black swallowtail and a cloudless sulphur.  A wren inspected the remnants on bark butter and said, "no,"  I glimpsed a hummer but I was unsure if it fed.  A couple of titmice and the twitchy cardinal had seeds.  Then toward evening we had a brief cloudburst.  When the fireflies came out, K closed the feeder and said the air was fragrant.

Sweltering

By mid morning, the temperature had passed 90F°.  As I ran errands, dragonflies were everywhere.  It surprised me somewhat as there has been little rain recently and few mosquitoes, midges, or gnats.  The hummer(s) kept drinking like it was the last day before Prohibition. 

When I returned, I found still more dragonflies flowing across the yard together..  A black swallowtail tried to wrestle nectar out of a blue indigo flower.  A flock of chickadees were all over the yard acting as if they had no sense.  Fledglings, I suspect.

Almost everything in the pool had drowned.  There was a camel cricket, two carpenter bees, and assorted spiders and small wasps.  A ground beetle had a reddish ant clamped on one leg.  I think the ant was dead, but the beetle was lively.  The rue still hosted a variety of wasps

Two geese with three goslings paddled upstream.  Later a couple of mallard drakes kept to shaded water.  A couple of cormorants occupied the snag on the lake.

Hot sun

At breakfast, a male cardinal caught another having a sunflower seed and ran him off.  A blue jay tried to get some bark butter without getting photographed. Several swallowtail butterflies flitted about.  Then I went off to register voters.

The law of the jungle prevailed at lunch.  The feral cat stalked something in the azalea bush by the breakfast room window.  A skink made a foolish dash across the patio and the cat got it.  I did not capture the drama because I'd never before seen the cat catch anything.  More butterflies, wasps, bees, crane flies, and a damselfly flew past the window. Then the clouds went pink and the day was done. 

Skink

Why are crane flies so fascinated with windows?  I saw a black and a tiger swallowtail. And wasps and bees, of course. 

An egret appeared to hold a conversation with an oddly pale mallard.   A couple of geese brought their four goslings to eat our grass. 

I think a squirrel was eating green cherries.  Another turned somersaults off the redwood trunk and generally acted like it was intoxicated. 

A skink scampered past me and slipped under the pool cover.  A little later, it or another emerged and then froze, perhaps noticing how close I was.  It was definitely blushing.  One turtle sunned itself on a log. 

Blue eyed grass was beginning to bloom and a money plant was festooned with green coins.  The purple iris apparently bloomed without my noticing.  The Solomon's seal flowers seemed mostly done.  The coral honeysuckle was covered with flowers so if any hummer didn't like what was in the feeder, it would not go hungry.