Overcast

The prediction for full sun sure failed.  There were moments when the sun broke through, but the sky stayed white.  The birds got up late.  A Carolina wren came for mealworms.  The usual suspects plus their adopted cowbird and a titmouse competed for a place at the seed feeder.  A female downy woodpecker joined in.  Later a male goldfinch did too. 

A young red bellied woodpecker ate cherries.  So did robins and a brown thrasher.  Brown thrashers and robins also poked through the mulch beds.  I glimpsed a male ruby throat but it darted off.  Snowy egrets were still fishing below the dam. An adult night heron hunted in the lawn above the bulkhead across the creek. 

A skink ventured out during one of the sunlit moments.  The argiope remained in the spartina. A Halloween pennant also perched in the spartina while a blue dasher sat next to me on the patio.  A black swallowtail laid eggs on the rue but a tiger just flitted by.  A duskywing skipper pollinated the mint.

I caught a small green frog in the pool.  A hummer tried different guard posts but I don't think it could watch both the front yard feeder and the cannas behind the house.  A blue jay joined the robins in the cherry tree. The afternoon was sunnier but the sky never really cleared and it clouded over again in the evening. Dragonflies with spotted wings hunted over the house after sunset.  A few fireflies were still around as I listened to the cicadas and crickets.

Partly cloudy

A pair of downy woodpeckers came for seeds.  So did a male goldfinch and titmice.  The adult cardinals were getting annoyed at the fledglings, especially the cowbird.  The hummer juice was still acceptable but so was the Mexican sage.

As the morning wore on, it became clear that the hummer juice needed replacement.  Fortunately, there were flowers.  The hummer was bolder around other birds and even seemed to persecute the tailless titmouse.  I could hear bluejays and glimpse robins.  A Carolina wren took some mealworms.  A juvenile yellow crowned night heron rested on the dock. 

The spartina argiope was still there.  Spiderlings hatched in the corner of a low window.  The painted lady was back, hanging around the hackberry.  A black swallowtail checked out the rue and a fiery skipper returned to the sunflower.  Mud dauber wasps made many trips from the shoreline to the nest under the eaves.  Yesterday it had a neat round hole, but today it was all plastered up. 

The female goldfinch came at lunchtime.  Robins ate cherries.  K swapped hummer feeders which made the hummer(s) happy.  A flycatcher called from the bushes.  Meanwhile, down at the dam a little green heron and a snowy egret fished.  I saw the first dragonfly of the day. 

After lunch, the juvenile yellow crowned night heron walked around the pool and caught a bug.  It then walked up the steps to the door and settled in.  It also dropped and spread its wings in the pose that a great blue uses to defend territory.  And it vibrated its throat with its beak open - gular fluttering.  I took a video, see below.  Experts said it was overheated and doing this to cool off.  The bird came back to the dock in the evening. 

Humid

At breakfast, a titmouse, two wrens, and a hummer appeared.  I picked figs, thinking that enough time had passed since the rain so that there would be some newly ripened ones, which there were.  The ones that had been ripe during the rain were fuzzy with mold and buzzing with honeybees and flies.  I retrieved the unused birdhouse which fell down in the storm.  The argiope was still in the spartina though I did not see a breakfast bundle today.  I figured out that the reason the spider didn't look quite right is that I'm seeing the ventral side with the spinnerets.

Hummers were very busy with the flowers all morning.  The night heron came back.  An osprey cruised over the lakes North of us.  The juvenile cowbird was begging around the feeder.  It was twice the size of a house finch.  A fledgling cardinal was on the feeder perch, a house finch on the roof, and the cowbird fledgling on the hanger. 

I rescued a cute jumping spider from a floating leaf.  A black swallowtail visited the rue.  I've seen no caterpillars on it this summer.  Skippers stayed with the sunflowers.  A cicada bumbled all over the yard, but too fast for me.  Mating saddlebags flew overhead.  A blue dasher perched and later a bar-winged skimmer. 

At supper, gulls (I think) circled high in the Northern sky.  A couple of egrets flew home against a background of frothy clouds.  Cicadas sang.  And I surprised a bullfrog that went "eek" and jumped into the water.

Windy

The humidity was back but the breeze compensated.  Gusts grounded butterflies at times, but not the tiger swallowtail.   I only saw a few dragonflies, including a four spotted pennant.  A black and yellow mud dauber wasp found something interesting on a sunflower leaf.  The argiope had breakfast wrapped up.  In the pool, I saved some beetles, a spider, and a wasp, and noticed a snail.  Skinks were cautious but I did see more than one. 

Snowy egrets continued to hang around the dam outfall where I could see the lake water is still running out.  Great egrets were there too, but they are always there.  The night heron was back, hunting along the edge of the spartina. 

A titmouse showed up without its tail.  Blue jays were everywhere, but generally screened by branches. Fledgling cardinals were ubiquitous as well.  I think one is male and the other female.  The hummer was happy with its juice but not with the seed feeder birds, especially with the chickadee that drank from the hummer feeder ant moat.  I dumped the mealworm soup and added fresh, but I'm not sure the wren approved.  Robins were in the cherry again.  While I was in the pool, I saw a goldfinch and a mockingbird investigated me. 

When we got home, the lantana was loaded with fiery skippers.  I saw a cicada cast shell on the driveway which was an odd place.  A dragonfly buzzed around but I couldn't be sure what it was.  Shortly thereafter a Cooper's hawk buzzed the seed feeder but the birds had already scattered. At supper, there were three fledgling cardinals, two appeared female and one was much redder.  Three male goldfinches pursued a female around the yard.  But I'd left the camera in the other room. 

Lovely day

A Northeast wind dispelled the humidity and the temperature was just warm enough.  Fluffy clouds made the sun blink.  The trees were still shedding desiccated leaves and needles though.  Rain or dew left droplets on all the plants.  The regular seed eaters came for breakfast.  A downy landed on the post but there was a cardinal on the feeder so he didn't stay.  Robins flitted among the trees. I went down the bank to get a better look at the argiope spider and discovered two yellow crowned night herons, one on a pine branch, the other on the fish-cleaning sink rim.  The argiope had another meal all wrapped in silk.

A skink darted into the hole beside the steps.  There was a frog in the skimmer but it had so many leaves to sit on, it wasn't out of breath.  I saw a June beetle but other bugs seemed to have the sense to keep out of the water.  A couple of skippers circled each other in the air.  It looked like one was defending access to a sunflower, but they could have been courting for all I know.  A few dragonflies braved the wind - I saw a blue dasher and a Halloween pennant. 

At lunch, a hummer visited the feeder, and later the canna. After lunch, I had to go to the Municipal Center.  Dragonflies were thick there as usual.  A beautiful green pondhawk almost came home with me.  When I got home, the birds were having a party on the patio.  A hummer was hitting the juice.  A blue jay argued with the wrens about the mealworms.  Cardinals and robins ate cherries.  A grackle hung around like a bad date.  A fledgling cowbird begged.  To my surprise, a song sparrow appeared for the first time in months. 

Down by the dam outfall there were fewer egrets but they were joined by a little green heron.

Gray

The low light ruined many shots.  The dam outlet was still gushing, not surprising since the rainfall Sunday broke records: 6" in 90 minutes, though I think we got 3-4".  And the egrets, both snowy and great, and a heron continued to gather to fish in the turbulence.  In our yard, a yellow crowned night heron gulped something long and thin, an eel?  At first I thought worm because the heron was in the grass.

I saw two fledgling cardinals under the feeder.  The male goldfinch and a titmouse were scared off by cardinals.  Robins stayed in the trees.  One hummer chased another, then guarded the feeder from different angles in different trees.  A Carolina wren was disappointed by the empty dish.

A light rain began mid morning while at times the sun shone.  It was so humid outside that the camera lens stayed fogged over.   The sunflower continued to try to make seeds with increasingly smaller flowers.  A duskywing skipper fed on the mint during breaks in the rain but dragonflies mostly stayed under cover.  A skink also ventured out during a moment of sun.  A male towhee lurked under the feeder. 

There was a dark line of cloud across the South at lunchtime and a thunderstorm started just as we finished.  The rain came down really hard at first and continued steadily for over two hours.  It turned the wren's refilled dish to soup again. 

After the storm

July certainly went out with a bang.  Enough rain fell that we had to pump down the pool and clear out a lot of leaves and pine needles.  Across the creek, a motorboat had sunk.  Water gushed out of the dam outfall which attracted a lot of egrets, both great and snowy.  Later a little green heron and a great blue heron fished there.

A male goldfinch landed on the feeder hanger but did not stay.  I heard it all morning as it flew around.  Titmice did stay along with the usual seed eaters.  A hummer came to the door to get a refilled feeder.  She also sampled the rosemary and lavender.  At least two hummers disputed territory.  Robins were back for more cherries. 

Dragonflies were everywhere.  Blue dashers and slaty skimmers had all the good perches when more dragonflies flew up from the creek and tried to take their spots.  Saddlebags didn't bother perching but stayed aloft.  Butterflies were fewer, but I saw black and tiger swallowtails and a tattered lady.  I couldn't tell if it was an American or a painted lady.  I rescued a couple of green Virginia Metallic tiger beetles and a honeybee from the water.  A skink walked down the wall.  The orb weaver in the spartina survived the storm and afternoon sunshine revealed is as an Argiope. 

A stiff wind from the Southwest shoved fair weather cumulus across the sky.  It persuaded the birds to leave the cherries and hunt in the grass instead.  A brown thrasher landed outside the window but then it saw me.  A grackle walked around the pool.  A tiger swallowtail took a rest in the hackberry.

Later a yellow crowned night heron rested on a piling.  Clouds piled up in the Northeast and reflected the sunset.