Gusty wind

It was cooler today.  At times, the wind whipped the trees.  Morning started out sunny, then clouds crept over the sky.  During the lulls, white throats scurried around looking for food and water.  A wren informed me that the mealworm dish was empty.  Both red belly and downy woodpeckers fed on the rocking suet cage. 

 Buffleheads hung around all day.  The immature hoodie continued to stalk them.  A great blue heron haunted the dam outfall.  I saw a yellow crowned night heron fly upstream into the wind.  The lake was empty of life, no turtles basked on their log.  One of the ubiquitous geese gave another a piece of its mind. 

There were signs of life on one of the hackberries and one of the hickories.  The sassafras was blooming.  A small purple, trumpet-shaped flower popped up just below my window.  Next day, when I went around to see it from the front, it turned out to be money plant from the seeds I scattered. Sunset inflamed the clouds again.

Weather!

Morning was very windy under an overcast sky. There was a tornado watch that jumped to a warning during lunch.  A wall of rain rolled through about 1:15pm and lasted less than 10 minutes. But for those few minutes, it hammered the windows.  After that, there were flickers of sun. But clouds continued to flow across the sky and out to sea.  Sunset lit the clouds with red and pink.

Both downy and red bellied woodpeckers showed up when the wind permitted.  Amazingly, I saw osprey circling and hovering.  The strands of oak flowers rained down like McCaffrey's description of  "thread."

White sky

A thin layer of cloud crept North during the morning, though the sunshine was only a little muted.  Not much went on during breakfast.  Then the cat showed itself.  About twenty minutes later a wren ventured out to the mealworms.  The creek was a funhouse mirror.  Bees feasted on the rosemary.

In the late morning gulls got interested in the creek. A great black backed gull landed in the water.  A male bluebird perched in the pecan to keep the birdhouse under observation.  A downy woodpecker also landed in the pecan.  More bees fed on the blueberry pollen.  The wren was back for more mealworms and I got a glimpse of a nuthatch on the suet.

Of course there were buffleheads. Turtles basked on their favorite log on the lake.  And the wood duck pair paddled past our shoreline again.  A tiger swallowtail flew purposefully across the yard.

Windy

In the morning, the wind continually flipped the sky from cloudy to sunny and back. I wasn't always sure if I was seeing an insect or a petal blowing around.  An adult skink scampered around on the pool cover like it had lost its tiny mind.  I saw a dragonfly but it was too fast for me.  Tiger swallowtails got away but I captured a black swallowtail.  Lots of bees and wasps were out.  A blue jay and a wren also escaped the camera.

White throated sparrows were everywhere, but looked rather ragged.  They appeared to be molting.  Woodpeckers, both red belly and downy, made repeated visits.  The male downy erected his red feathers into a little crest.  A titmouse found a moment when the suet was free. A great blue heron  found good fishing below the dam.  Buffleheads, too, were around all day.  A pair were accompanied by a brown duck I think was an immature male hoodie.  A snowy egret watched the dam spillway in the afternoon.  And turtles sunbathed beside the lake. 

Sunset turned contrails pink as they were about the only clouds left.  The wind finally dropped then.  The half moon overhead was very bright.

Sunny

The creek was beautiful at breakfast with wavering reflections and ripples where buffleheads dived.  The male red bellied woodpecker was up early.  And a red breasted nuthatch was still around.  A brown thrasher surveyed the creek from a dogwood.  White throats got into everything.  Cardinals courted.  Downy woodpeckers eventually arrived.

The gladiolus spears were up.  Several kinds of bees worked on the rosemary, honeybees and Bombus in various sizes.  Late in the afternoon, a pair of wood ducks visited the yard, but I only captured the male.

Red birds and bluebirds

The male red bellied woodpecker was very much a presence.  Downy woodpeckers were busy too.  House finches were courting and males were their reddest.  I caught a female house finch eating seeds on the red maple.  In the front yard, a female bluebird kept an eye on her new house.  As we ate supper a pair of cardinals tried to feed together but were too heavy for the counterweighted perch.  Finally he pushed her off, then brought her a seed. 

At breakfast, a couple of gulls watched the water spilling out of the lake dam.  Wind pulled the reflections off the creek and left it all wrinkled.  Buffleheads were out on the creek.  Toward evening a heron chased another away from the dam outfall.  A tiger swallowtail was too fast for me but I captured a little checkered skipper feasting on white violets.

Potting and nesting

The sky was overcast and the dam outfall looked like a Class IV rapids when I got up.  The splashing water soon attracted herons.  A downy woodpecker worked on the remnant of suet.  Then the male red belly took over while a yellow rumped warbler perched on the feeder hanger.  A dove foraged in the mulch.  A slug headed back down the window.   Carpenter bees and other bumblebee look-alikes were busily feeding on the rosemary and the blueberries.

At lunch time two female hooded mergansers paddled together.  A snowy egret waited by the dam.  A female bufflehead dived repeatedly in about the same spot.  The water was placid away from the dam.  It was also coated with pollen. 

I re-potted the two plants I bought, so now there is a second hanging basket with flowers I hope might attract a hummingbird.  According to the map they've been sighted in Virginia.  I also put out a hummer feeder with juice instead of the front suet feeder.  We consolidated the suet in the back yard feeder.  Bluebirds were definitely flying to the bluebird house.  And the wren was definitely settled in the other hanging basket.

There had been sun mid day, but then the clouds returned and I got chilly.  I was taking advantage of the wet soil to pull out more leucojum bulbs.  it's pretty but horribly invasive.  When I threw the store's flower pots away, a sizable spider dangled from the lid of the garbage can.  Crows and a gull joined a heron at the dam outfall.  After I came in, the sky cleared again.  It was still clear after dark and a crescent moon was descending toward the West.