Gray

The temperature dropped all day long as the wind blew from the Northeast.  A snowy egret watched the water flowing from the dam.  Titmice had fledglings to feed. 

A bit of mist showed on the windshield at noon but otherwise I saw no rain.  A hummer visited.  A little green heron joined the egret. 

I went outside in the afternoon and needed a hoodie.  The coral honeysuckle was covered with flowers.  I hope the hummers noticed.  A female blue dasher hunkered down out of the wind.  A blue jay was up to something.

The wind piled up the creek water and made the tide run high.

Cooler

The sky was hazy even where there were no clouds. Butterflies, dragonflies, bees, wasps, and beetles were thick.  Spiders too. I recognized a varigated fritillary and a snout butterfly, a blue dasher and a common whitetail dragonfly.  But the pool chemistry was finally in balance which discouraged the backswimmer and the frog. 

A female bluebird and a male goldfinch came to breakfast.  K changed the hummer juice because I saw a bug in it.  A hummer approved.  A blue jay performed right in front of me.  That's when I discovered I'd put the wrong battery in the camera.

I saw a cluster of flowers on the crape myrtle.  The gladiolus began blooming.  The white lily was still going strong.  Fat little bulbs were all that was left of the blue wood hyacinths - I thought at first they were mushrooms.  The yellow rose bloomed, but all the red roses were gone.

Rainy day

In the morning, the rain was confined to periodic sprinkles.  An egret fished below the dam.  Two families of geese came to the back door. When I went out to shoo them away, I decided to look for the backswimmer.  It was still hanging out in some floating litter but dived when I disturbed it.  I thought it had a companion, but that turned out to be a small wasp I was able to rescue.  Lots of other insects were floating too.  Later K was adding chemicals and found the bullfrog back in the skimmer basket. I was concerned about the hummer juice, but then I saw both male and female hummingbirds drinking.

In the afternoon there were several downpours with brief windows of sunshine between.  Titmice and the regulars took seeds whenever the rain let up.

Mostly insects

I did not begin to take pictures till mid afternoon.  The brown thrasher found a new singing perch.  Titmice kept busy feeding their fledglings. 

I rescued a paper wasp from drowning, also several spiders.  An Eastern forktail damselfly waited on the side of the pool for food to fly by.  Then I saw a backswimmer rowing through the water.  It went after a spider but I think it spit it back out.  Then it drifted with bits of debris camouflaging it.  Unless the spider bit it?  A tiger swallowtail laid eggs on the cherry leaves.  A cloud of goldenrod soldier beetles hovered over the parsley flowers. 

Hot

A blue jay bounced on a dead branch in the dogwood, then helped him/herself to mealworms.  Butterflies went for lavender.  K hung fresh hummer juice but a hummer wouldn't try it.  I don't know if it was the juice, or if something scared the bird.  K said the frog was back in the pool. Titmice finally arrived mid morning. 

Around noon, a yellow crowned night heron waded outside the rim of spartina instead of stalking on the grass side.  K planted the day lily I bought.  It was a gorgeous day and I was stuck keeping promises instead of being outdoors.

Classic June day

I woke up early and went outside.  The sky was covered with cirrus strands like hair and a light breeze brought flower scents.  A bumblebee worked on the lavender.  Crows flew over and a wren sang.  My mother would have recited this while I muttered that a day in February was more rare.

On my way back from the doctor, I stopped at the plant nursery and bought a dwarf day lily with a dark reddish-brownish flower.  When I got home, butterflies were enjoying the lavender. I saw a silver spotted skipper and a duskywing.  A tiger swallowtail and a cabbage white fluttered, apparently aimlessly, but too confusingly for me to get the camera focused.  A snowy egret watched the water flowing from the dam. 

I sat outside in the middle f the afternoon and a squirrel came up to me and walked between my feet.  I actually felt the fur!  And the squirrel was not chasing or being chased, but just walking around.  I didn't move while he was near me but I got a photo as he walked away. 

The brown thrasher was back in the oak working through his repertoire.  I also hear a wren, chickadees, and a cardinal.  A hummer turned up her beak at the feeder so we brought it in to clean.  (While I was out running errands, I saw a man waiting in front of the library with earbuds in his ears, oblivious to the mockingbird beside him singing.) 

I watched a spider walk on its reflection in the water. When I hauled the skimmer basket out to empty it, it was stuffed full of frog.  The frog had a struggle to extricate itself.  Then, of course, it dived right back into the pool.  I followed it around till it finally jumped out under the cedar. 

Hurricane season

It was a beautiful June morning that made the hurricane label seem silly.  Early clouds cleared off and the rain during the night left drops behind to sparkle in the sunlight.  A male goldfinch peeked from the cherry but came no closer.  An egret fished in the dam overflow.  Titmice slept in but then wanted seeds.  Blue dasher dragonflies perched and scanned for flying food.  A wasp was very interested in hackberry leaves.

After my lunch I watched a yellow crowned night heron catch hers or his. When the heron is about to pounce, it gently wags its body from side to side.  The rain this week overfilled the pool.  I found ground beetles and fireflies floating along with spiders running on surface tension.

The gladiolus spears (flower buds) appeared and I counted three yellow rose buds.  A lovely comma or question-mark butterfly flitted around the roses but never let me get a clear shot.  Fish kept jumping high out of the water, I think fleeing a predator. A striped bee nectared on the lavender.  A couple of egrets fished in the dam outfall.