Donner und Blitzen & downpour

A hummer showed up after breakfast.  So did several titmice.  The titmice and chickadees tried to drink from the small well in the center of the hummer feeder.  Apparently the water in the big ant moat above was out of reach.  Three squirrels disputed over who got to hunt seeds under the feeder.  A blue jay and a female bluebird visited the mealworms. 

I worked outside in the morning because a thunderstorm was predicted for the afternoon.  Dragonflies were thick, mostly blue dashers.  I did see one small, brownish butterfly, probably a snout.  The pool skimmer caught a mama wolf spider.  And just as I was wondering why I had seen no saddlebags dragonflies yet this year, one appeared.  It perched on the topmost candle of the pine tree. 

I saw a little green heron fly down stream.  Then a yellow crowned night heron came past and swooped down to land upstream of the dock, out of sight.  The next instant it fled back the way it had come with another heron in pursuit,  That bird landed on the dock and paced to relieve its agitation.  The interloper took a station in the dam outfall. 

I left around 6pm to go to a meeting and drove into the storm.  The car thermometer dropped from 92° to 73° in about 5 minutes as I drove.   It rained hard on the highway but not back home.  Fireflies were twinkling when I got back, but the clouds still looked thunderous.  Mimosas and crape myrtle were in full bloom.

Here there be dragonflies

A hummingbird visited its feeder and a female bluebird had a few mealworms.  The regulars, including titmice, ate seeds and the short tailed squirrel tried to get into the feeder.  Blue dashers obelisked in the sun.  One stayed all afternoon on the wire hook that we use to close the seed feeder.  It seemed not to notice us no matter how close we got.  A common whitetail female landed on light colored objects, often in the shade. I saw a Japanese beetle on the hibiscus.

In the afternoon the sky grew white and clouds looked threatening, but nothing came of it,  The day stayed hot and humid and the clouds blew out to sea.   

More heat

Titmice were up earlier than usual today.  I didn't replenish the food supplies fast enough and didn't the blue jays and hummingbirds let me know.  But they could only stay miffed so long with fresh sugar water and mealworms to be had. Dragonflies were obelisking before noon.  A yellow crowned night heron stalked lunch along the spartina.

The dragonflies were mostly blue dashers but I did see one female pondhawk.  Leaf miners started working on the hibiscus leaves.  I rescued a click beetle, a ground beetle, and a couple of fireflies.  When I picked up a floating oak leaf, the backswimmer darted away.  I fished out a buffalo treehopper but tossed it back to see if the backswimmer would eat it.  A damselfly rode a floating leaf.  Several half eaten mating-size ants lay around the patio.  Wasps searched the rue for the remaining flowers.

An egret and a great blue heron fished in the late afternoon.  I think at least two female hummers have been visiting, one with a dark tummy and one with a white. 

Hot

Morning and evening were very pleasant but mid day was distinctly hot. At breakfast a white breasted nuthatch tried to get to the seed feeder but the finches wouldn't let it in.  Blue jays got much bolder in their quest for mealworms.

A dragonfly obelisking after lunch was as good as a thermometer.  The backswimmer was back trying to hide in floating detritus.  I saw a swallowtail but didn't get a photo. 

The tide had not been particularly high at mid day but it was very low six hours later.  I guess the wind was pushing water out the bay mouth.  I distinctly heard a cicada in the late afternoon. I sat outside in the twilight watching fireflies.  Two swallows and a dragonfly zoomed overhead. and I think I glimpsed a bat.  Curiously, I saw no stars.

Blues

Blue sky, bluebirds, blue jays, blue butterfly and dragonfly, and a blue tailed skink.  The sky was hazy, with some clouds.  A blue jay glared at me when it found the mealworm dish empty.  I refilled it and the jay came back very quickly to gobble up the bugs.  The female bluebird was also very hungry and let me know it.  Titmice carried on at the seed feeder along with cardinals and chickadees. A hummer visited her feeder. 

While we ate lunch, the young skink explored around the top step.   Afterward an egret fished under the bulkhead.  I heard lots of birds that refused to become visible.  The people across the creek must have let their dog out because all the geese, protesting loudly, jumped off the bulkhead into the creek.  Some mallards accompanied them.  I saw a little blue butterfly that wouldn't stop for a picture.  A gorgeous young male Eastern pondhawk perched around the patio while a great blue skimmer occupied a more distant perch.  A male hummer flitted around the Mexican sage but I wasn't fast enough for a photo. 

We went to an outdoor wedding at the Hermitage on the Lafayette River.  The grounds were hosting a display of sculptures from Burning Man.  A brown thrasher hunted bugs in the grass where the cars parked.  It was a perfect day for an outdoor ceremony, with birdsong and a gentle breeze off the river.  Sunset was pastel but vivid.  And there were fireflies. 

Warm again

Lots of blue dashers hunting. I also saw two amberwings on an azalea bush out front.  I also saw Japanese beetles on the bush.  A blue jay gobbled mealworms and had a confrontation with a bluebird.  Titmice fledglings learned to eat seeds.  A hummer got fed too.  Goslings were starting to look like their parents. 

A basilica spider built its web in the rue.  The neighbors' husky was running loose again.  Thankfully, it did not go for a swim.  I did, and rescued a long legged fly.  The husk of a dragonfly floated on the water. The short tailed squirrel sat beside me till he realized how close he was.  I began to understand why he was missing the end of his tail.  Fireflies blinked at twilight.

Cold wind

A little rain spattered the glass but didn't do much else. I returned mid morning and was greeted by a male towhee.  A finch family was very busy with fledglings.  A squirrel tried very hard to rob the feeder. A snowy egret hung around the dam outfall. 

At lunch, first bluebirds, then a blue jay, came for mealworms.  Titmice and house finches stuck to sunflower seeds till a squirrel chased them off.

Around 4pm, breaks appeared in the overcast and by 5pm the sun was shining in a clear sky.  A hummer visited at supper time and the female bluebird was back.  She expressed her disappointment at the empty dish and flew off, but must have been watching because when I added some she came right back.

At 8:30pm small cottony clouds turned pink and the light faded.