Windy morning

Shreds of clouds streamed East on a mostly blue sky, but at ground level the wind whipped around from all directions.  The bluebirds sought wild cherries in addition to mealworms. Squirrels were acting nutty all day.  An eagle circled over the creek and I got one decent shot. 

The clouds got bigger and darker in the afternoon.  The wind did not drop as much as I'd hoped, but it was enough to bring out dragonflies.  I also saw a few small butterflies, mostly snouts.  There were a lot of spiders in the water, some of them mama wolf spiders with spiderlings clinging to their backs.  One mama found a leaf raft and was joined by a ground beetle that kept a very low profile.  As I was watching to see if another mama would also climb aboard, rain began.  It did not amount to much, but by then I had taken the camera inside.

As I came up the steps, I surprised a skink that had been basking on the retaining wall.  It hid under rosemary that did not conceal it very well.  The great golden digger wasp was back on the rue.  A hummer visited the feeder - I'd begun to think it was dry.  A couple of egrets got territorial about the dam outfall.  A pair of doves foraged around the dry birdbath.  The female bluebird gave me a dirty look because she'd carried off all the mealworms. There were fireflies again at dusk.  Better than fireworks any time!

Dragonfly day

The wind shifted back to the West which is the common summer pattern.  The rain overnight and humid morning brought out the little flying pests and that brought out the dragonflies. A yellow sided skimmer perched on the dead rosemary branch I left for that purpose.  A Halloween pennant chose the very top of the pine tree instead.  It had to battle the wind.  Blue dashers stayed down on the perches I put out.  Later I saw a pair of amberwings. 

I got up really late but not all the rain had evaporated.  Titmice were hungry all day.  Hummers too.  A night heron hunted in the dam outfall.. The female bluebird took mealworms but the male flew on to the wild cherry tree.  Swallows scooped up insects flying higher in the air.  A brown thrasher sat on the fence gate and watched the blueberries. 

At lunch, a really big fly landed on the arm of one of the patio chairs.  All I could think was horsefly, but it was a tiger bee fly.  A great golden digger wasp checked out the rue.  There were many more kinds of bees and wasps and the prize was a cicada killer.  During the afternoon an almost full grown black rat snake prowled around the patio.  Much later a skink ventured out. 

East wind

Morning was very hot and very humid and the sun felt scorching.  Birds were feasting on the wild cherries.  I saw the cardinals courting in the tree.  I went outside before lunch and picked blueberries.  A male widow skimmer flashed in the sun.  There were blue dashers, naturally.  And a lovely female skimmer (slaty or great blue) perched in the neighbors' birch.  A sidewalk tiger beetle raced about.  A brown thrasher lurked. 

And then a white breasted nuthatch appeared on the dogwood trunk.  An osprey landed in the big pine next door.  A hummer visited her feeder.  A titmouse preened in the dogwood.  The bluebirds were after cherries, or possibly bugs, in the wild cherry tree.  It did not keep the female from the mealworms.  A skink climbed the wall.  An itchy squirrel yearned for the hummer juice. 

But beginning at lunch time, the wind blew the temperature down.  It shoved cumulus across the sky under a higher, wispier, stationary layer of clouds.  The sun was frequently blocked and that plus the moving air made the afternoon more pleasant.  At lunch, a blue-black mud wasp zoomed around the patio and I could never quite catch it with the camera.  A black swallowtail briefly visited the herbs. I did catch a green metallic tiger beetle rafting in the pool. 

An egret fished along the bulkhead, then preened on our dock.  Three osprey circled overhead, calling with their unexpectedly sweet voices. Also a twelve spotted skimmer, I think,  patrolled the air over the pool.   As I was photographing a gray hairstreak with tattered wings, a bluetail skink shot out from under my seat. 


When I left for a meeting around 6pm, sprinkles of rain appeared and a light rain was falling as I drove home. 

Rain

At lunch, a threadbare blanket of cloud slid East as the temperature peaked and began to drop. A palamedes swallowtail appeared to be nectaring on the hibiscus.   A saddlebags made the topmost candle on the pine home base for its forays.

Bluebirds, cardinals, and a dove ate wild cherries.  The dove landed on the patio and flaunted its tail like a turkey.  A bluetailed skink waggled its full-lenght tail as it sneaked up on the rosemary.  The rosemary began to put out a few flowers after its hiatus. 

Rain started on the nose at 3pm as predicted, so I never really got outside.  I thought I saw wrens around the seed feeder, but I could have been mistaken.  A hummer visited the fresh feeder.  The rain trailed off toward supper time but began to sprinkle later.  Idiots shot off fireworks for the fourth night in a row. 

Still sunny

Piled up cumulus occasionally blocked the sun and looked threatening, but it stayed dry. Hummers were hungry.  I found an unusual beetle with a metallic green head afloat on a leaf.  I also rescued ground beetles, scarab beetles, and a sidewalk tiger beetle.  Oh, and an adult two-lined spittlebug.  Dragonflies were fewer than yesterday.  I planted two packets of sunflower seed and got one pathetic plant which has nonetheless flowered.

Hot

Young titmice tried to drink from the ant moat. Hummers drank their feeder dry.  An egret fished below the dam and later another rested on the dock.  A blue jay snatched some mealworms but the female bluebird was more discriminating.  A profusion of dragonflies kept the patio mosquito-free.  I saw something struggling in the pool and thought it was a skink.  But when I went to rescue it, all I found was a beetle larva.  In the course of the morning, I also saw but did not get a photo of a male goldfinch, palamedes swallowtails, and other butterflies.

I did glimpse a skink later but a squirrel came along and the lizard disappeared.  Another skink was on the concrete at the far end of the pool,but it saw me too.  A male common whitetail landed on the patio briefly.  I hauled beetles, wasps and spiders out of the water.  A couple of spiders, one big and one small, faced off on the pool ladder, but I think both survived.  One spider was carrying her spiderlings and refused all help.  I didn't see her anywhere after I got out of the water, a slightly creepy thought.  Blue dashers, assorted skimmers, and a Halloween pennant perched around the yard.  A skimmer with spotted wings patrolled about ten feet off the ground.  An amberwing lurked in the parsley. 

Osprey and eagles flew circles high overhead while swallows just zipped past.  A young Carolina wren came to the patio but apparently didn't see anything to eat.  A night heron hunted along the dam.  The moon was, again, blurred by thin clouds.  Fireflies blinked while cicadas buzzed. 

Rain never came

A goldfinch, a skink, and a hummer were too fast for me, but I did capture a skipper.  Big, dark clouds blew across the sky in the morning.  When I got home, titmice were all over the feeder.  A juvenile cardinal foraged below.  Japanese beetles were everywhere. 

There were marvelous cloud shapes in the evening and I looked forward to seeing them change color with sunset, but not so.  They blew East, spread out, and became a thin, white glaze on the sky.  The waxing gibbous moon was bright, before the clouds blurred it.  (Last night it was not quite at the first quarter and this night it was slightly past 50% illuminated.)  I saw a few swallows hunting overhead and glimpsed first a night heron and then an egret behind the vegetation upstream of the dock.

Both a female and a male hummer visited shortly before sunset.  I cannot be certain it was the female hummer, but right after, something round zipped around the top of the oak, changing direction like a dragonfly, but not shaped like one.  Cicadas were buzzing but I don't think they fly like that.  Dragonflies were out, but they were a different shape.  And the camera still could not capture a firefly blinking.