Not much

It was hot enough to melt the "no melt" bark butter.  A Carolina wren fed anyway.  Its partner didn't hang around.  A couple of blue jays, a brown thrasher, and a pine warbler, all wanted a free meal of bark butter balls.  A great crested flycatcher watched from across the pool.  An egret fished at low tide and an osprey flew to its favorite roost in the neighbor's pine.

A black swallowtail was attracted to the rue.  Bees and wasps crowded the mountain mint.  A Carolina saddlebags rode the dead hackberry twig.  A skink enjoyed the heat. 

Still hot

I couldn't remember the last day that stayed below 90°.  The no melt bark butter melted and spilled on the hibiscus.  But the heat may have brought out the insects at last.  I chased a tiger swallowtail with the camera to no avail.  Two buckeyes fed on the mountain mint and were occasionally harassed by the bees and wasps doing the same.  There were at least five great golden digger wasps, carpenter bees, leaf cutter bees, honeybees, scoliid and thread-waisted wasps.  I think I saw a syrphid fly too.

A Needham's skimmer posed on the back of a chair.  Blue dashers obelisked while waiting for the next bug.  Today's rescues included a small moth, an assassin bug nymph, and a wasp.  There were spiders, but they didn't cooperate.

Mostly arthropods

On the lake, a turtle awaited the sun.  Two buckeyes feasted on the mountain mint among the bees ans wasps.  Blue dashers stood guard.

I was on the computer too much, but finally got into the water.  There,I rescued a sidewalk tiger beetle and a horntail.  Both were slow to recover.  A spider rode a leaf so I let it be.  Instead, I wasted time trying to catch a dragonfly in mid air.  Finally I caught the twelve spotted skimmer.  A widow skimmer perched right behind me. 

A Carolina wren serenaded me.  A juvenile brown thrasher took a dust bath while another hunted bugs.  It appears that an immature brown thrasher's eyes are brown not yellow.  Down by the dock, a yellow-crowned night heron hunted crabs. 



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Brown Thrashers

At lunch a Needham's skimmer perched near the feeder.  Later a buckeye butterfly visited the mountain mint.  It completely ignored the butterfly milkweed.  So did a fiery skipper.  And a black swallowtail was only interested in parsley. 

While I was in the pool (and appeared small and non-threatening) a parent brown thrasher taught two fledglings to hunt bugs.    The parent was also anting, I think, with feathers spread and a goofy expression. 

Dragonflies patrolled the sky and perched near the ground.  A mama spider took refuge just above the water line.  Sunset painted a golden haze that gradually turned rosy.  . 

Scorcher

Striking clouds cast shadows across the sky.  There were ten flowers on the hibiscus.  One had a beetle inside.  Blue dashers perched to wait for gnats.  A female pondhawk landed on a gladiolus leaf.  A Halloween pennant flew for the dead hackberry twig and other spotted dragonflies patrolled the air.  I swam in the morning shade, and rescued spiders, bees, wasps, beetles, and one stinkbug nymph.  I saw a mockingbird and a brown thrasher after the wild cherries.

Bat!

The hibiscus put out its first four blossoms.  The birds don't seem to have found the bark butter tub next to the hibiscus.  A goldfinch got a drink for the ant moat. 

I rescued a sidewalk tiger beetle and some bees and wasps.  The gusty wind caught them going to or from the mountain mint, I think.  A honeybee joined the crowd on the mountain mint.  I oiled the aphids on the milkweed. Twelve-spotted skimmers danced through the air scooping up bugs.  I saw a duskywing on the daisies but it saw me and left.  A tattered male slaty skimmer rested on a perch. 

I startled a couple of skinks but didn't get pictures. A brown thrasher was very noticeable as it hunted for bugs.  It struggled with the feeder for bark butter balls.  Blue jays had it easier but a crow worked hardest of all.  I had not been aware of how red the inside of a crow's beak was, unless the bird was injured.

About a quarter to 9pm, a bat flitted overhead three times, unless there were three bats.  It was well past sundown, cloudless, but not quite dark enough for stars.  Fireflies were everywhere.  The waning moon would not rise till much later. 

Fay-less

Tropical Storm Fay passed us by and hurried on to New Jersey.  Not one drop of the 3-4 inches fell on us.  It was breezy and there were more clouds than usual, and that was it here.  I put out a tub of bark butter thinking it would endure rain better than the balls, but instead we had heat.  I expect a half dozen hibiscus blossoms tomorrow. 

Three female house finches argued over a turn at the seeds.  Not only did one hog the perch, one of the two that wanted a turn chased off the other.  Siblings?  A Carolina wren investigated all the feeders. 

A monarch butterfly finally found the milkweed.  It seemed to have a strong preference for one I grew from seed, either Asclepias syriaca (common) or Asclepias incarnata (swamp).  It ignored the butterfly milkweed, Asclepias tuberosa. It also ignored a milkweed that had aphids. 

There were dragonflies but I think they were all blue dashers, mostly obelisking.  The mountain mint attracted leaf cutter, carpenter and bumblebees, scoliid and digger wasps, and an all-black bee a little bigger than a honeybee. I rescued two sidewalk tiger beetles a ground beetle, and several ungrateful spiders. One with babies onboard hung onto the bug she'd sucked dry.  I felt something creepy which turned out to be a half-grown grasshopper. 

A little green heron paused on the end of thedock before hopping down to the floating dock out of sight.  Something made bubbles rise in the creek as it reflected tinted clouds at sunset.