Dreary

Rain was falling when I got up and it didn't quit till mid afternoon.  A brown headed nuthatch visited the feeder anyway.  A Carolina wren followed.  Then a sparrow foraged underneath.  I couldn't be sure but this one may have been a song sparrow. The male goldfinch came for seeds.  The air barely got up to room temperature and the wind was gusty.  The sunflower promised brighter days.  So did the streaky, muted sunset clouds.  

Lovely day

The white breasted nuthatch was up early, soon followed by a brown headed nuthatch.  They both wanted seeds, as did a house finch.  Young mockingbirds were hoping for barkbutter balls but I hadn't gotten outside yet.  The sunflower shone like its name.  A goldfinch got a drink.  

When I refilled the barkbutter balls, I saw a soldier beetle on the mountain mint.  A frog waited on the ladder.  A skink scooted under my chair and then hid among pine needles.  The lengthwise lines on its body made surprisingly good camouflage.  Eventually it ran across the step and went about its business.  I put shoes on to get close ups of the Berkeley's Polypore.  When I got in the pool two frogs awaited me.  Also a drowned skink, alas.  Neither frog made any effort to get away.  I also rescued a magnolia green jumping spider Lyssomanes viridis.

I saw butterflies and one dragonfly but they did not cooperate.  The one butterfly that I got a recognizable photo of might have been a hackberry emperor Asterocampa celtis.  Certainly it was very close to a hackberry tree.  A cloudless sulphur got away, as did a dark butterfly.  There was a very small monarch caterpillar munching the new leaves on the butterfly milkweed.  While I was photographing the caterpillar, a jumping spider marched down the railing, keeping a wary eye on me.  My guess was a canopy jumping spider Phidippus otiosus.  A few wasps looked for nectar on the mountain mint. 

Blue jays and a male cardinal vied for barkbutter balls for supper.  The white breasted nuthatch came back for another meal but a female cardinal was in the way.  Then it was house finches, but finally the bird got fed.  

Spiders

This morning the Argiope spider was gone, as was any trace of the web.  I think that must mean the departure was intentional.  Perhaps she wanted a place where debris wouldn't blow into the web.   The brown headed nuthatches conducted more stealthy raids on the seeds.  Blue jays went for barkbutter balls as usual.  The sunflower bloomed. 

Overcast and wind made a chilly day.  I went swimming anyway because the pool needed cleaning, but I didn't linger.  I wonder if the frog was relieved or disappointed?  As I was dripping and shivering, I noticed a small spider lurking in the mountain mint.  Like the much larger Argiope, it paired up its legs, appearing to have four instead of eight.  The best match I found was the arrowhead orbweaver Verrucosa arenata but I don't think it's right.  

Skippers

The day was beautifully sunny and warmer than I expected.  The northeast wind still blew, but not quite as fiercely.  Still, there was more tree trash to clean up.   My brief time in the pool yielded two skinks, one dead alas, two frogs, and a black swallowtail butterfly.  The volunteer sunflower bud was starting to turn yellow.  There was another hibiscus flower today.  The butterfly milkweed was almost recovered from defoliation.  The beautyberries were getting their magenta on.  The fungus might be as big as it will get. 

The Argiope started the day with a fresh, clean web and she already had breakfast.  At first she hung on the outside, away from the glass, but switched at some point.  That nice new web collected a lot of detritus as the day went on.  A tiger swallowtail flew slowly enough for the camera.  Not so, a cloudless sulphur - it was a blur of butterfly-shaped yellow.  It landed on yesterday's withered hibiscus instead of today's flower.  Another duskywing flitted around the mountain mint.  Then a silver spotted skipper landed on the mountain mint.  I thought another skipper might be a Huron sachem.  A two lined spittlebug crept along a dried stem of money plant.  

A blue jay inspected the barkbutter ball dish.  A white breasted nuthatch yearned for seeds.   A wary hummer watched as much as she drank.   A Carolina wren objected to the crumbs that were left of the barkbutter balls, then hustled off to the seeds.   Brown headed nuthatches used ninja powers to get seeds.  A female cardinal looked like she had been dragged backward through a knothole.  Fortunately, molting is temporary. 

I saw a warbler with a yellow breast and brown head and back.  It seemed to have an eye ring though the angle of its head left me uncertain.  Also it was molting a bit so I couldn't see details of the wing bars.  Though it did not look like a pine warbler that is my best guess. 

Windy

A strong, cold wind out of the Northeast shoved clouds across the sky.  It blew the feathers backwards on birds.  The sun was bright but the temperature was only in the 70s.  Morning glories bloomed and there was another hibiscus flower, and two buds..  The wind filled the spiderweb with redwood needles and suchlike tree trash.  It batted at the spider but the Argiope still managed to catch a meal.  I noticed the spider had switched to the outside of the web where it was less likely to get banged into the window.

The hummer was hungry and protective of her feeder.  A brown headed nuthatch slipped between finches and cardinals more successfully than a chickadee. After I put out barkbutter balls, I saw a mockingbird and a blue jay and glimpsed a sparrow that might have been one of the chipping sparrows.  The wind kept me out of the water.  I could see a frog in the pool, maybe wondering why I wasn't chasing it.  Unfortunately, the wind blew down more leaves and pine needles to clog the skimmer.  

A monarch butterfly fought the wind but didn't alight on the butterfly milkweed.  Maybe that means it was a male?  A couple of snouts dueled in the air but perched where I couldn't see.  A female Horace's duskywing perched on a morning glory leaf.  Sunset turned clouds orange.

Chill wind

Despite the rain, the hibiscus surprised us with another flower.  A hummer sought breakfast during a lull.  The Argiope weathered the storm.  Brown headed nuthatches couldn't wait either.  In the afternoon, the wind flipped around to the North and cleared the sky, but lowered the temperature.  I cleaned tree trash out of the pool and evicted one frog.  It seemed tired and didn't really lead me on much of a chase.  

A honeybee was busy with the mountain mint.  As I dripped and shivered in the wind, I noticed lots of long-legged flies on the mountain mint, some red, some green.   Then a fiery skipper landed and a Southern purple mint moth flitted among the mountain mint stalks.  A white breasted nuthatch persisted until it got its seed.  A tree on the far side of the dam turned gold.  It looked to me more like the tree was dying than coloring for Fall.  The cormorants made their nightly commute.  

Rain at last

The chrysalis I had accidentally pruned eclosed today.  So did another in the mountain mint.  I found tiny ants carting off fragments of what I hope was a third and not either of the two I watched.  Maybe I pruned another and didn't notice?  I was sad the butterfly didn't make it but intrigued that the ants carved up even the wings to carry off. 

The chipping sparrow came back.  It was definitely a juvenile.  (Unless it was a song sparrow that was missing its chest spot?)  A great blue heron flew up into a pine behind the oak and hackberry.  I couldn't see it there but I could hear it grumbling.  Nuthatches visited the feeder and mckingbirds came for a drink, but I didn't see many birds beside the sparrow.  Of course, I didn't put out any barkbutter balls because I expected rain. 

Clouds gathered and dissipated and the temperature reached 90°.   I swam in the morning fearing an afternoon thunderstorm.  There were two frogs to entertain me.  And I extracted that stupid caterpillar from the skimmer again.  I didn't wait around to see if it revived again.  I also fished out a honeybee. 

A tiger, two black and, I think, a palamedes swallowtail all flew past.  So did a cloudless sulphur and a sleepy orange and some smaller lepidoptera I couldn't identify except for a fiery skipper.  The overexposed and blurred photo I got of the Palamedes might have been a giant swallowtail.  No dragonflies, however, and only a few wasps and the Argiope were around as predators.  

After 6pm the light got very low.  Finally rain fell for about half an hour.  Then the sky lightened and the rain slackened but didn't stop.