Gray

A bluebird and a brown headed nuthatch were early visitors.  A Carolina wren tackled the suet.  The Argiope had a fine, new web.  The orange skipper was back on the mountain mint.  The best match seemed to be a Delaware skipper but iNaturalist said fiery skipper.  Leafcutter bees, honeybees, sand wasps, and others crowded the milkweed and mountain mint. 

A bald faced hornet went for an unplanned swim.   Drizzle began before lunch.  There were breaks when the birds and insects returned.  A blue dasher took up the perch by the rosemary.  Later, a widow skimmer took it over.  A tattered black swallowtail perched in the rosemary.  A skink caught some rays while on the step wall.  A Carolina wren picked at the soggy barkbutter balls.  Then a pine warbler arrived with the same idea. 

As I left for an evening meeting, fierce clouds were boiling out of the South.  I barely beat the rain inside.  But as I backed out of the drive, I saw two rain lilies blooming.  Alas, the rain flattened them before I got home.  Wasps were still coming and going from their nest in a bush at the foot of the driveway.  Meanwhile, a spider was constructing a web nearby.  Bold spider! 

Rain

A pine warbler made a breakfast visit to the barkbutter balls.  A crow wandered through the yard.  Titmice hid in the sakaki.  A small, brown click beetle was in the bottom of the blueberry bucket.  A black and white wasp and a yellow skipper drank mountain mint nectar.  A blue dasher used a perch.  A leaf cutter bee drank from the milkweed. 

I thought I'd beat the rain by swimming early but it started sooner than predicted.  Before that, I fished two snails and a bee out of the water.  A large feather floated by.  As I hustled indoors I noticed that the Argiope had caught something as big as it was and they were still wrestling.  A brief interlude of sun came between the morning rain and the afternoon thunderstorm.  A brown headed nuthatch extracted a seed from under a finch's tail feathers.  A wet Carolina wren got some suet.  A hungry fledgling bluebird got some seeds. 

The storm lasted till nearly 4pm and left the air very humid.  The Argiope worked on its web.  A widow skimmer glittered on a perch.  A black swallowtail flitted around the rue, then perched on the rosemary and annoyed the dragonfly.  Some skinks emerged into the wet sunshine.  

Fritillary

Because a thunderstorm was predicted, I swam in the morning.  That meant there wasn't much in the way of wildlife needing rescue, just a firefly.   I emptied the rainwater in the blueberry bucket into the watering can.  That somehow disturbed a jumping spider.  It looked exactly like a species from the Western states but maybe brilliant jumping spider is right.   The blueberries were plentiful but a lot smaller than earlier in the season.  

The usual bees and wasps enjoyed the mountain mint and among them was a green bee I didn't even notice till I looked at the photos.  What I think was some kind of bee fly mimic landed on a chair.  Today's butterfly was a variegated fritillary that arrived as I was dripping dry.  I also saw a tiger swallowtail, a dark butterfly, and an orange butterfly, but none of them posed for me.  Also, there were dragonflies, perched and cruising.  A skink hiked along the step wall. 

While the sky clouded over in the afternoon, there was no storm.  Brown headed nuthatches got seeds despite the cardinals, house finches, and chickadees that think they own the feeder.  Carolina wrens were more interested in suet.  A bluebird and a blue jay found the barkbutter balls.  Something was eating cherries and making the branches bounce, but I never saw the critter. 

Buckeye

I found the Argiope again, closer to the azalea and not visible from indoors.  At lunch, a buckeye fed on the mountain mint.  So did an orange skipper and many bees and wasps.   When I went swimming, storm clouds gathered in the Southwest while the sun blazed and blue sky covered the North and East.  I saved some scarab beetles and a woodlouse hunter, but was too late for an infant skink, alas.  Dragonflies perched at different heights.  A tiger swallowtail danced over the mountain mint. 

Meanwhile, a night heron landed in the pine tree below the pool.  It was silhouetted against the sky but I believe it was a juvenile yellow crowned night heron.  A female hummer avoided me and the feeder when I first came outside, then while I was in the water I saw it return.  Brown headed nuthatches didn't care about my presence, but a finch asserted its place in the pecking order and sent a nuthatch flying.  A goldfinch got a drink. 

Spicebush swallowtail

Morning was heavily overcast but no rain fell.  We certainly didn't need any more!  A bucket that was outside collected about three inches.  A Carolina wren came for suet and was photobombed by a chickadee.  A titmouse got seeds and suet.  The argiope spider went walkabout and I wasn't able to locate it. 

At lunch, a dark swallowtail fell in love with the butterfly milkweed flowers.  It danced around them and vibrated with desire.  I think it was a spicebush swallowtail!  The sky cleared in the afternoon and at last I got a swim.  Plenty of plant detritus and some beetles were floating, mainly because the water level was at the top of the skimmer.  Dragonflies were on patrol.  Bees and wasps feasted on mountain mint.  

Donnner & Blitzen

The hibiscus was still blooming.  The Carolina wren was still hungry for suet.  Brown headed nuthatches defied the cardinals, house finches, and chickadees for seeds.  A widow skimmer was in the same spot as last Saturday, but this time it was a male.  A loud thunderstorm and downpour came through right at lunchtime.  A second band of rain followed within an hour, but without the noise.  After that, rain fell with occasional lulls fo the rest of the afternoon, sometimes with thunder. 

Vacation

We picked a rainy, hot, and humid time to visit Virginia's Eastern Shore.  Sunday, before we left, I admired the hibiscus flowers and the spider web.  In Cape Charles I saw a pair of osprey circling, a mockingbird, and a couple of buzzards.  A saddlebags dragonfly cruised up the main street but my photos missed it..  By the time we arrived, the sky suggested a storm was brewing.  On Monday we drove around Chincoteague.  The road to get there looked like it was only a foot or two above high tide.  Low tide revealed oyster beds around the island.  Laughing gulls and egrets were everywhere.  We discovered that NASA Wallops is powered by a field of solar panels.  The dregs of Chantel passed through adding to the humidity. 

At lunch Tuesday, we watched what I think was a white ibis probing creek mud for goodies.  Small dragonflies congregated in the vegetation along the creek.  We had good weather for a boat trip around Chincoteague and Assateague.  The ride was a bit choppy but the wind was a relief from the humidity.  Oystercatchers loafed on the oyster reefs.  Island ponies grazed near the saltmarsh.  Egrets and cormorants joined the gulls.  An eagle sat on a stump.  Swallows darted through the air.  Dolphins swam in the strait between islands.  A thunderstorm held off till evening.   

The bed and breakfast where we stayed had some garden pools and I surprised a frog.  On the way home, we stopped at a plant nursery and I saw a red admiral, skippers, and a digger wasp on the flowers.  We had lunch in Onancock.  Jellyfish were pulsating beside the wharf.   When we reached the CBBT, there were large birds atop some light poles, that I think were eagles.  The weather was horribly hot at home and the pool water had dropped too low.  Apparently none of the rain on our vacation fell at home.   A Carolina wren visited the no melt suet.  The spider relocated to a safer spot.  I saw a monarch hanging around the butterfly milkweed.  K reported that a hive of some sort took up residence in a bush between the driveway and the sidewalk.