Damp

The rain overnight half filled the birdbath and left everything dripping.  It's overcast with occasional blue patches.  Soft dark clouds are moving steadily East with these occasional breaks and sunshine.  Not much is going on.  There were finches and cardinals earlier, and a hummer checked out the feeder, the rosemary, and the morning glories, but turned her beak up at all of them.  Bees are busy on the rosemary and the frass on the patio is explained - the azalea is crawling with caterpillars. There are of course crows.  There are always crows.

A male hummer was run off by a female just when I had it in focus.  Skinks are out.  A black swallowtail was busy and a tiger passed through.  So did sulphurs.  The argiope by the front door has a huge egg sac.

By lunch time, the sun seems to have won.  Chickadees, titmice, and nuthatches are working on the seeds, and the hummers are busy too.  A female amberwing rested near the rosemary. 

Two skinks and a frog drowned.  Carolina wrens came by in the late afternoon, fussing and scolding. A widow skimmer used the dragonfly perch. Toward evening, egrets passed on high, headed North. 

Busy feeders

Titmice joined the usuals for sunflower seeds.  They were not well received, lots of shoving and pecking required acrobatics from the titmice and chickadees.  Meanwhile a male hummer stopped by briefly and two females almost shared.  At least, they didn't get into a chase.

One of the two hummers looks sooty while the other is very white on the throat and breast.  A nuthatch appeared at the feeder in the late morning.  Sulphurs, both lemon and orange, have been around, despite the wind.  Several young skinks explored various crannies.  This one is regrowing a lost tail.  A black swallowtail passed quickly, maybe a male?  A squirrel was doing somersaults in the mulch under the kitchen window. 

After lunch, Carolina wrens appeared.  One sang while perched on the gas hose of the grill and the other foraged under the pea vine.  A black swallowtail hung around this time.  No sign of the rescued palamedes. 

The predicted thunderstorm finally arrived around 6pm with a little lightning and a light rain. Right before the rain, a male hummer appeared.  The sharp photos all show his throat as black since there's no sun, but in one blurry shot light from somewhere lit up the red feathers. 

Cloudy & breezy

Windows were fogged early but the wind ended the humidity.  The palamedes swallowtail made it through the night.  Apparently annoyed by the bees, it has moved off the rosemary.  Its wings are still a mess.  An amberwing lurked in the grass.  Sulphurs and the other two swallowtails are around.  Finches and cardinals and hummers are feeding.

I saw a different bee today, honeybee size but with stripes more like a yellowjacket.  I suspect it is a bee mimic and probably a fly.  

A skink crossed the lower patio.  Dragonflies, including a female pondhawk, flew across the yard and over the house without pausing.  Sulphurs headed the other way, crossing the creek.  Chickadees and a nuthatch showed up in the afternoon and wrens lurked under the pea vine. The wind out of the Southwest grounded a lot of fliers and pushed the clouds along quickly. 

As darkness fell, a mantis landed on the door.  It was between me and my camera and I had to make it fly away so we could go in. 

Very quiet

The creek's like glass.  I found one wild blue morning glory flower after all.  The hummer feeder was empty except for a small wasp that somehow got itself inside.  There's seed in the other feeder but no birds visited at breakfast.  Some finches showed up mid-morning.

By noon, there was a breeze.  Skinks, including the one with a short blue tail, hurried about their business.  Lots of cardinals joined the finches.  A Carolina wren hunted in the mulch.  Grasshoppers are flying across the yard.  Small butterflies, and a sulphur, a tiger, and a purple are also flying around.  We put out fresh hummer juice.

The chrysalis I first noticed on the 24th opened today.  I found it empty and tried to remove it to get a better look.  Well, the threads attaching it were stronger than the husk and it came apart.  The bottom was full of a thick beige liquid that I assume was leftover caterpillar unneeded in butterfly form.  As I bemoaned missing the emergence, I went to empty the skimmer.  There was the butterfly!  It was a palamedes swallowtail, alive, but not in great shape.  I was as careful as possible in extracting it, but the wings are a mess.  I put it in the sun to revive and it successfully pumped up one wing.  Thinking some nourishment might help, I've left it on the rosemary where it can walk to flowers, soak up sun, and hide.

Then, a male goldfinch came to the feeder.  A hummer visited the fresh feeder but didn't have any.

More grayness

It rained over night.  Carolina wrens were busy on the ground as cardinals, finches, and chickadees fed.  The one-eyed squirrel is still with us. 

The sun is out but the gray clouds re still lurking.  I rescued another foolish frog from the pool. 

Rain accompanied a titmouse at lunch. But the sun soon returned - it is windy.  Butterflies - sulphur, purple, black swallowtail, and others - are rushing around in between rain spells.  A skink with a very short blue tail scuttled across the steps. 

Wet

The mist turned to rain.  Chickadees were up early.  A hummer peered into the window over the sink, possibly because there was a vase of gladiolas on the sill.

The rain didn't last long and the sky is streaked with clouds and blue.  A cormorant took off running down the creek.  The finch with injuries seems somewhat better today.  The only morning glory that survived weeding is dark blue.  I meant to save some of the wild, light blue too.

Overcast is back and the air is still and oppressively humid, though not hot.  A great egret preened on a piling.  A titmouse joined chickadees at the feeder.  I found a dead frog floating in the pool. A palamedes swallowtail flitted by the window.  Wrens inspected. 

Hazy became cloudy

I was up early enough to see a tinted sunrise.  But most of the morning I was inside.

At lunch, the cardinals, chickadees, and finches were joined by wrens, nuthatches and hummers.  One female finch is either injured or diseased - the left eye and foot appear non-functional and she huddles on the feed slots in a very bad temper. 

Butterflies and dragonflies were around all afternoon.  Something green and hummer-size that flew across the pool turned out to be a grasshopper, like the one I saw in the cherry last year.  A female common whitetail dragonfly hung out near the rosemary and an amberwing hid in the bush. Dogwood leaves are beginning to turn.