Wet

It did not rain much in the morning but it was too humid for anything to dry out.  Currently we are in the cone of predictable paths for hurricane Joaquin and thus in for another week of gray skies and rain.  This September has been a washout.  A minuscule jumping spider dangled from a thread over the table.  I induced it to transfer to my hand so I could take it outside.

Gulls were flying against the clouds and I glimpsed an egret going upstream.  A blue tail skink dashed across the steps.  The swallowtail caterpillars were still munching the rue. 

I heard thunder in the late afternoon. 

Sticky

The sun was out at times and there were periods of rain.  After dark, I saw lightning to the North.  But all day it was extremely humid - hot and sticky or wet and dank.  When I got up, the moon was bright in the West but a half hour later it had disappeared.  Sunrise had a lot of cumulus drama.  Between meetings, I saw some English sparrows and got a glimpse of a mockingbird.  There were, of course, Canada geese. It was raining pretty hard around 9pm and I used an umbrella to block the feeder, but when I went to bed at 11 a misty moon was glowing. 

Humid

The temperature would have been pleasant if the air had not been so dank.  The sky was most often overcast with thin patches and occasional sun.  The wind was definitely weaker and from the East instead of the Northeast.  But the prediction is for another gray week.

In the morning, cardinals and chickadees were joined by a titmouse.  I haven't seen much of the finches lately.  Bees and wasps were busy all day.  The small black wasp with white marks is a potter wasp.  A raddled orb web hung from the moonflowers, and a couple of black swallowtail caterpillars munched on the rue.  The basilica orb weaver still lurked in the dogwood. 

The saltbush began to bloom and the camellia put out its first blossoms.  The moonflower vines were loaded with unfurling flowers.  The mushroom under the oak was bigger than last week.  The tuxedo cat bird-watched from the safety of the neighbors' yard.  A blue tailed skink rushed along the retaining wall. Blue jays called from the oaks but hid behind the leaves.  I also heard a kingfisher and a heron, and of course geese.  Some bird became a meal, judging from a pile of gray down feathers.

I watched a squirrel deal with acorns to hide.  It waited on the trunk till it was satisfied it wasn't being watched.  Down it came and buried the acorn at the base, then patted dirt back just like a dog burying a bone.  Later, I went to see the result and found an artistically arranged leaf covering the disturbed dirt.  Another burial had a pine needle draped across.  The poor squirrel was badly infested with warbles.  

Drying out

There was actual blue sky and sunshine today, for a while.  I glimpsed a flicker early in the morning and some brown streaks zoomed by later.  Mother and son cardinal interacted.  The squirrels were lumpy with fly sores.  One investigated the watering can and another tail-flashed from the dogwood.  Bees and wasps returned to the rosemary and a bug silhouetted on the window. 

The clouds returned mid afternoon and the moonflowers opened early again.  A lunar eclipse in the early night was supposed to be spectacular with a larger than usual moon and a reddish tine, but the clouds did not appear to care. This was all the moon I saw: 

Flood tide

The creek flowed over the lower, land-ward end of the dock when I got up.  The birdbath was full so the rain must have gotten heavier than yesterday.  Low, dark clouds zoomed out of the Northeast under the general overcast. The Canada geese have taken to the streets. 

I didn't see much at lunchtime, mostly chickadees.  Maybe I just wasn't paying attention because around 4pm the yard was quite lively despite the wind and wet.  At least four doves were promenading.  Cormorants, geese, ducks, and crows flew over.  A pair of flickers probed the mulch for creepy crawlies forced up by the wet.  Blue jays were all over the place.  I think, like the squirrels, they were after dogwood berries.  A male red bellied woodpecker showed up very briefly.  Something small and brown went up a tree trunk but the light was too low for the camera to catch more than a blob.  The gloom had moonflowers opening in the afternoon, only to be torn by the wind.

Warbler and warbles

The common yellowthroat returned for breakfast but there wasn't enough light for the camera.  I saw a bird by the fall webworm mess in the cherry but it was obscured by leaves.  A titmouse visited the feeder briefly. 

Several squirrels had sores from scratching where warble flies had laid eggs.  The maggots develop under their skin and apparently itch a lot.  However, it is not supposed to cause permanent harm. The sky was back to gray and a spit of rain hit the window after breakfast, but wind gusts dried it quickly.

I thought a bird that flew downstream might be a hawk but it was gone before I could be sure.  Small carpenter bees were busy in the rosemary in the light rain.  The regulars visited the feeder.

Windy

There was more sunshine today but plenty of clouds.  We saw an osprey trying to hover in Chesapeake.  I picked one of the two pimento peppers.

Even though I was gone most of the day, my brief time outside was rewarded with a visit from a common yellowthroat warbler.  It apparently found bugs in the sunflower/morning glory mound.  The juvenile cardinal was in evidence.  An egret flew overhead.  Doves poked around after I came in.  And a squirrel lost its grip and fell from quite high up in the oak, but it caught the next limb down. 

Out front, a skipper landed on the lantana and at least three caterpillars were still munching azalea leaves. The moon penetrated the rushing clouds after dark.