Still hot

The hummer turned up her beak at the feeder, so we put out fresh.  Two Carolina wrens cleaned out the mealworms so I refilled that too.  A skink seemed to chase its tail, but I suppose it was a bug.  I rescued a honeybee and a mama wolf spider from the water. The wolf spider was carrying her egg pearl.  An ant carried off a huge (to it) cicada wing.  Earlier, I saw a cicada killer on the prowl. 

A blue dasher obelisked by the butterfly milkweed.  The wrens came back for more mealworms.  A hummer (or more) paid brief visits to the fresh juice.  Blue jays and maybe a goldfinch hid in the foliage.  Cumulus clouds started piling up at lunch and by 3:30pm there was thunder and lightning, signifying nothing.  The fledgling cardinal was shivering in the hackberry, trying to cage a meal.  A Halloween pennant was perched atop the tallest pine candle with dark clouds as a backdrop.

Around 6pm, finally, the rain fell, accompanied by much louder, closer thunder.  As soon as it slacked off, after about an hour, a titmouse came for supper.  The wrens picked bits out of the rain-filled mealworm dish.  Dragonflies started hunting as soon as the rain stopped.  Through the trees, I could see golden light in the West but clouds remained overhead. 

HOT

The female goldfinch checked on the sunflowers at breakfast.  A brown thrasher headed for the cherries.  So did a black bird that may have been a crow.  A robber fly landed on the screen.  A painted lady butterfly landed in the grass.  Two night herons and a little green heron flew downstream.  Dragonflies patrolled but mostly did not land.  I did manage to identify a Carolina saddlebags. 

A hummer visited at lunch.  Several skinks darted around.  I saw black and palamedes swallowtails in flight.  Dry leaves blew into the water.   A few geese grazed down by the water. 

In the evening, a titmouse showed up at the feeder.  A hummer made several visits.  A house wren scrounged in the mulch.  And dragonflies darted too fast for the fading light.  The low fliers seemed to be brownish while twelve-spotted skimmers stayed up at roof height.  The waxing gibbous moon was bright but the cloudless sky didn't do much at sunset.

Sun and clouds

A titmouse joined house finches, cardinals, and chickadees at the seed feeder.  The Carolina wrens stuck to mealworms.  A hummer made a brief breakfast visit.  And then the squirrels gathered around one who must have been in heat.  Five males tried to persuade her and one or two succeeded - under the feeder right in front of us.  The squirrel with a white spot on his back was not a successful suitor.  He spent some time lying flat on the concrete. 

Blue jays were everywhere at lunchtime.  Dark clouds threatened in the afternoon, but no rain fell.  I even saw a distant flicker of lightning after dark, but I'm afraid we'll have to water plants.  Swallows were flying over the Center in Norfolk and cicadas were loud. 

More sunshine

The pair of goldfinches were squeezed off the feeder by all the house finches.  A downy woodpecker wanted some too.  I saw only one Carolina wren at breakfast.  A brown thrasher visited the cherries.  Some kind of heron flew downstream.  And four squirrels romped in the mulch.  One seems to be named Randy.  Doves, one adult and one immature, were dismayed by the lack of decorum.  I glimpsed butterflies and dragonflies but they were gone too fast for my reflexes.  While I was not watching, something ate a sunflower bud.

I took the camera to the pool as being mostly underwater serves as a blind.  The hummer visited the cannas and also hovered around the pine and hackberry.  Carolina wrens were all over in the underbrush.  Blue jays were feasting on the wild cherries.  I saved a June beetle.  There were many sorts of butterflies but all I captured was a cabbage white.  And a brown-spotted Zale Moth that landed on the screen. 

A male cardinal descended in wrath on a female who was not his mate but had come to the feeder.  In so doing he scared off a white breasted nuthatch.  His female then moved in.  Carolina wrens were everywhere.  Brown thrashers hunted under the redwood.  One took some spa time in a patch of dust.

A little cooler

A morning dove was having a spa day at breakfast but I didn't see any other birds.  The dredge clanked away.  Seed parachutes from the milkweed were flying. 

I rescued several spiders, one was red and one was a mama wolf with her babies.  A palamedes swallowtail flew across the pool at lunch.  A saddlebags dragonfly circled while a blue dasher perched.  A hummer had a good lunch.

When I left to go to a meeting, an ominous black bar of cloud stretched across the Southern sky.  Three hours later it passed overhead but only a few drops of rain fell.  

In the late afternoon, a family of Carolina wrens discovered the mealworm dish.  I'm pretty sure I counted four of them though I only got three at a time in front of the camera.  They had to compete with a blue jay.  The hummer paid quite a few visits to her feeder and also investigated the milkweed.

Tired of greenheads

Yes I got bit again.  I was trying to tie up a canna stalk that had fallen over when I felt it on my thigh.  In other news, a yellow crowned night heron made use of the dock while I was having breakfast.  A hummer eluded my camera but a goldfinch posed.  The sky was streaked with cirrus wisps.

A titmouse came to lunch.  Later in the afternoon, a white breasted nuthatch wanted seeds.  It was frustrated by a goldfinch who got there first.  A tiger swallowtail flitted through the trees as did a tiny blue-gray butterfly.  A whole flock of blue jays screamed at something next door.  I saw the feral cat around dusk so maybe that's what upset the birds earlier.

There were pink clouds at sunset, and it was interesting to see the cumulus go gray while the higher cirrus were still tinted.  Late 12-spotted skimmers roamed the air above the roof.  The almost first quarter moon was bright and the fireflies were out early. 

First hibiscus flowers

Three flowers on the hibiscus greeted us.  A titmouse and the pair of goldfinches joined the seed feeder trio.  The goldfinches checked the progress of their sunflowers.  A dove preened on the birdbath.  A hummer visited briefly.  I made fresh juice and restocked the front yard feeder.

The hummer returned and checked out each of the sunflowers and a rosebud.  After I picked blueberries, as I was cleaning them, an ant blundered into a web under the table.  It was three times the size of the spider that was trying to subdue it.  A couple of butterflies danced together over the pool.  I don't know if that's courtship or turf defense.  The widow skimmer was back at her post.

A monarch butterfly found the milkweed and the zinnia.  I thought a cardinal was going to catch it, but then the bird veered away.  It must have remembered a previous experience.  A robber fly whooshed around me, making me nervous till I saw what it was.  The basilica spider in the hibiscus caught something.

Piles of cumulus drifted East under a high haze.  While swimming, I saw a wren and a little green heron.  A hummer poked at a hibiscus bud, then flew off to try a pine candle.  There was a flurry of birds at supper: a Carolina wren, two male cardinals glaring, three doves, and uncounted house finches. Afterward, an egret stalked upstream along the bank.