Peninsula garden

K gave a presentation at the UU Fellowship of the Peninsula and I discovered they had a community vegetable garden.  It included several varieties of sunflowers, one of them bushy with smaller flowers which were overrun with bees and butterflies: two tiger swallowtails, a silver spotted skipper, and a painted lady.  The profusion of bugs attracted Eastern pondhawks and a golden winged skimmer.  I didn't ask but I suspect the flowers were Jerusalem artichoke - Helianthus tuberosus.  Maybe I should get one from the grocery and plant it? The sun was scorching and there wasn't much breeze to move the sticky air.


When we finally got home, a palamedes swallowtail was fluttering around the patio, but I missed it.  There were buds on one of the new lavenders and flowers on the butterfly milkweed.  A female Needham's skimmer used a perch near the flowers.  And of course there were blue dashers.  Wasps worked on the mints.  I fished a lacewing out of the water but I think it was dead.  By then the sky was full of menacing clouds racing East while the temperature dropped. 

I thought I'd seen a hummingbird with a white crown and now I have proof.   Meanwhile, a cardinal learned a bitter lesson.  He spied a fat green caterpillar in the rue and found that it tasted nasty.  The caterpillar died but presumably some of its siblings will be saved as long as the cardinal remembers.   Blue jays took a break from the blueberries to have some bark butter balls.  Chickadees and titmice and a finch stocked up on seeds. 

Ducks joined a turtle on the lake snags.  An egret staked upstream along the far bank.  The chaste tree was nearly finished blooming.  A cicada killer zoomed all around me, frustrating my effort to get a decent photo.  Thunder rumbled and convinced me to leave the pool but very little rain fell and the sky cleared before sunset. 

Another hot day

When I was collecting clothes that had hung dry, a tiny damselfly perched on a hanger.  Later, blue dashers were everywhere.  Alas, so were Japanese beetles.  A twelve spotted skimmer cruised overhead. 

An osprey circled over the creek.  I heard the blue jays calling and suddenly realized they were coming for the blueberries.  So I grabbed a bucket and went for them as well.  And I found a squirrel up in the bush eating berries. 

Brief thunderstorm

I picked blueberries in the morning, intending to swim afterward.  But a lovely lunch intervened and I didn't get into the water till all the shade was gone.  But clouds  brought relief until they brought a pop up afternoon thunderstorm that barely wetted the ground.

Dragonflies were mostly perched.  Bees and wasps were busy.  The great golden digger wasp was back.  Threadwaisted wasps were mating, and flying at the same time!  I rescued a sidewalk tiger beetle but I was too late for a skink.  A tiger swallowtail flitted through the cherry.  The mountain mint was beginning to get customers. 

A Carolina wren shared its opinion.  A hummer came for a drink.  I thought I heard a flycatcher whistle but I couldn't be sure. 

Very hot

A hummer visited briefly and I saw a titmouse and a chickadee share the seed feeder.  Dragonflies enjoyed the humidity, if not the heat.  Female blue dashers seemed to occupy every vantage point.

A variegated fritillary egged some plants growing in the french drain.  I rescued a spider that promptly dived back in.  I also rescued a robber fly, some beetles, and a couple of bristletails.

A curled leaf amused me with its reflections and illusions.

Home at last

I saw waterlilies blooming last Wednesday when the train cut through the edge of the Great Dismal. Today I saw more North of Quantico, but those were still closed up when the train passed. I didn’t see any along the Chichahominy swamp.

Mimosa, Ailanthus. and sumac were blooming, Closer to the ground, chicory, Queen Anne’s lace, and several yellow-flowered weeds were in bloom.  A couple of osprey flew upstream over the Potomac and later I saw a great blue heron flying North. A cabbage white, a sulphur, and a monarch were attracted to the aforementioned weeds.

At home, I saw a silver spotted skipper, a male widow skimmer, and a great golden digger wasp. I rescued a spider and a horntail which did not revive while I watched. 

A hummer had a long drink through its long beak. An osprey settled into the tall pine and soon crows began to arrive below and hop upward branch to branch, sneaking up on the osprey. 

The wild cherries were starting to ripen and the blueberries needed picking.  Red flowers, hibiscus, gladiolus, and roses, confused a hummer.  It was hot again, touching 90°F according to the car, under a hazy sky. There was only a light breeze. 

On the train

I saw a hummer before I left.

Lots of weeds were in bloom along the sides of the tracks.  The route cut across the top of the Great Dismal Swamp.  Waterlilies were blooming where there was open water.  More marshes lined inlets off the Potomac.  Then the monuments to Washington and Jefferson appeared.

The last evening of the trip, we went on a monument tour.  And at the Jefferson Monument I heard the first cicada of the year.  A flaming sunset lit the Tidal Basin. 

I didn't return by the same train route because a coal train derailed and dumped coal dust into the Great Dismal. 

Still hot

I didn't see much, just dragonflies.  The ground cherry flowers hung like yellow bells.  Thunderheads built up and rain began around 4:30pm.