Beautiful day

It was sunny and pleasant and fragrant - the white jasmine was blooming.  So was the pepper, the cilantro, the false indigo, the white lily, and the mountain mint looked like it was getting ready to bloom.  I put out bark butter balls and the blue jays weren't far behind.  One kept trying to land on the cup instead of the hanger with no success.  Another managed by climbing down. 

The slime mold was still white except where leaves and such had fallen on it.  I touched it and it was not slimy or sticky, but cool and a little damp and fairly firm.  There were two large patches and some small bits.  I found a snail on top of a patch that had been mostly hidden by vegetation.  Another glass snail was on a straw sticking up from the slime mold.  I wonder if they eat it? 

Long legged flies were flitting around the pepper leaves and I spotted one that was bright metallic red.  It was a little smaller than the ones I usually see, but I decided I don't care enough to catch the fly and investigate its personal parts for a specific ID.  They're all supposed to be predators on small garden pests.  

Ar lunch, two small skinks went tearing across the top step too fast for me to react.  A hummer made several visits so I guess she built a nest in the area.  Three squirrels, all with a noticeable dark streak above the nose, interacted in ways the made me suspect they were siblings not long out of the nest.  Two of them put their noses together as though kissing.  One stayed up the post or on the feeder roof while the other two foraged below. 

A female bluebird settled on the tub of bark butter so they must have eaten all the balls.  Unfortunately the window screen was in the way of the camera.  Then a couple of pine warblers showed up and one bumped the other off the feeder.  A Carolina wren sat still on the feeder for some time.  Then one of the warblers returned. 

As I are supper, I noticed a spider on the window.  The bullfrog was still calling.  The new camera did not want to take pictures of the moon.  Good thing I kept the old one. 

Slime

Bubbles rose in the creek shallows, whether methane or some critter I've no idea.  I caught the male bluebird in a tree.  He had been after something in the grass.  

Honeybees, bumblebees, wasps, and syrphid flies crowded around the rue. The parsley also had syrphid flies and leatherwing soldier beetles. A red bellied woodpecker made its querulous warble which alerted me to look for it up in the oak. 


I found a large white slime mold under the purple witch hazel in the front yard.  After reading up on this strange life form, I think it is a tapioca slime mold Brefeldia maxima. 

 A pine warble showed up for bark butter, the first I'd seen since winter.  A female hummer found the juice acceptable. 


The late afternoon rain brought out slugs.  I found one in the feeder eating the soggy remains of bark butter balls, another crawling over a parsley flower head, and another inside a day lily flower.  Others were just eating leaves.  Also on the parsley was a tiny orange caterpillar pretending to be a dead stem. 

The bullfrog was quite loud today, morning and evening. K thinks there's a frog under the pool cover, but I doubt it.  I wouldn't be surprised if there were decaying, drowned skinks, but how would a frog stay alive?  I suspect the bullfrog discovered how to use the pool as an amplifier. 

More rain

I was really busy and didn't see much.  I did hear the bullfrog's love song.  Somebody ate all the bark butter balls when I wasn't looking.  A Carolina wren went for the little tub of bark butter instead.

Steamy

Morning was wet so I didn't put out more BBBs, so no birds. Water was higher in the ant moat showing overnight rain.   The white breasted nuthatch lurked behind the downspout and refused to come get a seed.  Finally I decided to put out one of the little tubs of bark butter.  When I got home, a downy woodpecker visited the bark butter, but it spooked.  A bluebird followed.  In the afternoon, a couple of titmice visited. 

Intermittent sun and heat lured the skinks out.  One was very nervous about a squirrel.  A house finch appeared to be having hiccups, or hacking up a hairball, or choking? 

A squirrel tried to break-and-enter the seed feeder, but got no joy.  I saw lots of bees and wasps on the rue, a soldier beetle and more bees and ants on the parsley, but only a cabbage white butterfly and an unidentified dragonfly in the air.  Two swallows made a couple of passes overhead hunting bugs.  The wind picked up and by mid afternoon it was raining. 

Fog burned off

I could hear the frog calling in the fog. A blue jay raided the feeder. 

The fog dissipated around 9am and the temperature took off.  Bluebirds showed up at the feeder.  A skink ran across the steps at lunch. Rain started in the late afternoon and came through in waves. 

Mist

More chilly, damp weather.  The male downy managed the bark butter ball feeder.  A Carolina wren dived in head first.  The bluebird pair made it look easy.  The feral cat came prowling along the creek edge and headed up to the feeders.

White breasted nuthatch

It was another dank, gray day until the overcast broke up about 6pm.  It was a little warmer and not quite as breezy, so I did some outdoor work.  I was sitting, watching clouds flow over from the Northeast when the nuthatch came to the seed feeder.  I was too close to move the camera into range, but fortunately the nuthatch returned after I went inside.

Carolina wrens, bluebirds, a titmouse, and a blue jay made off with bark butter balls. K saw a hummingbird but I missed it.  A chickadee wedged itself inside the wrought iron feeder hanger. 

A pair of cardinals seemed very anxious as they stuffed themselves full of seeds.  Soon the other pair showed up and chased them away.

Quite a few honeybees buzzed around the rue.  I found a gray russula toadstool.