Cloudy

The rabbit ate a lot of the morning glory vines but not the ones closest to the patio.  The first blue flowers opened.  The monarch chrysalis seemed to be doing OK.  A daylily rebloomed.  Lots of little brown parasols poked up in the grass. 

 A hummer came for lunch.  A foolish skinklet climed the feeder post, just begging to become a meal.  Finally it seemed to realize this was not a good place to be and came back down much faster.  Why do the best moments always come when I cannot get a photo?  At lunch, when my hands were sticky with barbeque sauce, blue jays were hitting the bark butter and a brown thrasher slipped in.  The jays weren't having that, but then they squabbled over which one was next.  Then a red bellied woodpecker tried to get a bite.  And then they all disappeared.

Bees and wasps seemed well fed on the mountain mint, but two monarch caterpillars ran out of milkweed.  The black swallowtail caterpillars had enough food but may have been more palatable to predators.  A goldfinch wanted a drink.  Then Carolina wrens came for bark butter, one of them very disheveled.  I'm not sure if it was a juvenile or a molting adult, but the other did not appear to be molting.  A couple of squirrels flirted. 

Ideal summer day

It was a lovely day with low humidity and all the sunshine anyone could desire.  Hummers joined us for breakfast.  After lunch, a goldfinch got a drink from the ant moat, so K hurried out with more water.  I saw a Carolina wren and blue jays during the day,  A raggedy bluebird wanted its supper. 


A fiery skipper fed on the mountain mint, along with the bees and wasps.  A red spotted purple was busy across the yard on the cherry.  A great blue skimmer monitored the yard from a bamboo stake.  A female widow skimmer took a post near the mountain mint but I don't think it was after the bees or wasps.  A black swallowtail took a turn at the mountain mint. I believe the big scoliid wasp I saw last week was the Blue-winged wasp (Scolia dubia) and the third kind of digger wasp may be a Katydid Wasp (Sphex nudus).

I decided I couldn't let summer pass without making sun tea once.  I enjoyed watching it steep.  Skinks enjoyed the sunshine.

The hibiscus put on a brave show, but I could see sawflies leaving eggs on the leaves.  I would have gone after them with the neem oil but it was too breezy.   The milkweed by the beautyberry was still overrun with aphids.  The beauryberries were close to full size, though still completely green.  The fruits on the hackberry were turning red.

Gusty

With all the outdoor items secured, we awaited the remnants of Hurricane Laura.   A squirrel made off with an entire green pine cone.  The hibiscus wasted at least nine blossoms on the blustery day.  A blue jay checked out the menu. 

After lunch the clouds looked very fierce but moved very fast as well.  They alternated with sunshine.  The wind did not deter the wasps or a buckeye.  An adult skink had a regrown tail.  A murder of crows gathered noisily, but I had no idea why.  Hummers ignored it.

I found a third monarch chrysalis, this one dangling from the rose bush.  There was rain around 4pm but it didn't accumulate to much.  The sky was mostly clear by sunset as birds flew home and dragonflies sieved the air of gnats.  Cicadas were very loud. 

Ruby throat!

There was a storm in the night that flooded the feeders and we were a bit late getting them refreshed.  A male ruby throated hummingbird slipped in and got a couple of good drinks in between the females.  Half the time the light was wrong and his throat appeared black. 
 A big skink with a tiny tail hurried under cover.  I wonder if it was the one I saw last week that had just lost its tail.  Black swallowtails seemed frantic to get eggs laid.  The usual bees and wasps were back at the mountain mint.  Like the hummer's throat, lighting that hit just right made the great golden digger wasp's face shine like metal.  A blue dasher kept watch from a bamboo stake. 

The storm had dumped tree debris in the water, including lots of pine needles.  I saved a scarab beetle clinging to some needles and a sidewalk tiger beetle swimming with its almost invisibly thin legs.  I also fished out a caterpillar and K found a horntail.  The caterpillar eventually revived and I left it in a clump of parsley.  I also moved another caterpillar from an almost denuded milkweed to the butterfly milkweed. 

In preparation for the remnant of Hurricane Laura, I turned the plastic end tables upside down, but I had to turn one back up because it had two monarch chrysalises. hanging from the underside.  The cottontail grazed under the azaleas.  

Warm and sunny

Titmice were up before breakfast.  Hummers were satisfied with the fresh batch of sugar water.  The black swallowtail caterpillars were growing fast.  First a small orange butterfly darted around clumps of grass, then I saw a red spotted purple in a cherry tree.   It was missing the red part of one wing.   A female pondhawk posed on a branch.

A Needham's skimmer guarded the lantana in the front yard.  A blue jay was coy about wanting bark butter.  Maybe because it had lost some head and neck feathers and looked quite strange. The mountain mint remained popular.  I found a dead cicada. 

A strange cloud formation in the East preceded the spread of a thin overcast.  It was a repeating feathery pattern that reminded me of the shape produced by wiping an old fashioned fountain pen.  Just before dark I saw a firefly or
two.  A loud storm rolled in around 11pm. 

Hawk attack

The hibiscus was covered with flowers and a daisy decided to bloom again.  A skimmer perched and two yellow-bodied dragonflies darted back and forth about ten feet up in the air.  I had no hope of photographing them.  All kinds of wasps and bees gathered on the mountain mint.

I spent too much of the day inside on video-conferences.  A Coopers hawk crashed into the window behind me. I turned and saw it fly off with empty talons, so no harm done.  Shortly after that I escaped outside to a hot sun in a cloudless sky.  A couple of small butterflies were attracted to the mountain mint.  One was a snout and the other a red-banded hairstreak (Calycopis cecrops).  A black swallowtail laid eggs but a monarch just kept going - male? 

A cricket rescued itself from the water using one of my escape sticks.  I rescued a millipede but it wouldn't wait for a photo.  Huge carpenter bees fed on the tiny mountain mint flowers.  A full grown wheelbug flew in to a landing on a hibiscus bug.  More caterpillars ate rue.

Several skinks were around.  A disheveled bluebird rested on the fence.  A blue jay sampled the melted bark butter.  And then I went back to more meetings.  I did sneak out after dark and catch the moon and Jupiter. 

Warm sun

It's odd how after a day that practically wears out the camera, the next day I get only a handful of photos.  I did have a lot going on today and will again tomorrow.  A great blue heron was in the same place as yesterday but it didn't look like the same bird.

The sky was blue and lightly hazed.  I was late getting outside.  I saw a sulphur and several swallowtails, and a skimmer of some kind.  The mountain mint was busy with bees and wasps.  I found two skinks in the skimmer but only one survived.  Hummingbirds continued to waste energy guarding the feeder.

The first quarter moon was visible in the afternoon.  A bright planet rose after dark, Jupiter, I think.