City Nature Challenge

The City Nature Challenge is a bioblitz using iNaturalist and running April 30-May 3.  So I went overboard and took 275 photos today.  But I also got lucky a couple of times.  The first was the pileated woodpecker, Dryocopus pileatus.  Cardinals, bluebirds, and blue jays also showed up for breakfast.  I didn't notice at the time that the bluebird had a partly white tail.  The pileated female came back while I was outside and let me take more pictures.  I believe she has become more tolerant of us over the last several months. 

It was another hot, windy day with an intensely blue sky.  There were quite a few dragonflies but the big darners never stopped flying.  I got a single shot of what I think was a female blue dasher.  A damselfly was more cooperative.  It appears to be some kind of pond spreadwings.  There were lots of paper wasps and carpenter bees.  Finally, I found a narcissus bulb fly.  They were thick last year. 

I saw several tiger swallowtails but only one let me get a photo.  And I found a couple of first instar black swallowtail caterpillars.  I took a lot of plant photos, many of which I discarded because I wasn't sure if domestics counted. I went around to the fig to take pictures of the moss but I will have to do that another day.  

A gray catbird, Dumetella carolinensis, was foraging in the moss.  Usually they are quite skittish, but this one let me take many photos.  I didn't hear any catlike sounds but the wind was awfully loud.  I never got a picture of the Carolina wren though it made many visits to the feeders.  I saw a downy but no red bellied woodpecker.  There were crows and starlings, of course.  An egret landed but I guess I was too close for comfort.  The hummer did not return while I was watching. Nor did any skinks. 

Open water

The suet was going fast.  Do I want to keep feeding the birds suet @ $2.50/day?  But I love seeing all the woodpeckers.  The downy, the red bellied, and the pileated all came today.  The pileated got into a staring duel with a crow.  Bluebirds also craved suet.  The brown thrasher pair enjoyed each other's company as they foraged.  

In the morning the crew came to get the pool ready.  It looked lovely but the water was very cold.  And the fierce Southwest wind blew all sorts of tree trash into the water.  The wind grounded most of the birds in the afternoon but a female hummer visited her feeder.  I had brewed a fresh jar of sugar water that seemed to be acceptable.  I think the whole previous batch was contaminated. 

Insects also found the wind tough going but a large dragonfly, probably a darner, banged into the window several times.  I also saw butterflies and wasps, and too many houseflies.  A honeybee was working on the last azaleas.  Skinks enjoyed the heat and one with a red head posed for me. 

I saw an egret land.  Later a yellow crowned night heron perched on the pine branch that hangs over the creek.  The strawberry that lost all its leaves and flowers looked like it might still be alive.  And there was a sprout by last year's milkweed stalk.  The wind pushed the tide very low.  Ducks and a cormorant usurped the turtle log.  The newspaper claimed the temperature reached 90° but that wasn't a record. 

Sweaty

It was still hot, but more hazy.  The male red bellied woodpecker came to breakfast.  Then a blue jay has some suet.  Around mid day a couple of proud parent geese brought their goslings to eat our grass and defecate all over.  I went outside to discourage this and spotted a green caterpillar dangling on 20 feet of silk under the hackberry.  Even though it was catching the sun, I could not get it in focus.  It was climbing fast too.

The brown thrashers were very busy all afternoon.  A gusty wind tempered the heat, but still I sweated.  Irises flowered while the azaleas wilted and the money plant made seeds.  Dogwood flowers were becoming berries.  Blue eyed grass began blooming.  So did the Solomon's seal.  There were flowers on the rue but the insects hadn't found them yet.  Rose buds were still tight.  

Cabbage whites hunted nectar and I also saw a large dark butterfly I suspect was a palamedes swallowtail. A hummingbird hovered over the feeder, then flew off.  Was it me or had the juice gone bad?  A bluebird was bolder or hungrier.  There were only two turtles on the basking log.  

Hot

The temperature rose well into the 80s. Azaleas and other flowers drooped.  Pollen marbled the creek surface.  Carolina wrens were snacking nearly every time I looked.  Bluebirds showed up frequently too.  And a bluejay tackled the suet.  The turtles sunning on the lake looked very big.  Three cormorants perched above.  

Blue sky

The wild cherry looked foamy with flowers.  The dark azaleas were beginning to fade and the white bush was in full bloom.  The suet cage was empty!  Where did it all go? -- A block of suet in two days is not sustainable consumption.  Each bird had to check it out, some several times.  The brown thrashers scoured the ground beneath.  I saw a tiger swallowtail in the pink azalea bush. 

The potted strawberries were blooming and berries were starting to form.  I dealt with the pot of dead celosia and discovered a skink was napping inside.  It almost got squashed escaping.  The clematis had a flower and the crossvine (Bignonia capreolata) I bought two years ago at the Farmers Market put out its first flowers.  A patch of white clover was in bloom but I didn't see any bees. 

There was a lot of scurrying around the pool puddle and in the bushes.  A Carolina wren and a white throated sparrow hunted on the pool cover while a brown thrasher stayed under cover.  A bluebird perched on the topmost pine candle.  The female red bellied woodpecker sunbathed on a limb of the oak tree. Then she preened for a while.  Eventually she found the barkbutter balls.  Titmice were thick at the seed feeder.  

The cardinals were finally courting.  I glimpsed a warbler but I don't know which kind.  A white breasted nuthatch was the final visitor in search of suet.  Since the sky was clear, I took advantage to get photos of the full moon.  

Clearing

Morning looked fairly dismal but I don't think we got any more rain.  Starlings were back but the red bellied woodpecker shooed them away.  Bluebirds and brown thrashers wanted breakfast too.  Unusually, a blue jay tackled the suet because I was being stingy with the barkbutter balls. 

A slightly bedraggled male downy showed up late in the morning.  The suet was fast disappearing so I relented and put out a helping of barkbutter balls.  A crow took the challenge and got the reward.     

Patches of blue sky preceded sunshine.  The wild cherry bloomed.  I finally got a pose from the Carolina wren that was hanging around all day.  There were still clouds at sunset.  

Rain

A cloudy morning turned to rain mid afternoon.  At that time we were down by the Dismal Swamp Canal but I didn't see much wildlife in the tall trees.  Squirrels scampered and a few birds flitted.  I believe one was a robin.