Brighter and drier

There was sunshine, but also a thin layer of cloud.  After two wet days, the little biters were out and so were the dragonflies.  It was hard to persuade the camera to focus on them and not the background.  I think they were all great blue skimmers.  A tiger swallowtail popped up out of the foliage right outside the window and I wasn't fast enough.  Later I saw a black swallowtail. 

Eight turtles lined the logs on the lake to catch the sunshine.  A yellow crowned night heron prowled the shoreline downhill from me.  

The birds finished the suet so I put the last block out and also some barkbutter balls.  A Carolina wren hammered at the balls.  I am not buying more suet.  

Damp and dreary

The rain trailed off into chilly mist and drizzle and the temperature barely reached 60.  Birds were famished.  Three crows gathered at the suet but fled as soon as we saw each other.  I photographed the female red bellied woodpecker and the female bluebird, but the mist was too thick.  The orange daylily picked this weather to bloom. 

The air cleared a little and I was able to capture the brown thrashers, one on the suet and one below.  Carolina wrens and blue jays followed and the woodpeckers and bluebirds returned.  I went out to clear some debris and caught a brown thrasher on the gable peak.  

Real rain at last

I was busy in the morning and the rain began after lunch so I never got outside.  K said the temperature in the morning peaked at 85°, but it dropped to 65° during the afternoon.  In lulls between bands of rain, the birds rushed to the feeders.  I think the hummer feeder must have flooded because a female left after just a second. 

Downy and red bellied woodpeckers couldn't stay away from the suet.  I couldn't identify one soaking wet black bird.  Two white breasted nuthatches braved the rain for seeds and suet.  One tried to share with a downy but it didn't work out.  A sodden blue jay gleaned fragments on the ground below the sued cage.  The bluebirds and brown thrashers were the only birds that didn't look like they'd fallen into a bucket. 

The day was so dark that half of my pictures were blurs.  And the rain came from the North so the windows were wet.  

Dragonflies

Titmice breakfasted at the Sunflower Seed Cafe.  Brown thrashers wanted something meatier and found it in the suet cage.  It appeared to me that one was dropping morsels to the other.  Fat cumulus clouds blew in but just kept going.  

Big dragonflies zoomed past me heading into the South wind which lifted them over the house.  Great blue skimmers perched and let me get photographs.  

A magnolia jumping spider joined me as I shelled peas.  I got a better photo of the spider with the enlarged front legs.   I saw another ground crab spider - genus Xysticus is as close as I can get though I actually located matching photos.

Along with spiders and beetles, I rescued a big wasp that I think may have been a young cicada killer, but the ungrateful critter left without a photo.  A honeybee worked on the rue which might make for some strange tasting honey.  Then the first great golden digger wasp of the year showed up on the rue. 

A great egret fished under the bulkhead.  A yellow crowned night heron flew over my head.  Spittlebugs found the pink evening primrose.  

 

Hot and hazy

Today was cooler, though still hot and the breeze was pleasant.  Dragonflies didn't really get active till twilight.  A black swallowtail passed through without stopping.  I rescued several spiders including another with enlarged front legs.  Also innumerable black beetles, a pine borer that flashed its metallic blue-green butt, and an earwig, I think.  I also saw a skink race across the patio.  Bluebirds found the suet in its new location and, indeed, found the chair convenient.  Eventually, a titmouse and Carolina wrens located the suet.  Two egrets flew North at dusk. 

One lavender plant was blooming but the other looked dead.  Peppers were beginning to swell.  The false indigo was blooming and the cilantro bolted into lacy flowers.  I saw buds on the fresias and the lilies.  The milkweed in the front yard seemed a little droopy but much bigger than the one in the back yard.  All sorts of odd leaves popped up where I planted "fairy garden" seeds, basically small flowering plants.  The purple leatherflower vine has had a couple of blossoms though the purple was mighty pale.  

Scorcher!

A stiff Southwest wind pushed the temperature to at least 97° and drove the water out of the creek.  Low tide was as low as I can remember, though the full moon was partly responsible.  considering the heat, I was grateful for the breeze.  The two-gosling goose family came to graze but I told them they were unwelcome.  I rescued a honeybee, a bumblebee, a tiny green bee, several spiders, innumerable black ground beetles, and a ladybird beetle, but they all left before I got the camera.  Cumulus clouds occasionally passed in front of the sun, casting shadows on the sky.  

A great blue skimmer hunted tiny biting insects.  A dark butterfly flew away under the trees.  A rusty-backed carpenter bee fed on the rue.  A female hummer rejected the sugar water and no wonder - when K took the feeder down we discovered nasty, black guano splattered over it.  When I tried to disassemble if for washing, it broke.  I have more feeders but I need enough to keep rotating them.  

A Carolina wren peeked at me from behind vegetation.  Then a bluebird landed on the top of the maple tree.  The wren went for the empty barkbutter dish.  So did the bluebird.  K walked outside and interrupted their confrontation.  

Amazingly, 97° was not a record.  The thermometer hit 98° on this date in 1880.  

Overcast

Yet another day when I was too busy and the weather wasn't particularly pleasant.  The temperature was mild but more humid and the sky was overcast most of the day.  It even rained in the morning.  A bluebird, a brown thrasher, and a red bellied woodpecker all haunted the empty feeders but I got no photos.  I took the feeders down because people were going to be on the patio.  In the evening the sun cracked through the clouds and I got a look at the lake where a great blue heron stood watch over turtles.