Still hot

A red headed skink and a moth enlivened breakfast.  It was tough persuading the camera to focus on the glass window and not the background, especially as the moth wouldn't stay put.  

Dragonflies were definitely visible but rarely still.  A delicate brown damsel fly perched on a twig but flew when I got too close.  A female blue dasher finally obliged.  I rescued a spider and a couple of beetles but there was little wind to toss bugs into the water.  

The construction across the creek cut into the waterbird population, and who can blame thme for choosing a different creek?  But after quitting time I spotted a night heron on a log under the bulkhead.  Mysterious activities in the water continued to disturb the creek's surface.  

Lovely weather

The sky was more hazy today and there were occasional clouds.  The air was warm enough that the breeze felt good. I took a lot of photos.  What I thought was a brown thrasher preening in the cherry tree was a female cardinal.  

More beetles needed rescue.  One was some kind of borer, probably Chalcophora virginiensis, Sculptured Pine Borer.  Perhaps I should have let it drown? While I was drying out, I watched the rue for wasps. One was striped like a yellow jacket, but it didn't look quite right. 

A dead branch came down last week. I checked it over for lichens, but found only crustose.  But there were incipient bracket fungi.  The wild cherry is absolutely loaded with berries but birds aren't showing any interest yet.  

I inadvertently startled a skink, but after I was quiet for a while, he ventured out.  His head was very red, indicating he was ready to breed.  He posed very nicely so I took many pictures.  Then another five lined skink showed up without a red head, probably a female.  She? disappeared into the same crevice where he had gone.  Some time later he reappeared and returned to the log where he'd been posing.  

A male hummingbird came to the feeder while I was sitting beside it.  He decided I was too close and flew off.  Cursing my luck, I retreated to a more distant chair.  After some time spent skink-watching, my patience was rewarded.  Alas, the light did not turn his throat ruby.  And I realized the feeder is in a bad location for photography.  The background is too close and full of humingbird-shaped leaves.  Still, I was able to confirm that a female hummer also visited the feeder.  

 

Intense sunshine

Blue sky and low humidity three weeks from the solstice meant a lot of UV got through the atmosphere.  I took care to move in and out of shade.  Blue jays came for breakfast.  While I was in the pool, I saw a male bluebird feeding a fledgling, but the bird I photographed looked more like a house finch.  I guess I tracked the wrong bird.  A mockingbird visited at lunch. 

I rescued several spiders, beetles, sweat bees, and a small gilded moth from drowning.  I think the spiders were male wolf spiders. The black beetles were probably some species of Scarites ground beetle.  The scarab was bronze-flecked brown.  Several cabbage whites flitted around and one appeared to be egging nearly every plant.  Wasps were busy as always. 

Glorious day

The lovely weather, mid 80s, breezy, and low humidity, brought out dragonflies that circled the house, round and round.  I think there were pondhawks among them.  A male blue dasher and a male great blue skimmer rested long enough for pictures.  The usual two paper wasp species were still feeding on the rue at 8pm.   The only butterfly was a cabbage white.  A blue tailed skink was guarding the strawberries till K moved them. 

Two healthy milkweed plants have yet to make any flowers to show what kind they are, but the butterfly milkweed was blooming.  I believe one sunflower germinated in the fence corner by the figs.  A volunteer coriander bloomed in the front yard.  Our lawn and many others were carpeted with white clover so I think local beehives must be healthy.  Small pale flowers marked the blue-eyed grass that was actually growing in the grass.  The rain all last week prevented mowing so the lawn was full of flowers. 

Several kinds of mushrooms popped up. Several Amanita muscaria var. guessowii looked ready for fairies or leprechauns.  A gray mushroom near the pecan might have been a grisette.  The third I saw was too nibbled to guess it identity. 

Bluebirds and blue jays still wanted to be fed.  The female red bellied woodpecker peeked at the suet but flew away. 

Thunderstorm deluge

In the morning there were passing showers.  I managed to run my errand between them.  But in the afternoon when I'd hoped to be outside, we had a real gully-washer.  Wind gusts thrashed the trees and turned the rain into clouds.  It turned the barkbutter balls to mush.  Earlier, I saw blue jays and bluebirds.  A mockingbird showed up afterward for some mush.  The rain chilled the air.  I didn't trust the weather and didn't like the chill so I stayed indoors.  In the late afternoon the sun lit up trees across the lake.  Sunset turned the remaining clouds ornage. 

A window of sunshine

Orange daylilies joined the yellow that had been blooming for over a week.  The pink evening primrose looked battered from the rain. A few buds opened on the butterfly milkweed.  I missed shots at a blue jay, a bluebird, a mockingbird, but a cardinal posed.  

Strange ripples in the creek suggested mysterious forces at work below.  Two goose families paddled upstream.  One family with three goslings seemed fairly laid back but the other family with six goslings had them all in a straight line.  

And more rain

The seed eaters were OK - cardinals, house finches, and chickadees.  I saw a red bellied woodpecker try for some suet, but it left quickly.  I don't know if something scared it, or if the suet had gone off or was too wet.  The barkbutter certainly was too soggy.  A bluebird looked at it and turned away.  Rain streaks made photography useless.