Late afternoon rain

The bit of beard lichen on the back of the bench never seems to get any bigger.  After some prowling around iNaturalist, I'm calling it Bristly Beard Lichen Usnea hirta.  The sunflower keeps making flowers but each is smaller than the last.  They have gone from desert plate down to thumbnail in size.  The beautyberry still had some flowers but more green berries. Yellow bells dangled from the ground cherry plants. 

I was afraid it might rain later so I picked figs in the morning.  Green June beetles had the same idea.  So did a bald faced hornet.  A lovely male widow skimmer used the perch outside my window.  There was a striped caterpillar drowned in the skimmer.  It looked to me like the kind that attacks azaleas so I did not mourn.  I could not locate the swallowtail caterpillar.  It may have gone off to form a chrysalis or it might have been hunting for more parsley, or it might have become dinner. 

A black mud wasp twitched around the mountain mint. The specific sand wasp I've been seeing on the mountain mint appears to be a Four-banded Stink Bug Wasp Bicyrtes quadrifasciatus even though I see five bands.  A tiger swallowtail hurried across the yard and out of sight. 

 

The dog wanted out around 4pm and spooked a female common whitetail dragonfly which got away unphotographed.  The clouds were already dark and threatening and the temperature had dropped.  A goldfinch was unwilling to visit while I was outside.  A fuzzy-looking bluebird perched atop the redwood.  Three mockingbirds landed in the dogwood, two fledglings and a tired parent.  And then the rain began.  

Toward evening, I saw a great blue heron on the dock.  It appeared to be stalking something.  The water was quite still after the rain.  

Lovely day

The oppressive, sticky heat blew away overnight and it wasn't as windy either.  I rescued an assassin bug and did my best to ignore a large mulch roach that occupied the top step of the pool ladder.  A skipper clung to the side of the pool in the shade.  I saw a dragonfly on one of my perches but got distracted and never came back with the camera.  A black swallowtail flitted through.  A great golden digger wasp browsed the mountain mint.  So did a bumblebee and a little black bee with a furry waist.  An ailanthus moth, Atteva aurea, tried to stay out of the way of wasps.  But the prize of the day was a cicada killer that I finally got in focus! 

A brown thrasher lurked in the sakaki.  Titmice queued up at the feeder.  The bluebirds fed a fledgling.  The two male goldfinches declared a truce and both worked on the sunflower.  The evening sky was lined with ribs of cloud flowing slowly East.  

Mockingbird family

It was scorchingly hot and very gusty.  The clouds lined up in ridges and furrows.  I sat outside in the shade after lunch and watched the insect parade:  a bumblebee, a honeybee, an all-black bee, a great golden digger wasp, a black threadwaisted wasp, a little black wasp ringed with gold, a sans wasp, scoliid wasps, and a fiery skipper.  While I was sitting outside, a skink sidled up and scooted right under the chair. 

I meant to swim in the morning but my program ran over.  So I waited till there was some shade on the water.  Among the usual floaters was a sharpshooter, Oncometopia orbona, a kind of leafhopper.  A widow skimmer used the mountain mint as a windbreak.  The black swallowtail caterpillar was still trying to eat the gone-to-seed parsley.  I hope it doesn't starve.  After swimming, I picked the first figs of the year.  A sidewalk tiger beetle scurried away. 

A mockingbird parent brought two offspring to the feeder but they didn't quite connect the dots. Maybe tomorrow. A bluebird was also trying to teach its fledgling hoe to eat at the mealworm feeder.  Sunset was quite pink.  

Insects

A white breasted nuthatch showed up after breakfast.  The canna decided to try another blossom.  I found a big swallowtail caterpillar on the gone-to-seed parsley, but no sign of the monarch caterpillar, so I hope there is a chrysalis somewhere.  I blew another shot at a great golden digger wasp.  In addition to all the beetles that I fished out of the water, there was an insect I didn't recognize that looked midway between a beetle and a wasp.  The mountain mint was full of many kinds of bees. 

A four spotted pennant rode the topmost twig of the wild cherry.  Something denuded all the highest branches on the wild cherry.  I suspect tiger swallowtail caterpillars.  I saw an orange fritillary butterfly that appeared to be laying eggs on violet leaves.  A black butterfly showed no interest in either parsley or rue so I wondered if it was a dark tiger swallowtail or a red spotted purple.  A fiery skipper popped around the mountain mint. 

Toward evening, a green heron landed on a post in the creek.  It didn't stay long, but I was grateful to have seen it.  Great egrets were also in flight.  It had been a very hot day and was still in the 90s at supper. 

Yellow crowned night heron

Great golden digger wasps enjoyed the mountain mint.  A black vulture circled high over the creek.  A black swallowtail, a cabbage white, and a fiery skipper visited.  But the monarch caterpillar disappeared.  I assisted a huge leaf-footed bug to escape the water. 

A yellow crowned night heron inspected the new shoreline.  A widow skimmer used the perch that the orchard spider had wrapped in sticky silk.   I wonder if the spider relocated?  A blue dasher obelisked on another perch.  

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Fledgling feeding

A Carolina wren was not happy with all the rain water in the feeder dishes.  A molting bluebird scanned the area from the post.  Then a fledgling bluebird appeared.  It was quite polite about asking for food compared to house finch fledglings.  But when mother showed up with mealworms, the fledgling gaped as wide as its head.  I had just been reading that nature photography is being at the right place at the right moment when this happened! 

A skink with no tail hid behind the downspout.  Another crossed the steps to slip under the birdbath.  The fledgling was curious about the food dishes but intimidated by a bee.  A great golden digger wasp ignored everything but mountain mint.  The monarch caterpillar continued to stuff itself with milkweed leaves. 

Cumulus clouds built up to the Southwest.  A hummer checked out the feeder and declined so I brought it in. 

Skinks

At lunch time, there were skinks.  I waited till late in the day to swim, but it was still buggy.  But I was able to rescue a pigeon horntail.  It must have just fallen in because it was still buzzing.  I couldn't get it to grab anything so I lifted it out with my hand, with some trepidation as a horntail looks like a yellow and black banded syringe.  It did not wait around for a photo session.  Fireflies lit up the evening.