Gray

It's too bad I was indoors yesterday instead of today.  There was a little rain overnight and overcast skies all day.  The juvenile male cardinal and his mother were back.  The fledgling hovered while the adult sat on the feeder perch and fed him.  Titmice were not impressed.  A white breasted nuthatch waited for a chance at the unoccupied feeder.  

I went swimming despite the cooler air, bugs, and lack of sunshine because it might be the last time this year.  There was a yellow jacket in the skimmer which I very carefully rescued.  Several snails clung to the side of the pool and I found a black swallowtail caterpillar on the bottom.  I also rescued at least eight black ground beetles and one assassin bug nymph.  Reduviidae nymphs look utterly alien.  The white breasted nuthatch came back after I got out.  So did the cardinal mother and son. 

The first camellia

It was another hot day, and humid.  In the morning, the male juvenile cardinal was begging his mother for food.  Titmice and chickadees streamed to the deed feeder.  A downy woodpecker made a face at the barkbutter mush.  The first camellia of the season bloomed.  I was away all afternoon and when I got back, the male juvenile cardinal was begging his mother for food again. I also saw the adult male cardinal but not the juvenile female.  

Hot

I spent the morning at a fair out near the oceanfront.  A monarch fluttered by.  The day was sunny and grew really hot.  Hurricane Helene switched the wind direction so the clouds flowed up out of the Southwest, finally.  I startled a couple of skinks on my way to the water.  Another skink was floating on a waterlogged leaf so I lifted it, leaf and all, onto the concrete.  Two bullfrogs were in the skimmer, one little and one "almost eatin' size."  A third frog swam past me headed for deep water.  A leg cramp made me get out before I caught up with that frog.  

While drying in the sun, I witnessed a battle to the death.  A skink had caught a cricket.  Much rolling and thrashing ensued, but the cricket was doomed.  A jet passed over with no contrail.  Those little purple mint moths were everywhere.  I also spotted a picture-winged fly, Delphinia picta.  

Hurricane weather

Both kinds of nuthatches stocked up with their equivalent of "bread and milk."  Titmice crowded the seed feeder.  A downy woodpecker had barkbutter balls.  The female juvenile cardinal was beginning to get the hang of feeding herself but still begged.  A squirrel ate dogwood berries.  So did a mockingbird.  A foraging squirrel was covered with warbles.  A blue jay stayed in the trees.  A monarch butterfly briefly visited the butterfly milkweed.

Hurricane Helene was a long way off but even so, local weather was affected.  The morning was overcast but quiet.  Rain began around 2:30pm and gradually got heavier.  The tide was still running high for the point in the lunar cycle.  I glimpsed a couple of gulls but they flew out of sight immediately.  

Mosquitoes

Some early flickers of sunshine encouraged me to brew some solar tea.  When I went to collect it later, a kingfisher noticed me and flew from the dock.  The sky was mostly low stratus clouds making the sun no brighter than a table lamp.  Still, that was enough to pull the temperature up to 80° and the humidity high as well.  Mosquitoes were ambitious and in my face while I was in the water.  I saved a young skink, evicted a good-size bullfrog, and rescued a half dozen black ground beetles, and a tiny snail.  None of them stayed for a portrait.  Yesterday I removed the rescue stick just in case I wasn't able to do it later.  Is that why the water was full of beetles?  A stream of chickadees came to the feeder, and sometimes dodged a cardinal.  I heard a blue jay.  A yellow butterfly fluttered out of sight at lunch. The saltbush began blooming. 

Humid

Morning was still wet and gray.  That did not stop the nuthatches, brown headed or white breasted.  A male cardinal fed his daughter.  A mockingbird tried the rehydrated wild cherries.  The rose drooped to shed rain.  A sparrow, I think was a song sparrow, landed on the railing but the camera insisted on focusing on the raindrops on the window.  In the afternoon we got some sun.  A two-lined spittlebug drowned in the bucket.  The tide rolled over the dock again even though we had a third quarter moon.  

All I found in the pool water was tree trash, snails, a cricket, and a leaf footed bug.  While dripping off, my eye was caught by a really colorful Southern purple mint moth.  Another mockingbird surveyed the scene from the maple, then flew in for a drink.  Two female cardinals tolerated each other, one on the seed feeder, the other on the barkbutter.  I think the one eating seeds was older.  At any rate, she was feeding her son.  Interesting that the parents fed the offspring of the opposite sex.  She looked like the joys of motherhood were wearing thin.  

Rain

 No pictures, nothing to report.