Butterflies

A downy joined the seed eaters at breakfast.  A male cardinal was molting ugly and a female had lost her crest.  The day got very hot and humid and quite unpleasant.  A black swallowtail nectared on the milkweed.  Hummers were thirsty.  A variegated fritillary also fed on milkweed flowers.  The camera fogged from the humidity.  I saw nothing at all in the water. 

National Mushroom Month

I had a meeting Tuesday evening and I forgot to post when I got home. The creek was quiet with a hint of Autumn.  It was humid and there was a little water in the birdbath.  There was another hibiscus flower on September 1st which I think is the latest ever.  A frog entertained me.  The polypore under the oak tree emerged and began to grow.  Hummers visited their feeders.  More beautyberries reddened.  The Nature Conservancy shared photos of fungi.  

Wednesday, I was busy morning and afternoon and meanwhile the temperature got into the high 90s so I swam late. I believe I glimpsed frogs on the concrete walkway around the deep end but, if so, they disappeared.  However, I found two skinks that had more-or-less rescued themselves.  An adult had wedged its toes into the crack under the coping but couldn't negotiate the overhang.  I gave it a gentle boost.  The other was half grown with a blue tail and had found one of the twigs I left for rescue purposes.  It only needed a little lift. A mosquito bothered me for a while and I may have killed it.  A couple of black beetles needed rescue and I found another pink and green caterpillar drowned.  Hummers and the male goldfinch and the seed-eating regulars visited.  In one day, the Berkley's polypore had doubled in size.  

Hibiscus blossom

I forgot to make an entry yesterday but it wasn't a dull day.  The male goldfinch seemed to be getting a drink every time I looked.  I camera-chased a tiger swallowtail.  Also I've been noticing wild cherry leaves carefully sculpted by caterpillars to hide that they've been partly eaten.  A spider was rafting on a sculpted leaf so I brought it to land.  It spun a bit of web then launched itself up into the dogwood, at least six feet up and away.  I thought it was one of the heptagonal orbweavers, but it was more brown with a butterfly shape marked in beige.  Turns out it is a butterfly orbweaver Araneus pegnia.  I also got pictures of the floating pine needles making occult symbols in the breeze.  A buzzard flew over and a hummer visited the fresh feeder.  

The morning looked nice but I had a meeting.  I think this may be the latest in the year that the hibiscus has bloomed.  There was a hummer and a goldfinch.  In the afternoon, I waited for some shade but almost waited too long and got sprinkled upon.  A cicada was submerged on the top step so I fished it out. Later I carried it up the steps for a photo and it began to revive!  iNaturalist identified it as a Northern dusk-singing cicada Megatibicen grossus.  

A frog in the skimmer seemed dead so I disposed of it.  Another in the pool was bigger and fairly lively, but I caught it. A determined mosquito bit me on my face since that was all it could reach.  I did my best to drown it.  I saw a monarch and a little skink as I dripped off.  I couldn't find any monarch caterpillars but the parsley plant I bought had a first instar black swallowtail caterpillar.  There were flashes of sunshine between the thunderheads while I was outside, but thunder and real rain began before 6pm.  It cleared after about half an hour.  

 

Accident

A storm overnight brought down leaves and needles but little rain.  The pool skimmer was packed with needles.  When I had removed most of them, I lifted out the basket and a frog jumped out and into the pipe leading to the pool filter.  I left the basket out in the hope it could swim back, but it didn't reappear.  Eventually I gave up and put the basket back in place.  I did catch another frog later and I rescued a heptagonal orbweaver.  And I think I must have fed several mosquitoes.  Earlier, a dragonfly hunted from a garden stake.  A dark butterfly passed by.  While I was dripping off, a very small skink with a very long tail ventured out, but I didn't have the camera.  Today was just as gloomy as yesterday and I didn't want to risk rain on the camera. The thirsty goldfinch was back.  

 

Gloomy

The usual two frogs went swimming with me.  I didn't see anything else of note in the water.  A leafhopper floated but I don't know if it recovered after I fished it out.  A hummer drank from the milkweed flowers.  I saw a monarch but it didn't visit the milkweed.  The Asiatic dayfloweres were blooming.  A red spotted purple landed on a dogwood but was edge-on to me.  

Cloudy

The sky often looked like rain but none fell and occasionally there was sun.  The male goldfinch was thirsty but also quick and hard to catch on camera.  I took the camera to the pool edge and got one frog inside the skimmer.  There were two but the other dived.  I eventually caught it.  The one that didn't dive tried to hide beside the camera, I guess because it was dark.  A black ground beetle rode a leaf around the skimmer.  I caught a dragonfly nymph in my hands and we studied each other, but I couldn't figure out any way to take a picture so I released it.  

As I dripped, a skink crossed the steps and climbed the retaining wall.  I counted 27 full size milkweed pods and didn't include some smaller ones.  but no caterpillars.  A cloudless sulphur flitted across the patio.  Hummers focused on the one-hole feeder and I discovered the bigger feeder was dry.  

 

Cool

The temperature overnight crept below 70°.  Morning felt cool and damp, in part because a large, heavy cloud seemed stuck overhead.  Once again there were two frogs which I caught.  I have been persuaded that they are young bullfrogs.  In addition, there was a half-grown grasshopper in the skimmer, which amazingly revived.  When I tried to urge it away from the water, it shot straight up into the air.  Is it "pronking" if an animal has six legs?  

A few beautyberries were beginning to blush.  A tiny wasp drowned in the one-hole hummer feeder.  The hummers did not approve.  They were happy when a fresh feeder appeared.  The squirrel was back but, alas, I had no peanuts.  A black swallowtail hunted for parsley, of which there was none.  It shamed me into going to the nursery and buying a pot full.  Toward evening, a little flock of eight mallards gathered on the creek.  The males were in eclipse and only their yellow bills indicated their sex.