Another warm start to a summer’s day… we’re halfway through July for this morning coffee muses.
At least, at this time of the morning, I’m sitting in shade on the glider as the sun rises. And the fan keeps the wind chill in a comfortable range.
The big black bumblebees just love the purple blossoms on the chaste tree. They are constantly buzzing around it all day long.
The first bird on the feeder today was a pair of cardinals. They really didn’t stay and eat as they were too shy around me.
It’s time to put the new mower back to work. Chasing circles in the yard. Hopefully, being finished before noon.
I haven’t heard a pileated woodpecker in awhile, but I think I just caught a glimpse of one flying over.
This muse is short but it’s already pushing nine o’clock and I want to be on the mower by ten. Later…
I’ve seen something recently that I’ve never seen before — cicada killers in action. I’ve been watching and watching a few that have been buzzing around my place, always in the same area. Finally, I saw one carrying a cicada back to its nest, and today I saw a second. I spent about an hour this week end trying to get a photo of one, but the darned things absolutely refuse to land. I think they might be more sluggish in the morning, but I’m always on my way to work then, and not willing to waste a “cooler” hour trying to photograph an insect. In any event, now that I know where two of their burrows are, it ought to be a little easier to get a pic. They’ve been freaking out people who think they’re wasps that are after humans, but they seem pretty placid to me. They just want their cicada.
My wife has a wasp/bee phobia. Anything that looks like a wasp flying by her causes her to dodge… usually towards the insect. Her anxiety is so bad about this she can’t enjoy the outside during the summer months. If she didn’t smoke she’d probably be indoors all summer.
A couple of times here in the past week, I’ve heard a cicada chop off it’s call in mid buzz with almost a yelp… I haven’t seen what’s causing that effect. It could be a bird… it could be one of your cicada killers.