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August weather was normal, hot and a little dry. Many native grasses were seeding and birds, such as Indigo Buntings and Blue Grosbeaks, were well fed.
There was an abundance of blooming flowers which the hummingbirds visited. Eastern Wood Peewees were busy snatching gnats and other small flies from
the air. Male Annual Cicadas shook their songs of romance. Large Black Horseflies occasionally needed swatting.
Newborn lizards, such as Green Anoles, were abundant. Cultivation of a flower bed, revealed a clutch of three eggs. Two of the eggs were dead, but
one appeared unharmed. I placed this egg into a container with moist paper towels and placed it in a moderate temperature location. Two weeks
later, an Eastern Box Turtle hatched. At Lake Greenwood, I photographed a Great Blue Heron catch and eat a newborn Brown Water Snake. Brown
Watersnakes are a Low Country species which is now expanding its range into the Piedmont. The next day I returned to the lake hoping to photograph
an unharmed Brown Watersnake specimen. I did not see any snakes, but I did spot a newborn Gulf-coast Spiny Softshell Turtle lying buried in
the sand with only its head protruding.
The sheet webs of spiders, such as the Bowl-and-Doily Spider, where just about everywhere. I found a new-to-me spider species, the Orchard Web Weaver.
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