We stopped having a hummingbird feeder out because the squirrels were tipping it over and drinking all the sugar water. But I see them amongst the plants. And yes, very territorial.

Something--raccoon?--ate all our sweet potatoes, leaves, stems, everything. Watermelon too. And for the first time also many of our pepper plants. The stuff on the porch is doing good--we're getting cukes, okra, tomatoes, but the critters are starting to find out (bites taken off the tomatoes).

It's interesting that the eastern hummingbirds absolutely refuse to share a feeder. I've noted other hummingbird happily massing feeders in Peru and in California, but not these. They chase each other away with dive bombing.

Yep.  They're very territorial when it comes to their food sources.  I'll often see multiple birds drinking from a feeder at once, but it's always an uneasy truce that can erupt into conflict at any time.

Their aerial jousting is great entertainment for us humans, though.   

The start of August saw dramatically low temperatures and rain.  Once that stuff blew through and things returned to near-normal, the Joro spiders appeared en masse.

I have no idea where they came from.  I've been prowling around the yard all summer to keep an eye on these things, so I thought I knew where most of them were.  Apparantly not, though.  It's like the little critters had been in hiding somewhere all summer and then decided, "Well, it's August, so it's time to come out and take the place over, I reckon."

I also occasionally visit the Joro Watch site, and there seems to be an established colony in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.  It's a northern suburb of Philadelphia and borders the Delaware River.  Joros were spotted there last year as well as this year, hence my conclusion that it's an established colony and not just a random hitchhiker that some vacationer took back home on the underside of his car.

The hummingbirds have also showed up en masse in August, though this isn't entirely surprising.  This is a frantic time for them when they're all trying to gorge themselves and pack on as much weight as they can so they'll have enough fat reserves for the long flight across the Gulf.  Hummer activity has been very entertaining these last several days.

Did a blogpost about the reasons I felt I had to write my latest novel Parade of Silence: Forgetting the Holocaust - https://www.stevenhardesty.com/blog-2/2025/8/10/forgetting-the-holocaust

I reviewed the 3 memoirs I read recently: https://vijayabodach.blogspot.com/2025/07/three-memoirs.html