Gray Easter

Sparrows and squirrels are up.  The male towhee appeared, then scurried for cover under the rosemary.  It is supposed to be a warm, wet day.

Rain began mid morning.  There were some moments of sunshine for our late lunch.  Chickadees and a nuthatch were on the feeder.

And more rain.  A Carolina wren inspected the propane tank on the grill.  

Sunny Saturday

There are bits of cloud but overall the sky is blue.  The sunlight is illuminating new leaves on the wild cherry against a shaded background.  Cardinals and nuthatches have visited the feeder.  Lots of white throated sparrows are kicking mulch.  Pelicans and cormorants are hunting.  A grackle went by with a beak full of nesting.  I can hear a titmouse singing peter, peter but I cannot see it.  As I was leaving the towhee pair showed up. 

There are mockingbirds everywhere but my backyard.  Bumblebees are visiting the jessamine and honeybees the rosemary, but the blueberry flowers aren't open yet.  Some oaks are beginning to blossom.  Two wrens were on the feeder when I got home. I hung the hummingbird feeder. 

Down on the dock, I saw cormorants, osprey, pelicans, and possibly a grebe.  The pelican got into a wrestling match with its catch.  It mantled its wings over the floating fish, and plunged at it several times.  When it finally got the fish in its beak, it was huge.   

Fish for Lent

The sky is smudged with white this morning but there is sunlight.  Sparrows and squirrels are busy in the mulch, chickadees and nuthatches on the feeder.  There are at least four squirrels around, one is a nursing mother.  Two got into a spat and became a ball of fur rolling over with two tails sticking out.

The clouds are thickening, leaving blue patches.  Pelicans, gulls, cormorants and ospreys are fishing.  It's convenient that the fish come up the rivers to spawn when people are supposed to be meatless.  (I wonder how many people realize that carnival means "goodbye meat.")  Meanwhile, the crows keep hassling the osprey.  It is hard to hover when you are being dive-bombed.  Do the crows actually mistake the osprey for a danger, or are they just practicing? 

Unlike the previous days, there were more clouds in the morning than the afternoon.  

Back to blue, then clouds

Apparently this week's pattern is clear mornings and afternoon clouds.  A nuthatch, a female towhee, juncos, and sparrows greeted us this morning. Later a male finch showed up.

When we got home from lunch, two Canada geese were standing in the middle of the pool cover, drinking the water that their weight was forcing up.  I gave them the bums rush.  But in so doing, I frightened off the feeder birds.  They did not come back for a long while.  Finally sparrows, chickadees, Carolina wrens, and cardinals returned. 

Meanwhile, out on the creek gulls and a pelican flew low and an osprey higher.  Crows attacked the osprey when it got too close to their nesting pine.  The clouds again took over the sky with occasional moments of sun.

Hungry birds!

The feeder is empty, again.  A couple of Carolina wrens, a nuthatch, and a chickadee got the last seeds and a cardinal left in disgust.  Blue sky is back.  Juncos and sparrows were checking out the mulch. (I'm trying to catch the last day I see the winter migrants.) 

It really is Spring, albeit cold.  The dogwood buds are swelling.  An iris is blooming along with all sorts of daffodils.

This time I put a lot more in the feeder - I could hardly lift it onto the hanger.  We'll see if it lasts any longer.

Some of the white throated sparrows are much duller than others with beige eyebrows instead of white.  I thought they might be sexes, but this site says they are color morphs - white and tan.   "[I]t is reported that a mated pair usually consists of a white morph and a tan morph, with the white morph being either the male of the female."  But since they only winter here,  I'll need to take their word for it. 

At lunch, two great blue herons took off, two pelicans sailed by together, and an osprey soared above.  A blue jay caught my eye when it landed in a dogwood.  Then a crow landed in the sweet gum behind, and when I looked closely, there was a kingfisher on the next branch up. 

Again, the clouds were very dramatic in the afternoon and even after dark they curtained the full moon as it rose. 

Bright morning

I saw the moon setting behind the pines.  The sky is mostly blue.  Squirrels are up but not birds. The creek is a mirror.  Why is the water most reflective at dawn?  The tide and the wind seem to pause and let the water go slack. I'm puzzled why I don't see feeder birds this morning.  A pelican is fishing and the everlasting crows are around.

At lunch, a cardinal couple, chickades, and juncos were all that visited.  It is clouding up.

The sun is glaring through dramatic clouds.  A great blue heron is perched on a piling while mallard drakes paddle below.

A little rain preceded a pretty sunset. Then the moon rose between two cloud banks. This is the best I could do from the car.  By the time we got home, it was behind the clouds.

Dreary and drippy

Everything is wet.  Some drops splash in the birdbath but they may be blown off leaves rather than fresh rain.  A chickadee, a pair of cardinals, two wrens, a male finch, a male towhee, a dove, some juncos, more sparrows, and squirrels are breakfasting.  Three egrets passed over the dam headed South together.  The cloud cover is lighter at the horizon but full of more water.

The squirrel in back has got a dirty nose from rooting in the mulch.  It chased off the other repeatedly. 

The sky got very dramatic with gusty wind shoving the clouds around.  A cardinal rode the feeder while it swung all the way back to the pole. 

We scarcely got lunch out of the grill before a wren was hopping around inside inspecting it. 

Empty again

A couple of chickadees let me know the feeder was down to dust and husks.  So, it is refilled, now how long till they notice?  At least four sparrows were kicking mulch along with the towhee pair but they all left early.  It is overcast and rain is predicted. 

The house finches discovered that the feeder was full again.  A sparrow disputed their possession of the perch.  Juncos found the seeds I dropped.  The ospreys are still circling over the creek.

Noon has brought the rain.  Cardinals, nuthatches, and Carolina wrens joined the crowd.  A wren was happy with the dregs of my trail mix.  One sparrow has brilliantly white eyebrows.  An osprey landed in the pines and was immediately attacked by a crow.  The rain continues. 

By evening, the rain is beginning to become a bit solid, ice not snow.  Tomorrow may be slippery. 

Quiet morning

Two titmice were on the feeder when I first looked.  Nuthatches and chickadees and a house finch also visited.  Four or five white throated sparrows scurried between the mulch and the rosemary.  Cream puff clouds in the West have spread over the whole sky.  We put the wilting sunflowers we'd had in the house out in the mulch yesterday and overnight something ate them.

A cardinal, a nuthatch, sparrows and juncos came around for lunch, but we were mostly watching the fishing.  At least three osprey and a pelican worked the creek.  Meanwhile the sky cleared behind them.

The first iris has opened.  Other people are complaining about the cold, but it seems to me that everything is blooming ahead of schedule.  

There was just enough cloud haze to add brilliance to the sunset.  Now Jupiter is hanging in the West.

Clear blue morning

The birds are hungry.  Nuthatches, white throated sparrows, Carolina wrens, and juncos showed up first.  The usual suspects got up a bit later.  The creek shimmers and reflected trees waver, but there are odd ripples.  It is supposed to be shad running season.   Crows fussed over some raptor that landed in their pines.

Mid morning, the creek is flowing strongly and all reflection is gone.  The feeder is rocking in the wind and only a squirrel is down in the mulch.  A pelican and then an egret flew downstream.

At lunch, there was lots of fishing.  Several osprey, two buzzards, at least three pelicans, and many gulls, both ring bills and black backs, flew over the creek.  Watching an osprey plunge is even more exciting than watching a pelican.

Windy with flakes

Cumulus clouds are moving fast and the sun comes and goes.  Trees are thrashing and roaring.  A chickadee braved the gusts to reach the feeder.  A pelican paddled on the creek.  There's no sign of precipitation and the wind has dried out the birdbath.  So much for the predicted flurries.

By late morning, birds were venturing out.  The towhee pair, white throated sparrows and juncos were kicking mulch while Carolina wrens rode the feeder.  There are three birds around the birdbath - the white throated sparrow is on the left. 

At lunch, fat, linty flakes of snow drifted on the wind. The nuthatch showed up.  It's new trick is tucking seeds into the shingles.  House finches continue to feed each other, getting ready for lovemaking.  Cardinals also braved the wind. A chickadee found something to eat on a rosebush.

Ospreys soared over the creak and one plunged in.  Pelicans continued to fish.  A buzzard circled.  When the osprey tried to land in the pines, crows drove it off. 

Mid afternoon, some more flakes fell, and around 6pm when I was at the library, there was a sudden short blizzard.  Nothing stuck to the ground and it didn't amount to enough water to moisten the birdbath. 
 

Spring equinox

It is very quiet.  The creek is glassy, the feeder unvisited, and the sky full of small cloud puffs. I refilled the feeder and birdbath, but thus far no one has taken notice but squirrels.

Out on the creek, mallards are everywhere, mostly drakes.  This pelican has the dark neck that shows it's thinking about mating.  The pelicans have been joined by gulls, especially great black backs.  Some other birds went by too fast to identify, possibly wood ducks and a kingfisher. A pair of Canada geese were hanging out in the spartina.

A peach is flowering in the wooded area.  Dutch hyacinths are blooming.   The pelicans kept fishing till I went down to the dock so I could photograph them without bushes in the way.  Then they disappeared.  An osprey circled, pursued by a gull.  The oak buds are beginning to burst and the sweet gum are swollen.  The sun was warm but the wind was bone chilling out on the water.  Some hooded mergansers are still lingering. 

Egrets in the mist

Several great egrets flew past as we were eating breakfast.  The feeder was busy with Carolina wrens, nuthatches, chickadees, cardinals, titmice, white throated sparrows and juncos.  Song sparrows and the male towhee stuck to the soggy mulch.  The fog is persisting.

After a whole morning of threatening clouds, the sky cleared around 1pm and the sun blazed. More sparrows and wrens appeared.  Bumblebees joined honeybees on the rosemary.  A pelican flew up and down the creek.  The day grew very warm. 

Wet gray

Only squirrels are stirring.  The air is thick with moisture, blurring distant trees. This photo was taken yesterday, but I glimpsed the osprey again this morning, also a pelican and a great blue heron. 

When I got home at noon, two Carolina wrens were busy on the feeder.  Song and White throated sparrows were in the mulch along with a squirrel.  A cormorant was surface diving. 

Overcast

The sky is a dark white and the light is directionless.  The towhee pair are kicking mulch at each other while squirrels and white throated sparrows dodge.  Juncos, nuthatches, and titmice join the usual suspects on the feeder.  Gulls, pelicans and osprey are fishing.

The overcast has continued all morning.  Rain in the evening.

Rain as predicted

The towhee pair are back this morning.  White throated sparrows and a squirrel are also busy with the mulch.  A nuthatch came to the feeder.  The sky was overcast, then cleared to fluffy clouds for the rising sun and now is gray again.

Rain began after 9am and ended after 11am and sun returned, but now it is getting gray again. Bees visited the rosemary.  The feeder is about empty, again.  K refilled it.  I saw the first bumblebee of Spring on the rosemary in the afternoon. 

Rain started up again at dusk.  We left a party at 8:30pm in the rain, but the crescent moon was shining in the West along with Jupiter. 

Spring passions

Squirrels chased each other madly.  One bumped the rosemary and knocked a bird out.  Another rode the feeder through wind gusts.

The male house finch sat on the feeder and poked bits into the female's beak.  The Carolina wrens, however,  drive each other away.  They take on larger birds too.  Juncos, nuthatches, song sparrows and white throats are still here.  And chickadees, cardinals, and titmice never migrate. 

The sky was clear blue early but slowly became white from a thin cloud layer.  The moon is quite blurry tonight.  The wind was gusty all day. 

More sun

Song and white throated sparrows, nuthatches, juncos, and titmice are hungry. Later, a Carolina wren tossed seeds to the ground feeders.

An iris is budding already.  And, there are columbines growing in places I didn't plant them.It is chilly despite the sun.  A few pelicans are around.

After dark, I found the new moon descending but no sign of a comet.

The sun is back

The first thing I saw was a pelican splashing into the flat, reflective water.  There were more splashdowns early this morning.  Juncos, titmice, nuthatches and white throated sparrows were having breakfast.  The day looks lovely but cooler.

In the afternoon, finches and song sparrows joined in.  Buzzards circled against the clouds.  Cormorants paddled around like periscopes.   Some idiot released at least four mylar balloons which I saw caught in the pines upstream.  Today, one was floating in the creek. Not only is the Carolina jessamine blooming (and smelling heavenly) but now the hyacinths are up.  The wild cherries are starting to leaf out.

Clouds rolled in, covered the sky, broke apart, and rolled away repeatedly all day.  Clearing around the setting sun gave me hope of seeing the comet, but I never even saw the new moon.  However the sunset was glorious. 

Soft warm come-and-go rain

So far the windows are not spotted and I can take photos without having to avoid drops.  There are wind gusts but the paper says the wind is out of the SW and I'm looking out North windows.  Anyway, ducks and geese are flying around the creek.  It's definitely mating time.  Cardinals, finches, chickadees, titmice, juncos, and white throated sparrows ave all been on the feeder as well as under it.  The female towhee kicked mulch for a bit. A robin stopped in briefly.

At lunch the rain had stopped and the wind was drying surfaces.  Nuthatches, juncos, and sparrows were still feeding.  I saw a male merganser down on the creek. By mid afternoon the sun was shining between passing clouds.  This is half a day faster than the weather prediction.  Ooops - a big dark paw of a cloud swept up from the Southwest and now the rain is back. And, then the sun again.  Very variable, this weather!  But maybe it will clear at sunset to show the comet? The sky is bright in the low West, but above is a dark cloud.  It looks quite strange. And now the rain is hammering overhead. This was the sunset through rain and window screen. 

Overnight robbery

The feeder lid was up this morning.  A squirrel sat beneath, picking seeds out of the mulch, apparently unaware of the bonanza above.  Juncos and sparrows also foraged while nervous titmice, chickadees, and nuthatches fed from the feeder perch.  One chickadee was bold enough to look inside, but not to risk hopping down into the feeder.  The culprit is presumably a raccoon, especially as the pool cover looks like something large has been on it.

Meanwhile something underwater created a wake moving upstream and disturbing the mirror surface.  It seemed more like one individual rather than a school of fish.

This afternoon I found an eggshell, probably a dove, that clearly had been opened from the inside. I did not know they nested this early.

Mallards are pairing up but the bachelors are harassing the couples.  A male hooded merganser was out fishing.  Later a female appeared.  A male kingfisher let out a cackle practically in my ear.  I jumped and it banked and landed upstream.  The sun was behind it and lighting a haze.  After a while it moved downstream from me where I could see it better.  I think It caught several fish. 

Saved daylight

At least there is sunshine to reward our rising earlier.  Apparently the birds have been doing so all along.  Up early were a wren, nuthatches, chickadees, cardinals, titmice, sparrows, and juncos.  Pelicans and cormorants were fishing.  There was frost last night and patches of icy skin are floating on the otherwise smooth creek.  Some smudges of white are hardy visible against the blue sky.

It has gotten much warmer.   An osprey passed by and three, maybe four, pelicans are still cruising.  A great black back gull paddled upstream.  Finches showed up at the feeder.  Honeybees are working on the rosemary and a cabbage butterfly flitted through.  A small fly of some sort landed on the window.  One squirrel chased another up the feeder pole.  They seem not to grasp that it's not a tree. 

More wind and sun

High tide was over the dock when I got up, but the surface was smooth and reflective.  Cardinals, nuthatches, and finches were joined on the feeder by impatient juncos and white throated sparrows.  The male and female towhee are still not getting along.

By lunch, the birds had emptied the feeder.  At least four pelicans fished while a couple of herons also flew by.  A mallard drake paddled and two smaller ducks - maybe wood ducks - flew first upstream then down.  Gulls and a buzzard circled over a spot around the downstream bend.  The breeze is cold, but not nearly as powerful as in the past days. 

Refilled for evening snack.  Chickadees, nuthatches, cardinals, juncos, and sparrows showed up.  Crows kept carrying on and frightening the song birds into thinking there was a hawk.  Song sparrows trust their camouflage most - they're the last to hide.  A Carolina wren sang in the dogwood.  The sky is still clear which makes sunset less interesting.  But the low-angle light on the trees is beautiful. 

Windy morning

Flags are straight out and the Navy's stuck in the harbor.  Finches, chickadees, juncos, sparrows, and nuthatches have visited. It was bright early but dark clouds are streaming through and the sun comes in blinks.  The wren made a late appearance. 

It was overcast when we started to grill the salmon, blue sky when it was done and overcast when we finished lunch.  Gusts of wind have blown birds off the feeder making the mulch more popular.  Three female cardinals pretended to be unaware of each other.  A male and female towhee had a spat while a song sparrow watched.

Pelicans and osprey are fishing.

Bright sun

The wind took care of that broken limb.  Something opened the feeder lid.  Other than that the storm passed without effect.  Pelicans and an osprey are watching the creek.  Crows are still gathering nesting.  The feeder is hosting cardinals, finches, chickadees, nuthatches, and titmice.  A Carolina wren sang for us.  Sparrows and juncos joined a dove on the ground.  The sky is blue and the wind is still strong.

Cornell has an interesting article on how sexual selection keeps cardinal males red year around.

Ducks with rusty-red heads were out fishing.  The crows' nest is near the juvenile eagle's favorite perch.  There was much cawing and screaming and circling, but of course the crows won.  A pelican sunned on a piling across the creek. 

Birds are back

They found we'd refilled the feeder.  On the ground, doves, sparrows, juncos, and the female towhee shuffled the mulch.  One dove has a long white feather sticking out behind - is it molting?  Nuthatches, titmice, chickadees, and cardinals tussled for a place at the feeder.  The Carolina wren sang from the post top. 

The sky had that March look - big soft-edged clouds, both white and dark, with bits of blue between.  A storm is predicted with possible snow.  In the morning the wind out of the West made waves on the creek.  By noon, overcast was complete.  Later a rainy mist blurred the furthest trees.  The rain has not been heavy but the wind makes up for it.  Trees are whipping back and forth while last fall's leaves are springing back into the air.  I think the wind shifted around because the creek has risen over its banks. 

The birds have been stuffing themselves, almost like people panicking before a storm. A yellow rumped warbler stopped in after lunch which was the quietest time.  It has yellow on the top of its head, which I think is breeding plumage.   House finches came too.  Three female cardinals are not getting along any better than the two males.  The females are glowing with rose highlights on their brown feathers, like untarnished copper.  The wind rocked the feeder so much a cardinal gave up and left. 

On the creek I saw female mergansers and later a male bufflehead.  Pelicans fished, but mostly flew low to the water. A great blue heron perched on a piling till the wind got too strong.  You can see the rough water behind it.