Very cold

We are starting with sunshine and a cold blue sky, though nastiness is predicted for the afternoon.  A female towhee was first on the feeder but took off when she saw me.  Both kinds of sparrows are hungry and a warbler, so puffed out that it was hard to recognize, scurried around.  A female cardinal hung back and watched.

There is ice on half the creek. Hooded mergansers are racing around where the current keeps the water open. 

Clouds have moved in. The female cardinal is now up in the dogwood keeping watch over her feeder.  A large dark bird soared in circles over the creek.  I sought help identifying it from photos and it was either a juvenile eagle of a black vulture. 

Snow began in the late afternoon, big clumps of flakes that are sticking to the roads, not just trees.  It looks very pretty falling.  Supposedly it will turn to rain and disappear by tomorrow.

And it has turned to rain.  Amazing!