Warm, wet wind

It is very humid and quite a bit warmer today.  The trees are still being whipped by the wind and whenever a door is opened, gusts of warm damp air flood in.  The pavement is dry around the puddles and there have been glimmers of sunshine. 

This morning a crow landed on the pergola outside my window and a swarm of smaller birds harassed it.  I could not tell what species they were through the blinds. 

Rainy, chilly week

I've seen some birds flit past windows, that's all. In the night, the trees thrashed in the wind. 

Botanical Garden

K took me out to the Norfolk Botanical Gardens.  On the way in, turtles lined a log, but in a spot where the car could not stop.  We were too early for their hummingbird garden and all I saw in the butterfly garden was one cabbage.  A black swallowtail appeared in another part of the gardens.  The bulbs were mostly past but the trees and shrubs were blooming.  I heard lots of birds but mostly saw robins, grackles, and one brown thrasher.  I think I heard mockingbirds.  Crows mobbed a hawk.   All in all, it was a lovely afternoon.

Dramatic clouds

The sky has threatened storm all day but only a little rain has fallen and it is now near sunset.  I didn't get outside yesterday so I made sure to go out today.  This morning I checked on the dove nest.  I believe the nestling has fledged.  I heard the doves but didn't see them. Later, I went out to a different courtyard with the therapist and we saw two blackbirds mobbing a crow.  The sidewalk there gives proof the birds spend a lot of time in the big tree there.  I think it's a live oak - the new leaves look willow-shaped but the tree's shape says oak to me. 

After therapy, I wheeled myself into the courtyard outside my window.  I saw robins and grackles, bees and wasps, but I heard much more, including something that rattled like a kingfisher, but more musical.  The sun was playing tag with dark clouds but the air was warm enough to compensate for the breeze.  Around 6pm there were a few spats or rain.  We're under a tornado watch and the radar looks ugly Southwest of us. Thunder has been crackling in the background for a half hour.  Another hour and the rain has become steady. 

Unfortunately, because all my excursions were before, during, and after therapy, I didn't have my camera along. 

Windy blue sky

I waited till around 4pm to go outside.  The young dove is getting too big for the nest.  It's speckled but otherwise much like an adult.  A pair of robins flitted around.  A grackle tossed mulch like a thrasher.  I glimpsed a swallow or swift flying against the sun.  A huge bee disappeared up a hole drilled in a beam of the pergola.  I waited but never saw it emerge.  I think I also saw a honeybee on the holly.  The sun was wonderful but I was bundled up against the wind. 

Earth Day

It's been a lovely day despite early predictions of rain.  It is both cloudier and warmer than yesterday.  In the courtyard, the doves were busy on the nest.  Robins and grackles were scampering around.  A crow sat on the roof edge to watch.

Then we went to a gazebo overlooking the lake that K had discovered.  We surprised a nutria, possibly a muskrat, but I think it was too big.  Mallards and geese were around, including a big muscovy-mallard mix drake, also a northern shoveler drake.  Cardinals, robins, grackles, and a mockingbird were in the trees.  A buzzard circled, then an osprey tried and got mobbed by crows. Wasps were hunting good nesting spots. 

And back at home, after dark, K reports a fox sighting. 

Exquisite Spring day

The sky was so blue that jets dared not leave tracks.  One small, ragged cumulus cloud trailed veils of vapor, uncertain whether to condense or dissipate.  The wind's chill balanced the sun's warmth, luring me to go to sleep after lunch.  But physical therapy on the schedule made that impossible.

Bees were out, along with smaller fliers.  Some were either ants or termites looking for mates.  K caught an aphid with a tiny emerald body.  A pair of robins called to each other and finally flew out of the quad.  We found the dove nest and apparently there's at least one nestling.  I saw its beak poke up at its parent.  The other parent was taking a rest on a bench back in the sun.  

We came back out in the evening.  Two grackles chased a crow with a beak full of something orange.  The robins were back.  Gulls streamed by overhead.   One might have been an osprey.  Then the sun dropped below the roof and the air quickly chilled and we came in. 

Ēostre

There was sunshine early when we went to the Easter service, and sporadically after noon, but the sky has been mostly overcast, windy, and colder than I'd hoped.  I saw gulls flirting with the wind over the parking lot as we picked up lunch. Wisteria and azaleas have come into bloom. 

Gloom

It was overcast yesterday and raining today, off and on.  But by today, I would have done anything to get outside, so I persuaded K.  We sat outdoors under a roof and got cold fast.  The rain wasn't much but the wind was fierce.  A couple of robins flitted around.  A dove sat on a weeping spruce.  After a bit, it went behind the shrub and then flew off.  That's when I realized there must be a nest behind the branches. 

Cold wind and sun

I saw a couple of mockingbirds carrying on in the bushes.

The descending sun seemed to pass through clouds, making the Western sky lurid. 

Cold and bright

I don't have a coat here so I had to stay inside today and couldn't even open the window to listen.  Bird shadows passed by.  I think I saw spider silk in the crape myrtle twigs glinting in the sunlight in the late afternoon.  My window here faces West.  The sun has set and the sky is still clear.

Rain

It's hot and humid but the temperature is supposed to drop tonight as the wind swings around to the NW.  It rained hard mid-morning, but nothing much since.  I've seen a few bird shadows but haven't heard any singing because the window is closed.

K took me out on the patio in the late afternoon after things had dried out a bit.  The clouds were moving fast.  I saw a robin, a mockingbird, and a gull.  The gull looked slender but didn't sound like a laughing gull.  I heard an osprey calling.  The mockingbird sang beautifully.  I'll have to ask K to bring the camera the next time.  I forgot to mention, some really big bumblebees were working on the pungent flowers in the landscaping shrubbery.

Last night was supposed to be a lunar eclipse but the cloud cover prevented local viewing.  Tonight will be dark too, I expect. 

Bird noises

From the hospital window, which faced East, I could see lots of crows as they settled in for the night, but not much else.  I think the crows are related to the huge flock that hangs around the 64/264 Interchange.

Now I'm in a first floor room with a window on a courtyard.  I've had it open since I arrived yesterday, listening to the sounds.  Last night something screeched after dark.  Twice in the night I heard trains - next best sound to those of life.  This morning has been full of twitterings.  I could identify robins and a goose.  But others sound quite tropical. They started when it was still quite dark.

The weather has apparently been pleasant all this time while I've been shut away from it.  The birds became loud again at dusk, though they were never silent.  Well after dark and until around 11pm I heard a high-pitched two-note cry that sounded like a raptor. 

Sunny day

The dawn light gilded the creek.  Clouds intervened briefly, then the sun returned.  White throats and the regulars hung out at the feeder.  Geese paddled on the creek.

Mid morning as I was coming home it seemed like every tree was in bloom.  Most of the Bradford pears are done and the cherries have taken over ornamental duties but the maples were every shade from crimson to bronze and the oaks were gold.

At lunch, an osprey carried a fish over the house.  A tiger swallowtail flew behind the cherry and never reappeared.

Cormorants flew around in the late afternoon, along with another osprey.  The feeder was lonely. A squirrel chowed down on the oak blossoms. 

The lawn weeds are blooming everywhere: henbit purple, field pansy white, dandelion and buttercup yellow, and birdseye blue. 

The half moon was overhead as I bricked the feeder.  

Wet

The sky is overcast and a Southwest wind is rushing the lowest clouds along.  Everything is wet but no rain is falling.  Squirrels are up and one is definitely nesting in the top of the red cedar.  A cardinal, titmice, and sparrows have been to the feeder.  Geese paddled on the creek while an osprey, a gull, and crows flew over it.  The daffodils are done, but the fried-egg narcissus are opening. 

There was a brief rain at noon and it has slowly been drying out since then.  The wind pushing the clouds shifted to the West and slowed.  Two gray foxes crossed the pool mid-afternoon.  K got photos - I missed seeing them.  The sparrows, chickadees, and titmice came around for a late afternoon snack. 

The sky cleared toward evening and sunsent painted the remaining clouds pink.  The waxing moon was bright at bedtime. 

Light rain

An osprey hovered like a hummingbird over the creek, though its wings flap much more slowly.  It circled downstream then it or another returned.  Titmice were first at the feeder, followed by white throats, then finches.  Squirrels are running around.

The rain was heavier for a while mid-morning. It has been alternating in waves.  No birds are venturing out except crows.  A mallard pair walked around on the pool cover, then left.  A squirrel has been at the oak flowers and dropped some.  They lie like heaps of gold dust on this dull day. 

Sunshine on the usual suspects

That is, year around, cardinals, house finches, and chickadees, along with white throated sparrows in the winter.  It is chillier today despite the blue sky. 

The clouds came and went all day and by late afternoon the sky was overcast.  The only other birds I saw were osprey, cormorants, and crows. 

K sent me an interesting article on genders among animals that called the two morphs of the white throated sparrow different genders, that is, white stripe males, tan stripe males, white stripe females, and tan stripe females.  I had already read that each morph prefers to mate with the other, but this claimed there were behavioral differences as well as color.  I haven't seen it, but they don't breed here. 

At bedtime, a fuzzy first quarter moon was visible behind the overcast as it descended in the West. 

Money plant blooming

 In 2012 it bloomed in late March, but given the winter we've had, I was surprised to see the flowers when I got up.  The sun is bright and there are some small puffy clouds.  I wonder if we've had the last frost - nothing below the 40s is predicted for the next week. 

Titmice came early, then sparrows and the regulars.  This titmouse is hammering its seed on the blossoming dogwood.  Two squirrels have been carrying on about who gets to forage under the feeder.  One leaped over the other like a circus act. 

Around 9am it suddenly clouded over or about 10 minutes.  I got worried for nothing - the sun came right back. It is warm, except when a cloud cuts off the sunlight and the wind picks up.  Bumblebees are out hunting flowers.  The poor sad rosemary has nothing for them.  I believe I heard a kingfisher. 

An osprey circled over us at lunch.

The regulars and the sparrows were back at supper, with warblers darting out of the trees after bugs.

Warm, with mammals

Just the regulars and the sparrows have shown up so far.  A warbler flitted in the distance and a crow proclaimed in the pine tree.  An osprey plunged but I couldn't see if it caught anything.  Broken overcast gave way to sun.  One dogwood is blooming but the others are behind. The squirrels were having a chase when they ran into me. 

In the shopping strip parking lot two crows discussed half a green apple in front of my car.  A mockingbird flew purposefully in front of me at the library, where all the trees are in bloom. And I saw a yellow sulphur. 

At lunch time a gray fox visited the front yard.  K took this photo. The fox paid us no attention till I tapped on the window, and then it just gave me a dirty look.

Around 6pm the creek was bright and still.  Then it got windy.  Cormorants flew every which way while the occasional osprey tried to fish.  Towhees hung arounf the yard, never venturing over to the feeder where the sparrows and the regulars were feeding.  Other birds that I couldn't identify flitted around the trees. Ah, a photo reveals one was a Carolina wren and another a butterbutt. 

Bright morning, dull afternoon

A junco poked through the mulch alongside the sparrows.  Cardinals and chickadees hogged the feeder.  The sun is shining but the sky is lightly veiled and dotted with small cumulus.

It clouded over at lunchtime.  I saw a pelican and an osprey and many geese.  I played with the new camera - it's powerful enough that I could see any feathers that were out of place.  But the birds mostly disappeared leaving me little to practice on, but flowers. 

At supper, we saw warblers flying after bugs.  Sunset was streaky with clouds. 

Quiet

A titmouse and a junco, white throats and regulars came for breakfast.  Ospreys are fishing for theirs.  Geese disturbed the creek's mirror.  Broken overcast muted the sunlight, but the March wind seems gone.

I saw a yellow mylar happy face balloon trapped in the trees at the hospital.  More plastic.  

It is shirtsleeve warm this afternoon. At bedtime, the crescent moon was gold as it sank behind the pines. 

April at last

Titmice and juncos were back with the white throated sparrows and the regulars on the feeder.  The glassy creak glowed gold in the early sun.  The sky is blue except for wisps and contrails.

By afternoon, the sky had clouded over.  All the trees have burst into bloom, even the redbuds down the street.  Then later, as I drove West the sun glared down.  And at 8pm, it was chased below the horizon by a silver sickle moon.