Hawk scare

There were titmice on the feeder when I sat down at the breakfast table, but they left as I reached for the camera.  A squirrel foraged under the feeder, then ran for its life and hid under a chair.  A red tailed hawk had landed up in the trees.  The hawk was being pestered by a crow and more were on the way so it departed.

Then the white throats came out to forage and one hopped up onto the feeder.  The regulars came out too.  A male towhee hopped around the garden hose then flew up into the camellia where I lost sight of it.  Eventually the titmice reappeared.  The creek was empty, though glittering with sun and reflections, but I glimpsed hooded mergansers down by the dam.

At lunch the action was up in the sky.  A turkey vulture circled and a couple of egrets passed over.  So did some little ducks I couldn't identify. 

As I drove to my meeting around 3:30, there were long pleats of cloud in the East.  I got out just after sunset.  The East was very dark, in the South clouds were rose and smoke, and the West was clear with a golden afterglow.