Mist and rain

It was often too dim for the camera.  A Carolina wren was busy early in the rosemary.  The downy woodpeckers came early for suet.  Sparrows followed.  Titmice were also lured out by the suet though they didn't object to the seed feeder either.  Then a handful of juncos kicked through the mulch.  Buffleheads and mergansers and the occasional cormorant fished, spending more time below the surface than on it.  Expanding ripples tracked their progress.  I went outside to make sure the seeds weren't clumping in the feeder and discovered a huge insect apparently dying from Monday's exterminator visit.

Toward noon, the mist became a downpour, then slacked off into steady rain.  The jelly in the new jelly feeder turned to grape soup.  The birds came back grumpy.  One dove bullied the others terribly.  Two song sparrows got into a dispute.  And the juncos kept making little rushes at each other.  Eventually the windows became too streaked for photos. In the middle of lunch we were startled by a pileated woodpecker.  It came to the suet but then flew off again.

By mid afternoon the rain had tapered.  The suet became downright congested with birds.  A pine warbler joined the feasting.  A cardinal pair stayed aloof in the beautyberry.

Rainfall for 2015 topped 50" which was about 3" over average. 

Rain

The day began overcast.  My first sight was a downy woodpecker as usual.  The creek was quiet after days of wind-driven roughness.  Not much else happened till late morning.  Then two pine warblers argued over who got to peck suet.  A mockingbird snatched mealworms just as my camera battery died.

Titmice came for lunch.  Many small birds flitted among the tree branches on the far side of the pool.  I was able to see that one of them was a butterbutt.  Another was a house finch.  And many were chickadees.  The sparrows were late and cranky.  Two song sparrows flew at each other.  The white throats weren't much better.  A Carolina wren found something interesting behind the post.  Meanwhile the squirrels continued to flirt.  Some buffleheads were out on the creek as boats with hopeful fishermen passed by.  It began to rain after lunch.

Wet and gray

The new suet continued to tempt out birds.  The red bellied woodpecker got as far as the post before it panicked, twice!  A pine warbler visited the suet.   Carolina wrens and tufted titmice also tried some, and in between the downy woodpeckers worked on it.  Meanwhile, doves and white throats foraged below and chickadees shared seeds with more titmice.  Then a hawk swooped into the neighbors' pines and all disappeared.  The hawk didn't wait long before it flew upstream. The birds returned quickly.

Around 9am rain began.  A yellow rumped warbler put in an appearance about an hour later when the rain had stopped. By 10:30 it was possible to see where the sun was behind the cloud cover.

The song sparrow came for lunch.  And a white throat dug itself a pool in the soggy mulch under the camellia.  I wish I'd have gotten a photo of its pink petal bath.  (There was plenty of water in the official birdbath.)  A couple of doves sat in the hickory overlooking the creek. 

There was intermittent sun in the afternoon but, just before sunset, dark clouds swept in from the Southwest and the temperature dropped.  Enough light leaked through to tint the Northern horizon pink. 

Back to gray

An overcast sky was accompanied by strong gusts from the Northeast that also brought a drop in temperature.  Only mallards were out on the rough water of the creek but I counted six males and two females.

K hung the new fancy suet and it immediately attracted fans.  To me, the downy woodpecker seemed excited.  Later I saw a red-bellied woodpecker peeking around the downspout at the suet, but it startled and flew off instead.  Titmice and chickadees tried the new suet.  A butterbutt thought about it.  Meanwhile, song and white throated sparrows and Carolina wrens found plenty to eat on the ground.

In the late morning a flock of hooded mergansers paddled downstream.  Somewhat later a lone male appeared at the head of a flotilla of Canada geese as though it was leading them.  Since the duck and the geese are similar colors though greatly different in size, the visual effect was amusing.  A male bufflehead showed up around noon and fished back and forth around the dock.  Gulls played on the wind and a buzzard patrolled. The Carolina wren found the new suet and disputed ownership with the downy woodpecker.  Five doves joined the sparrows in the mulch. 

Surprise sun

The prediction was for an overcast day but the dawn fog lifted and by 10am the clouds were begining to break.  The downy woodpeckers were up early, as were sparrows.  When the song sparrow first popped up right in front of the window, it raised and lowered its tiny excuse for a crest.  I saw a hooded merganser and buffleheads on the creek, all males.  An egret flew over.  Doves arrived as the sky began to clear, and annoyed the white throated sparrows. 

By afternoon the sky was blue with fair-weather cumulus blowing past on a wind from the Southwest.  Right about 3pm I saw a butterfly!  It was orange but with a light colored body, maybe a fritillary.  And the temperature broke another record. 

The sky stayed clear and the air warm right through sunset, though the wind brought a chill. The moon was bright overhead in the night. 

Cool mist

The temperature dropped overnight.  Fog or mist came and went and came again all day long.  A flurry of birds arrived after breakfast.  A goldfinch was startled off and did not return.  White throats and a song sparrow, Carolina wrens, downy woodpeckers, and the usual trio of chickadees, cardinals and house finches were soon back.  One wren was catching something in the camellia.  Wind gusts roughened the creek.  The rose finally began to turn brown 18 days after the bud began to open. 

The birds were thick after lunch.  Juncos joined the sparrows and wrens.  A blue jay and later a mockingbird visited the beautyberry bush.  A red bellied woodpecker kept flitting around the edges of the yard.  Buzzards circled.  A flock of something worked on the gum balls.  A cormorant and a bufflehead fished.

By 4pm it was almost too dark for the camera.  Cormorants were already headed home.  Wrens, sparrows, and juncos looked for an early supper.  The song sparrow bullied the juncos.

Squirrels

Morning was very quiet with only a woodpecker visit.  The weather continued to be cloudy and hot for late December.  The sun got through occasionally.  I saw a squirrel leap from pine to sycamore.  It looked like the squirrel was testing a sycamore ball for edibility.  I scattered the free seed from Wild Birds Unlimited as directed but only attracted more squirrels. 

At lunchtime things got livelier.  Honeybees worked on the rosemary.  The downy woodpeckers were back.  Titmice joined chickadees and finches at the feeder.  A yellow rumped warbler took a turn at the suet, flashing its butterbutt. 

One squirrel showed a light patch of fur in the middle of its back.  I wonder if this will be a permanent marking so I can identify it?  Squirrels chased off a crow that was walking in the neighbors' yard.  In the afternoon I finally saw white throats and song sparrows. Buffleheads were out on the creek, along with geese and a female hooded merganser. 

Toward sunset I went out again to try to photograph some more buffleheads but there wasn't enough light.  The feral cat stalked a couple of doves but had no luck.  The clouds went pink but there weren't many egrets or cormorants flying home.  Later, after moonrise, the sky cleared.  And it was still warm. In fact, this day set a temperature record. 

Gray and gusty

Occasional sprinkles fell so the wind was not able to dry out the patio.  And the light level was low for zoom photos.  But it was warmer outside than in at breakfast.

First to arrive was the song sparrow followed by white throats.  Then a downy woodpecker appeared.  A flock of house finches disrupted chickadees on the feeder and argued among themselves.  More woodpeckers appeared and I think there were two males fussing.  The Carolina wrens discovered the mealworms I scattered.  (When I went outside with the mealworms there were earthworms on the patio escaping the soggy ground.)  Honeybees visited the rosemary flowers. 

A kingfisher paused on a piling but not long enough to tell the sex.  Hooded mergansers bathed and preened behind a screen of brush. Two male cardinals had a staring contest in the beautyberry while two squirrels flirted in the redwood.  By mid morning there were at least seven juncos poking through the mulch.  A dove cooed from the dogwood.  A yellow rumped warbler stuck to the hackberry.  Then titmice flocked to the feeder.

Around 10am the sun made an effort to brighten the yard. That brought all the birds back, from sparrows to juncos, and a half dozen doves.  Three Canada geese came up to the patio but left when they saw me.  A buzzard cruised over the creek.  The butterbutt had to investigate and a pine warbler grabbed a bite of suet. 

The birds disappeared at lunchtime except for a couple of buffleheads on the creek.  The predicted thunderstorm never happened but the sky returned to gray.  By 4pm, all I saw was a cardinal on the feeder.  Between the West wind and the almost full moon, the tide was very low. And the moon was spectacular with clouds sweeping across its face. 

Misty

As the light grew stronger, the fog thickened.  The air was warm and wet.  Egrets came flying from the North about 7am, followed by cormorants.  The cormorants flapped at least twice as often as the egrets.  Somewhat later a woodpecker shot across my field of view. A little after 8am a flock of cormorants drove fish upstream.

Chickadees and squirrels were out and about.  A handful of hooded mergansers plunged into the creek but the light was too dim for the distance.  Cardinals and house finches showed up.  The Carolina wrens were singing behind the house.  Lots of birds were flitting about the bushes, including a tufted titmouse and a yellow rumped warbler. 

Around 11am three or four juncos poked through the mulch along with a white throat.  A blue jay and a couple of titmice hung around the edge of the yard.  The rain just dripped.

The rain trailed off in the afternoon and the sun was almost visible briefly.  About 4pm, a great blue heron perched on the dock bench while hooded mergansers paddled around.  The water was quite placid but the light was low  And, of course, there were mallards and Canada geese.  A marigold was still blooming in the warmth.  And there were mushrooms. 

No sun

Egrets flew South under a dark sky.  Cormorants followed.  As the daylight grew the pair of Carolina wrens came out to scarf up soggy mealworms.  Rain fell in a half-hearted fashion.  There was not enough light for the camera. 

The day grew fairly warm, but dank.  Around mid day I saw a song sparrow, a house finch, chickadees and a Carolina wren on the suet.  Later a downy woodpecker showed up.  Then, like an escaping spot of sunshine, there appeared a female Baltimore oriole.  I scrambled to put some jelly out, but the photos show the oriole eating a berry, probably a beautyberry.

A pair of buffleheads flew downstream, him flashing white wings. 

Solstice

The actual solstice moment falls just before midnight - 11:49pm.  Sunrise was pink but the sky stayed white with muted sunshine. 

Cardinals, chickadees, song and white throated sparrows, and Carolina wrens were lively this morning.  Buffleheads paddled and an egret flew over the creek.

The downy woodpecker didn't show up till afternoon.

Plenty of birds

When I first got up, a red bellied woodpecker flew to the suet but quickly went back to the trees.  Cardinals and chickadees appeared, then a song sparrow.  The downy woodpeckers went to work.  A few white throated sparrows joined this song sparrow.  Even the house finches showed up.  A mockingbird landed on the roof and then disappeared.  Finally the Carolina wrens made their entrance.  One perched on a little post and sang to the four directions.

The sun was soon bright and the creek full of wavering reflections.  Egrets gathered alongside mallards.  A sizable flock of geese paddled upstream.  A great blue heron was mostly obscured by a screen of brush.  Then a couple of pelicans dived for fish. 

As I worked on lunch, a female bufflehead paddled on the creek.  Later I saw her with a male.  Throughout the afternoon, the sparrows, wrens, and woodpeckers returned, but they startled easily.  At one point a brindle cat looked in from the back of the house but the birds seemed more concerned about raptors.  Late in the afternoon, a half dozen egrets gathered to soak up sun in the trees above the lake.  A thin coating of cloud moved in from the West though down by the creek a flag caught a breeze blowing upstream.

Chilly sunshine

The two Carolina wrens, white throats, and downy woodpeckers made frequent visits during the morning.  Doves didn't stay long.  There was another fish frenzy with cormorants, gulls and at least two dozen egrets pursuing the school upstream. Later a half dozen egrets arranged themselves in the sun below the dam.  A lone great blue heron flapped downstream.  A squirrel tried to gobble up the mealworms and I had to scare it off repeatedly.  One rose survived the rain and the fluctuating temperatures.

In the afternoon I saw a bufflehead paddling serenely upstream and glimpsed what might have been a ruddy duck.  Chickadees and wrens were it for the bird food.  The day was quite beautiful despite the cold wind. 

The half moon was overhead after sunset, on its way to being full this year for Santa.

Rain

The temperature dropped over night but the rain continued.  I heard some birds at dawn but didn't see any at breakfast.

At lunch, doves napped under the feeder.  Song and white throated sparrows foraged around them.  I think I saw a wren whiz through.  The female downy came for suet then spent time in the dogwood.

Around 4pm the sun broke through, just in time to set.  As we drove home around 9pm, the first quarter moon was playing hide-and-seek with the clouds. 

Gray

There must have been rain in the night because the patio was wet.  Carolina wrens and downy woodpeckers were out at first light.  Squirrels, chickadees, and white throated sparrows came later.

In the late morning the sun was visible in a gray sky, but it didn't last. Lunch was more lively with birds.  Chickadees and a titmouse frequented the Sunflower Cafe.  Carolina wrens disturbed the woodpeckers on the suet.  White throats and a song sparrow poked through the mulch.  A mockingbird and a blue jay darted around the bushes.

I had an afternoon meeting and right after it let out the deluge started..  Blinding rain, traffic accidents, maniac drivers, and the car thermometer registering 68°F did not produce much holiday spirit. 

Sunshine

The pair of wrens arrived early - good thing I had scattered some mealworms at first light.  The downy woodpeckers came separately, first her, then him.  A chickadee made a quick visit to the seed feeder.  The creek was rough even though there wasn't that much wind. 

At lunch, the wrens joined us.  One wren seems much more wary, sticking close to the azalea while the other forages all over the patio.  I think a third wren may have shown up because one suddenly chased another across the patio, then opened its beak and proclaimed victory.  A white throated sparrow stopped by very briefly.  All this was followed by a fish drive.  Cormorants came swimming and diving up the creek while gulls and egrets flew overhead,  I also saw three great blue herons.  A little while later they all came back downstream and this time the cormorants were flying too.

A fuzzy crescent moon trailed the sunset. 

Sunny

Egrets and cormorants flew at dawn.  A downy woodpecker and a Carolina wren shared the suet, one on each side, before it was fully light.

I watched for a while in the afternoon, but not much happened.  A wind from the West hurried a few cotton puffs out to sea.  Chickadees and downy woodpeckers were on the feeders.  The woodpeckers competed for suet and the male ended up on the hickory trunk.  Above the dam, an egret and a cormorant perched on the same log. 

Heat wave ends

Another glorious sunrise was punctuated by egrets and cormorants flying South.  The creek was a perfect mirror at dawn though the wind roughened it later.  A Carolina wren came by at first light.

Mid morning brought song and white throated sparrows and more wrens.  Clouds filled the sky, then blew away. 

Lunch was exciting - the FoS pine warbler visited the suet.  Out on the creek, hoodies and a bufflehead fished. A goldfinch in winter drab paused briefly in the dogwood.

The afternoon got cooler and grayer and it was raining by 4pm.

Humid

Sunrise was a dramatic pink because the clouds were thicker than yesterday.  The sun still penetrated and brightened the day.  I startled two doves when I went out to photograph the sunrise.  A great blue heron and several cormorants flew through the pink sky.  A slug left a trail from bottom to top of the French door window.

Chickadees kept the feeder busy at breakfast.  A downy woodpecker visited the suet and a white throated sparrow ran across the patio.  Later a Carolina wren came for mealworms, but all this was dimmed by the fogged-up windows.  I spied a mockingbird through a gap in the moisture.

In the late morning I was watching a squirrel clean up under the feeder when it suddenly dashed under a chair where it stood quivering.  I looked everywhere but couldn't see the red tailed hawk till it swooped across the yard with two crows in hot pursuit.  As soon as it was gone birds literally tumbled out of the bushes.  Two male cardinals popped out of the azalea at the far end of the pool. Downy woodpeckers and chickadees came back to the feeders while song and white throated sparrows foraged below.  A Carolina wren joined the squirrel at the mealworms.  And a mockingbird flew from bush to bush, I don't know why.

Hooded mergansers and the first bufflehead I've seen this fall paddled on the creek.  Meanwhile, the clouds thickened, turning the sky white, and the day grew dull.  Later, as we ate dinner, a blue jay flitted through the bushes.  Cormorants and egrets followed a school of fish downstream.  By sundown, the overcast shaded imperceptibly into night. 

Hot!

If the car temperature sensor is to be believed, it got up to 80°F.  Since this was the last weekend of car access to Mackay Island Wildlife Refuge, we made an expedition South to N.C.

People were out fishing and photographing in the glorious weather.  Turtles abounded in the waterways, particularly Northern red bellied cooters  (Pseudemys rubriventris) and yellow bellied sliders (Trachemys scripta scripta).  Insects were flying and the car gathered several mosquitoes.  A female kingfisher perched in a dead tree.  Ducks, coots, geese, and swans paddled and fed.  A large flock of white ibis hung out on and below a dead tree.  This was a new bird for me.

We had lunch at Blue Pete's on the way back, a nice opportunity to visit a place too far for usual days.

When we got home, a Carolina wren was waiting. A buzzard circled in the hazy sky.  Downy woodpeckers visited the suet while a female red bellied woodpecker stuck to the trees.  Chickadees and other birds scooted between bushes.  A great blew heron flew upstream and cormorants flew and paddled in the creek.  But the daylight was all too short.

Stars glittered in the night sky, untroubled by cloud or moon.  The day set a record with an official temperature of 77°F. 

Still sunny and warm

There was a glorious streaky pink sunrise with gulls and cormorants flying.  The two Carolina wrens arrived soon after.  Fortunately I had just scattered mealworms and they went to work on them.  A female and a male cardinal came to the feeder.  A song sparrow and a white throat foraged in the mulch.  The female downy came for suet. A great blue heron flew upstream.  Mallards and hooded mergansers made ripples in the creek.

Fog into sun

The fog was heavy at dawn but dissipated quickly.  Before that, three egrets flew toward the Southwest, an ethereal white on white fog. There is a bit of weather folklore that a "January fog will freeze a hog," but today was warm enough to dispense with a coat. 

The creek was smooth except when a flock of cormorants came downstream.  Sparrows showed up before there was enough light to be sure which kind they were.  Fuzzy photos show one was a song sparrow and later I definitely saw a white throat.  Chickadees came early to the feeder.  As I was leaving, a mockingbird landed in the crape myrtle.

Unfortunately, I was stuck inside for way too much of a beautiful day.  When I came home in the late afternoon, that mockingbird again flew to the crape myrtle, but when I tried to photograph it, it was off to the porta-potty, and then gone.  At twilight, the sparrows were busy in the mulch again, and a female cardinal sat on the feeder.  Sunset was streaks of pink.

The warmth brought out one of those T-shaped plume moths which I saw on the window after dark.  I'm afraid I will not be eating home-grown peppers this winter.  Although two blossoms got fertilized and the plant set tiny peppers, the stress of moving into the drier air indoors caused them to drop off.  I think the plant will live through the winter. 

Warm and sunny

I was away much of the day.  I saw a leaf-footed bug on the East wall of the doctor's office, and a couple of song sparrows in a bush.  Afterward I located Kings Grant Lake which was full of ducks, but I had no time to see what they were exactly.  At home, chickadees and woodpeckers were on the feeders.  A mosquito clung to the window.  Geese and a great blue heron were out on the creek.  I did a walk-about the yard and looked at the construction damage.  Sunset was streaky again.