Gray sky

We took the feeder down last night to disinfect it.  There was consternation amongst the early birds this morning when they found it gone.  When we got it back up they sulked and only a finch came to eat.  Before that, we had juncos, sparrows (both song and white throat), and cardinals on the ground, a downy and a pine warbler on the suet.  The creek was mostly empty except for a cormorant and a quartet of female pintails passing through.  Egrets flew past toward the lake.  The overcast had bands of darker gray, which I think reflect air pressure troughs.

Late in the morning the overcast broke apart and there was sun until a dark mass of cloud moved down from the NW.  K said the cloud looked like snow and I think I saw a few large flakes, but the wind was so fierce it could have been shreds of dead leaf.  The temperature was nearly to freezing by lunch and the wind added to the chill.  Meanwhile the poor Carolina jessamine popped out a blossom when it was so warm Sunday.  While the sun was out, white throats took over the seed feeder.  Despite the cold, white throats and the male downy had lunch with us.  During lunch, mallards were out paddling, while herons flew over the creek and egrets stalked below the dam. 

I had an evening meeting.  On the way home the temperature gauge read 24°F.  The slightly past full moon rose brightly, accompanied by Jupiter and chased by clouds.  This is a phone photo - it was way too cold to get the camera and come back outside.  The planet is on the left about 2/3 of the way up.