It was not raining at breakfast but it had rained. Two great blue herons flew upstream, one following the other as they've been doing all winter. Two pelicans were out fishing with the cormorants. A smaller light-colored bird (mockingbird?) chased a crow across the creek.
A few glimmers of sunlight slipped through at mid morning. A heron stood watch on the bulkhead while hooded mergansers paddled and dived. Juncos and a few white throats foraged in the mulch and visited the feeder. The wind was gusty, tossing the birdhouse inside the camellia. Vultures tilted wildly as they soared over the creek.
By lunch time, cardinals, titmice, and finches showed up. A female cardinal pushed all other birds off the perch. A male downy woodpecker and a yellow rumped warbler tackled the blowing, twisting suet feeder. The warbler had to go chase off another butterbutt. After lunch the sun came out and chickadees finally appeared. By that time everything had dried off. Mallards plied the creek.
The sky was mostly blue and the sunlight gold when the shadows got long. Juncos and whitethroats scurried through the mulch and tried to drink the water freezing in the birdbath. Cold does seem to increase songbirds' thirst. The male downy visited the suet briefly and both juncos and white throats sampled it as well. They seem to have difficulty feeding from the cage. On the creek, herons continued to act territorial while mallards, cormorants, and female pintails glinted in the sun. A large flock of hooded mergansers went downstream and later came back.
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