Clouding over

The downy male came for breakfast.  All this time I thought it had lost its mate but All About Birds asserted that the sexes separate in the winter with the male hogging the good stuff.  My sympathies were certainly misplaced!  Chickadees and squirrels arrived later along with an LBJ that stayed under cover of rosemary.  Hooded mergansers paddled around the glassy creek.  The air was cool and very still.  There was a hint of mist early on and some sun through breaks in the clouds.

At lunch I saw a white throated sparrow.  A couple of vultures circled over the creek.  Chickadees were back.  After lunch we went up to Pleasure House Point.  The sky was dramatic with mackerel clouds.  I saw yucca and prickly pear had escaped into the sandy ground of the nature preserve.  We walked between ponds out to Pleasure House Creek but saw no marsh birds, just a couple of robins.  Periwinkles and what I think were oysters were abundant. 

Afterward, we shopped and when we came out, the last streaks of sunset were going from pink to gray.  At supper, a small moth was attracted to the lighted window.