A warbler bully

I had an early meeting and was on the road at dawn watching the waning moon descend.  When I got back, the feeders were quiet.  Hooded mergansers were out on the rough creek water.  A yellow rumped warbler visited the suet.

At lunch, the warbler was still around and I learned why the other birds were absent.  That little warbler was driving them away from both suet and sunflower seeds.  Some of the time it scanned surroundings form a perch around the feeders.  At other times it lurked in the bushes and zoomed out whenever another bird tried to grab a bite.  It was particularly fierce toward another butterbutt which it chased all over the yard.  But it also ran off chickadees, titmice, finches, a pine warbler, sparrows, and a white breasted nuthatch.  And I swear it was eyeing a jet passing over.

One of the squirrels has taken to making great leaps from tree to tree, unnecessarily.  Buffleheads were out on the water in the afternoon.  A blue jay shot past the new window.  The sky was hazy and the wind gusty but it was warm and sunny.  My pepper plant adjusted to being indoors sufficiently to put out a blossom which I tried to hand pollinate.