Gray day

The forecast was for cloudy, not for periods of rain followed by birds!  The rain ended in the late morning but the day remained chilly and dank.  I stayed inside which might be why so many different birds visited.

While the rain was still falling, two Carolina wrens hit the mealworm dish.  A hummer visited.  A blue jay zoomed past.  Three titmice squabbled over seeds, as did the usual chickadees, cardinals, and house finches.  The fledgling cardinal wandered around the patio.  The goldfinches made a series of forays to the feeder.  And brown thrashers foraged under the red cedar.

I saw egrets and a heron down by the dam outfall.  The only bugs visible from inside were bumblebees and crane flies. 

In the afternoon, the feeder birds got very competitive.  All the morning visitors were joined by downy woodpeckers and a white breasted nuthatch.  Meanwhile a great crested flycatcher pursued bugs in the cherry tree.