Icy

There was a skin of ice on the creek and the birdbath was a solid block of it.  A clementine had started to spoil so K spiked the good half of it for the orioles.

A Carolina wren showed up first but stuck to mealworms.  The cold brought two hungry yellow rumped warblers.  They didn't get along, this one's looking up at the other on the suet. White throated sparrows and tufted titmice were hungry too.  I poured hot water in the birdbath twice because it refroze the first time.

The sky was blue when we got up but gradually, as the temperature climbed, clouds appeared, first high and thin, eventually thicker.  At lunch there was still plenty of sunshine.  A nuthatch moved in on the feeder perch.  The anxious red bellied woodpecker spent more time in the dogwood looking at the suet than actually eating it.  Downy woodpeckers were bolder.  The orioles loved the fruit.  They seemed to be getting along a little better. 

I glimpsed a pair of hoodies on the creek after it melted.  And of course the ubiquitous mallards and geese appeared when the ice was gone.  Lots of gulls and a buzzard flew over.

It has been an extremely wet year.  The final tally was 68.86" of precipitation compared to an average of 46.64" a year.  I wonder if 2016 was just unusual or if the rainfall was part of climate change.