Mostly gray

The feeders were not calling to birds at breakfast, and then I was called away.  I noticed the sun just glowed behind a curtain of cloud.  There was more to see after lunch, and even the occasional moment of sunshine.  I put out some jelly and mealworms and started an altercation between the male orioles.  The dominant one actually hid in the rosemary to guard his food supplies.  The poor newcomer got very little.  Red breasted nuthatches joined chickadees on the seeds and suet.  The downy woodpecker only wanted suet.  A few white throats scurried about.

I spotted one female bufflehead around midday.  Later a pair of hoodies paddled and dived.  An astonishing gathering of great egrets filled the trees on the lakeside. Cormorants and at least one great blue heron were also fishing in the lake.  Then they moved to the creek just below my window!  While I was downloading photos a kingfisher zipped past looking for a perch.  What with the overcast, the light was already going so I probably didn't miss a shot, but I couldn't tell if it was male or female.

The freeze ruined the milkweed flowers and burnt the lantana leaves.  Neither plant was completely done in though.  The loss of leaves on the trees made it a lot easier to see birds but there were still twigs in the wrong places to fool the camera focus.