Cold

The wind was gone when I got up, but not much was stirring and it was quite cold.  The wind had dried out the birdbath so I added water when I unbricked the feeder.  Soon the wren arrived for fresh mealworms.  (Fresh in the sense that I refilled the dish - they were still freeze-dried.)  Chickadees and titmice followed, only they wanted seeds.  A downy hopped onto the suet.  The warbler wanted suet too ans sulked while the downy ate.  A white throat wanted water.  Buffleheads paddled on the quiet creek.  Then I had to get ready to leave. 

While I was in Newport News, I saw a mockingbird.  I was going to try a photo even though I only had the snapshot camera, but it flew.  There were gulls, of course, on the way there and back. Ant both times when I passed Lake Smith an osprey poked its head up from the nesting platform. 

When I got home, the wretched cat was birdwatching under the feeder again.  It looked at me and left.  A bit later I saw a downy woodpecker on the suet.  A heron flew over the creek.  The dead trees on the lake were loaded with cormorants drying in the late afternoon sun.  Shovelers and wood ducks paddled around them.  The wood ducks seemed to hug the bank while the shovelers wanted more open water.  Buffleheads dived on the creek.  A kingfisher huddled on a post on the neighbors' dock.  It would not turn around to reveal its gender.  Then I saw what I think was a grebe, but the light level was dropping.  An egret landed where the cormorants had been.

While the day was clear, clouds began pouring East just as the moon rose.