Still cold

The birdbath was frozen again.  The creek was quiet but not frozen, and the tide was way out.  I wonder if these lower than I remember tides resulted from the dredging?  A snowy egret shuffled in the shallows below the dam spillway. 

The feral cat waited on the steps and made the birds late to breakfast.  The butterbutt was just as greedy as yesterday.  It lurked in the maple to guard "its" food.  A nuthatch breakfasted on suet and followed up with water that I had melted.  A downy then took over the suet.  A wren ate mealworms.  White throats ate everything.  The junco came back.  A titmouse escaped my camera.  As I was leaving, a brown thrasher sang in the top of the juniper. 

 When I got home at lunchtime, a pelican fished while floating instead of flying.  By this time the wind was back.  The female red belly dithered in the dogwood.  A half dozen robins hung out by the birdbath.  White throats bathed despite the chill and splashed the robins.  One sparrow had at least five rinses.  I glimpsed a song sparrow, but not bathing. 

Buffleheads were out on the water in the afternoon.  I caught a flash of bubblegum pink which turned out to be the drake's foot.  The snowy egret prospected along the mud flats when the tide went back out in the evening.  I saw the wood duck pair paddling in the creek.  A kingfisher watched from a post on the neighboring dock.  I think I saw the grebe again.  A shoveler was out on the lake which was otherwise deserted. 

I noticed the newspaper started reporting the pollen count today.  The oak flowers were nearly ready to add some to the air.  The dogwood bracts (which look like petals) were wide open but the real flowers were not yet.  And the maple has gone to seed.