By morning the creek was free of ice and full of fishing birds. The ring necked duck brought friends. Ring billed gulls bobbed in the water. In the afternoon, I also saw red breasted mergansers and buffleheads. A few hoodies passed through. For the first time in weeks, there were cormorants.
The day began mild and damp and there was some sun. But the songbirds were eating as though they knew change was coming. The bluebirds were back and appreciated the fresh mealworms I stirred into the rain-and-quinoa porridge in the hanging dish. Warblers had to have their suet. Carolina wrens would eat anything, as long as it didn't have a husk. The kinglet joined them on the suet. A goldfinch got a drink.
Around 9am as I was leaving, a dark wall swept out of the Northwest on gusts of Arctic wind with a few spats of rain. The temperature continued to drop on the way down to freezing. But when I got home, the birds were still feasting. A flock of robins didn't linger. Song and white throated sparrows and juncos foraged in the mulch. I saw downy, pileated, and red bellied woodpeckers, though only the downy woodpeckers ate suet. The kinglet came back to the suet and this time was agitated enough to show off his ruby crown, just as I ran out of light for pictures.
The overcast seemed to be thinning around sunset, but not enough for there to be a visible sunset. It just got dark. And colder.
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