Ice fog

The warmth continued and most of the snow melted overnight, except where it had been heaped up.  But the creek ice was slower to melt, even after the passage of the ice-breaking fisherman yesterday.  The far half was open water where it passed our yard, with an occasional ice floe drifting downstream.  That was enough to bring out the ducks.  Hoodies showed up right away.  One was an immature male. 

The kinglet returned. So did white throated sparrows which had been avoiding the feeder frenzy.  Downy woodpeckers came for their suet.  Pine and yellow rumped warblers, bluebirds, Carolina wrens, and juncos all visited in the morning.

A flock of ring-billed gulls swirled over the creek.  Buzzards circled higher up.  A male ring-necked duck paddled with the mergansers for a while.  A few geese paid a brief visit.  Then I saw what I believe to be a black duck.  Since it was with the mallards it was easier to see it was different.  A crow ate something (a fish?) on a dock piling while another complained.  Four great blue herons joined the other fishing birds.  One walked around on the ice and broke through.  It was able to get out and clean up. 

I went outside during a brief spell of sunshine but was chased back in by rain.  After that, more rain came in waves.  And when it fell on the ice, it turned to fog which blew around like a ghost.  An ice jam developed downstream where the dam abuts the last dock.  The light level declined and the camera refused to see what I saw. 


A moth clung to the kitchen window after dark, but the temperature was predicted to go downhill and freeze tomorrow night. The moist Southwest wind would become a frigid gale from the Northwest, if the meteorologists were right.