Thursday, December 13, 2018

Lots of birds

A bluebird and a goldfinch, three pine warblers, cardinals  and chickadees ornamented the feeder post at breakfast.  The goldfinch seemed to want suet but couldn't quite manage to abandon vegetarianism.  I wonder if it would be attracted to solid coconut butter?  Peanut butter might be simpler. And I was just thinking about how long it had been since I'd seen any house finches when a pair of them landed on the feeder hanger.

A lone bufflehead fished on the glassy creek all day.  Broken overcast let sunlight through sometimes.

A flock of birds flitted among the trees making it hard to tell what they were.  At least two of them were starlings that came for the hackberries.  Others landed in the pool puddle and revealed that they were robins.  Juncos joined them.  So did white throated sparrows. 

A myrtle warbler poked around under the feeder while a female cowbird ate seeds above.    Red breasted nuthatches darted in for seeds and suet.  A female pine warbler joined the male.  I finally caught the Carolina wren.  And then a brown headed nuthatch grabbed some suet!

In addition to the downy woodpeckers, a male red bellied woodpecker stopped in briefly.  A male bluebird took a bath in the afternoon when the temperature rose into the 50s.  A female was content to just drink.  But a male pine warbler decided to have a bath too.  That attracted the goldfinch. Eventually a mockingbird came for a drink.

A blue jay had a long preening session up in the redwood.  A robin with a partially white breast showed up.  K had dropped a pinch of rice on the patio and eventually a squirrel ate some.  The birds ignored the white stuff.  Amazingly the tropical milkweed was still blooming.  The blueberry leaves had turned red. The light was failing by 4pm and it wans night by 5:30pm.  One week till the solstice.


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