Rain

A gusty South wind drove bands of rain.  At first, it spared the North windows and I saw a wet warbler and a dripping downy.  There wasn't enough light to get a picture of the white throats.  Then the rain hit the glass.  A titmouse and a nuthatch visited the feeder but the rain streaks distorted their images.  I had to rush off to a string of appointments.  The rain  flooded the ditch at the end of our street and the wind rocked the car.  It was blinding on the expressway.  But when I started back the rain was nearly finished.  Dark bars of cloud lined up South to North, but didn't do anything.  During lunch there was another period of rain which ended just before we left.  The horizon was rimmed with cumulus but there was sunshine. 

When I got home, most of the action was on the creek.  Buffleheads, mallards, cormorants, and pelicans were feeding.  Some herons flew past.  I counted one female and three male buffleheads.  There were at least two pelicans. 

The myrtle warbler had dried out.  I dumped the flooded jelly dish and bark butter ball dish and put out some jelly dusted with cayenne. A downy was silhouetted on a hackberry limb. 

I enjoyed the sunset colors that bounced off clouds to the Northeast and reflected in the creek.  (The light rays were playing pool.)  Buffleheads continued to fish in the twilight.  A dark bird I think was a grebe paddled by.  Two pelicans reappeared and plunged after fish.  Unfortunately there were tree limbs in the way.  And when there weren't, the light was gone.