Warm

There was frost but it was soon melted in the sunshine.  The sky was hazy blue and the creek calm.  A mallard pair investigated the puddle on the pool cover.  A junco investigated the mulch and a white throat peered at the steps.  The male oriole tried to find some bark butter while a female worked on the nubbin of suet.  I glimpsed a goldfinch in the cherry.  A myrtle warbler was distressed at the empty bark butter tub.  The female downy replaced the female oriole on the suet cage, then a pine warbler had a turn. 

When we got back after lunch, it was still sunny but the haze was thickening into cloud.  Pelicans were fishing and the creek was still quite flat and the tide very low.  I went down to the dock where a light breeze made it seem cooler than it was.  A bluebird landed in the saltbush.  A hoodie pair came paddling downstream. 

Few barnacles survived the scraping ice last winter.  Three pairs of buffleheads dived together.  I spotted a very brown pelican perched on a dock upstream, and then noticed a heron stalking beneath. 

When I came back in, the feeder birds reappeared.  A nuthatch stayed on the feeder instead of flitting off.  An oriole found the bark butter balls acceptable.  Another joined a bluebird to get a drink on the pool cover.  A pine warbler landed on the cover but I didn't see it drink.  The cloud cover went pink at sunset.