Colder

A pine and an orange crowned warbler breakfasted on suet before they were startled off.  The downy woodpeckers soon arrived.  I saw a Carolina wren on the bark butter feeder.  A hooded merganser drake paddled upstream through choppy water.

In the afternoon, I blamed the feral cat for keeping the birds away till a hawk whooshed across the yard.  I couldn't see it where it landed up in a neighbor's pine, but a crow found it.  The crow called all kind of names while barnstorming with hovers and dives and rolls in midair. Finally the hawk lumbered into the air and flew away, still with the tree between me and it.  It left an impression of large size and a creamy underside so I'm guessing red tailed.

After that the pine warbler and the chickadees showed up.  The cat sauntered off after a scratch-stretch on the cedar tree.  Mallards, geese, and cormorants paddled on the gilded water.  Yesterday's wind stripped the maple but the dogwoods and even the neighbors' birch trees still had leaves.  Like the oak, the blueberry bushes finally turned color.  It was too cold for insects.