Chilly

A great blue heron waded under the bulkhead while we ate breakfast.  The yellow rumped warbler watched over its suet from the bench back.  Cormorants pursued a school of fish upstream several times during the day.  Pelicans flew over the diving cormorants. Then they all straggled back downstream.  Maybe the fish did too because I saw one jump in the wake of a returning cormorant.  

I finally remembered to bring out another bag of barkbutter balls.  A blue jay shoved a bluebird off the feeder.  A red bellied woodpecker waited in the dogwood for a break in the traffic.  

The vine I bought two Springs ago has been blooming.  Its flowers are similar to the Carolina jessamine which has also been blooming.  I discovered that the bulbs I tried to give away last Fall had sprouted so I planted some.  One intrepid turtle soaked up sunshine despite the chill.  

According to the gardening column in the newspaper, this winter has been slightly warmer than average, but less sunny and a lot wetter.  The article counts December with January and February which the calendar year statistics obscure.