Winter

There weren't any birds at breakfast and the barkbutter dish was empty.  I refilled it but couldn't stay to see results.  The first birds I saw were fishing.  At least five female hoodies and two drakes went paddling and diving downstream at lunch.  (It's hard to count birds that pop in and ought of sight.)  An egret stalked along the bulkhead and I never noticed that it was following a heron. 

By lunchtime, the barkbutter dish was empty again.  Warblers, both pine and myrtle, went for suet.  There they competed with bluebirds in addition to the resident downy.  One butterbutt decided on a bath.  A female oriole was displeased with the lack of barkbutter balls but had some jelly.  

A red bellied woodpecker landed on the dead, whittled branch I call the woodpeckers' toothpick.  She didn't stay but moved across the pine to living wood.  A mockingbird poked around under the mountain mint where I had dropped a few barkbutter balls.  White throats and a song sparrow hunted in the mulch under the seed feeder.  The sky hazed then clouded over. Crows came calling. 

Brown headed nuthatches made regular visits to the seed feeder.  I only saw one at a time but as soon as one left another appeared.  Pine warblers got interested in the seed feeder since K mixed some other seeds with the sunflower seeds.  Even the bluebirds investigated. 

I finally gave in and filled the barkbutter dish for the second time in one day.  It didn't take the blue jays long to notice.  The song sparrow hustled over to get a dropped (on purpose) barkbutter ball.  The clouds slid off to the North.  Cormorants and one turtle were visible on the lake.  The creek reflected afternoon-gilded tree trunks.  And then the short day was over.