Gale

A brown headed nuthatch visited us at breakfast along with chickadees and the rest of the usual seed eaters.  A blue jay ate barkbutter fragments in the bottom of the dish. The hummer kept watch over her feeder.  The yellow rose opened and the lanceleaf coreopsis had a flower.  

A sign of the changing seasons: mallards were napping on the dock.  Big birds circled over the creek and fought  their way upwind.  Clouds blew across the sky faster than a jet.  The wind found more leaves and needles to blow into the water.  Birds and insects were scarce in the afternoon and it wasn't very pleasant in the water.  But the hummer needed to refuel, wind or no wind.  A cardinal brought her son to the patio by the feeder and stuffed him with seeds.