Wind and rain on another gray morning

Canada geese paddled upstream.  The feeder was empty at breakfast, which admittedly was late because of the end of "daylight savings." 

The sky cleared before 1pm but the wind remained fierce.  Finches visited the feeder till a squirrel jumped on it and put them to flight.  Mallards joined the geese in the creek. They seemed to be eating something on the surface - windblown seeds? The first ruddy duck of the year joined them. 

November gray

The overcast was punctuated with a few sprinkles of rain.  The feeder had no breakfast visitors.  I wonder if that hawk has been hanging around all the time we were gone?  A peculiarly shaped roach came inside to be warm, and died for it.  Having mulch beds creates an environment for many non-pest species that are attracted inside in the fall.

Dreary rain.  Wary chickadees visited the feeder.  Mallards paddled in the wind-swept creek.  Blown leaves imitated birds.   On a windy day leaves are often the most common "birds." 

Halloween hawk!

The sky was mostly cloudy with fitful sunshine but darker clouds arrived in the afternoon.  A Cooper's hawk visited at lunch.  It landed on the bench behind the roses so I had to fight the camera for focus.  After a good look around it flew off, spreading its barred tail, but that I did not capture.

Later in the day blue jays and mockingbirds chased each other around the front yard.  The regulars cautiously came to the feeder when the hawk was long gone. 

Many strange critters came to the door in the night, lighted by the first quarter moon. 

Clearing sky

The sky was overcast when I got up but the clouds moved off East.  Enough rain fell overnight to fill the birdbath.  The regulars have visited the feeder and the Carolina wren investigated the grill.  Canada geese and cormorants flew by.

Squirrels bounced across the pool cover.  Several came to the birdbath for a drink.  One idiot sat in the birdbath. 

Little brown inky cap mushrooms along the retaining wall have been nibbled at.  The weeping conks are weeping while a different fungus grows closer to the oak trunk.  I think it is a "chicken of the woods" but I'm not sure.  And I'm certainly not going to eat it to find out.  However I hope it is growing on the dead roots of the tree we cut down and not the living one! 

It was considerably colder today after the front that passed through last night.

Quiet on the home front

I saw very few birds - just crows and some swallows high up.  I know others have been seeing tree swallows so I'm guessing that's what they were.  Something left its skull in the backyard, maybe a rabbit.  It had a rodent-type upper jaw but looked big for a squirrel. 

The black swallowtail caterpillars have been devouring the parsley and there are some on the rue.  Yellow jackets and other wasps were busy.  A yellowjacket was chewing the bench slats to make paper in the nest.  Another walked on my hand when I passed the rosemary.  A cabbage butterfly made the rounds.

The saltmarsh fleabane and the saltbush have both gone to seed and their fluff is blowing in the wind. 

The temperature had dropped when I went out to brick the feeder but the night was still clear enough that I could see the crescent moon.  An hour later it was raining. 

Home

I saw a road-killed deer this morning in New Jersey and many vultures all day which led me to muse on how roads have changed the ecology for scavengers.   I noticed that birds congregate on cell towers now.  But these were old-fashioned and stuck to power poles. 

When we got home, doves were pecking under the feeder. I guess the raccoons didn't empty it. 

Rainbow!

Morning was sunny and mild.  Lots of sparrows congregated on the way to brunch.

The sky glazed over midday and the temperature dropped.  While we ate lunch seaside more sparrows feasted on weed seeds.  We only had phones for photos.  Pigeons practiced aerial formations and landed in the sea wrack.  The sun burned through and got a bit warmer.

Then, near sunset, dramatic clouds piled up and dropped scattered showers, one of which caught the sunlight and made a gigantic sky-spanning double rainbow.  Gulls and maybe other birds prowled the shore and waves.  I only got blurry photos of some kind of sandpiper/plover.