Warming up

Both the creek and the feeder are busy. Gulls, herons, pelicans, and I thought I glimpsed an osprey, but maybe not.

Drama on the feeder: the male cardinal evicted the chickadees and then chased off the white-throated sparrow. The female again watched from the shrubbery. When the cardinal left, the sparrow returned and it too rejected the chickadees and titmice. I noticed the sparrow also visited the birdbath for a drink. Some birds, like chickadees, don't seem to need water.

By lunch, all was gray and windy. It certainly no longer seemed warmer.

Warm and sunny

Open water all day with herons and pelicans. Not much activity in the yard though, just squirrels scarfing up the excess muffin crumbs. (Shh! I don't do that very often.)

Sunshine on frost

White rime on the leaves in the mulch. A great black-backed gull rested on the frosted dock facing the iced over creek. A male cardinal hunkered on the feeder while a female watched from about 20 feet away. The cardinal sits on the feeder perch and snatches a seed then turns around to monitor for threats while eating the seed. Chickadees and titmice swoop down, pick up a seed, and return to a tree or bush to shell it.

The ice is back

But hopeful pelicans still flew up the creek. Maybe there is a warm outflow that's ice-free?

More moments of sun than predicted, but a little rain too. Not much activity.

Breakfast with squirrels

It's a soft-looking morning. The cloud cover is thin enough to pick up muted sunlight, vaporous cumulus, not high ice clouds. Just under 40F.

The squirrels are all over, perching on the feeder, sitting in the flowerpot, keeping an eye on us breakfasting. Our gray squirrels have a lot of rust along their sides. The backs of their ears are white, as are the side edges of their tails, a ring around their eyes, and their whole undersides .

Also visiting the feeder is a white-throated sparrow, chickadees and titmice. That's the first definite white-throat this year. Usually they are common in winter. A blue jay passed through.

On the creek, three herons kept shifting place. A pelican was followed upstream by a kingfisher. Seems to be good fishing today as the pelicans are splashing down regularly. They do not land gently.

Rain

The rain stopped mid-morning then picked up again after lunch. At first it was very fine, but mid afternoon came a drenching. This did not stop pelicans from cruising the creek which is now ice free. And I saw a great blue heron, fish in beak, perched on my neighbor's roof-over-the grill. It looks a bit like a wishing-well roof, not where I'd expect to find a heron hanging out. I saw some black and white ducks on the creek, mergansers and buffleheads probably.

Misty, moisty and warmer

It was foggy at dawn on the creek and the ground was wet. A great black-backed gull was swimming around the pilings across the creek and seemed to be catching something. The water is open on that side where the current rubs the bulkheads. Later some geese paddled by over there. Weak sunshine has not melted any more of the creek. I glimpsed the eagle headed over the lake toward Witchduck Road.

At the feeder, only chickadees and titmice. Bird shadows pass overhead, probably gulls or crows. The predominant gull species here is the ring billed, not the herring gull. Great black-backed gulls come up the creeks in the winter and return to more open water in the spring. Laughing gulls replace them for the summer. The ring bills are year-round, along with occasional herring gulls.

Gray again, with skins of ice still floating on the creek. A pelican just went paddling upstream over where the ice is gone.

Over and over

The creek's iced over and the sky's overcast. Too many "overs" when none of them applies to winter. A gray day.

Later it cleared and there was some sun. The ice melted on the far side where the current flows and geese huddled on the bank above. Herons and a pelican flew upstream and a buzzard circled overhead.

On the feeder, all I saw were the male cardinal and the chickadees, and squirrels hanging around below.

Continued cold

The creek iced about half way out, but geese were still swimming in the open part. Crows visited the yard. The feeder had the usual customers - hopeful squirrel, tufted titmouse. Beautiful day but quiet.

Brrrrrrr!

Despite the cold, there's no ice on the creek. A small squadron of Canada geese is sharing the water with a flock of cormorants. Odd, since I don't think the geese eat fish. I wonder what it means when a goose rears back and flaps its wings? One after another does this, then swims on. The cormorants, however, all took off for some other place.

Bright moon at dawn

Two nights past full. And I was gone thereafter, all the bright and windy day.

Occasional sun

Occasional pelicans. Not much else. Just a male bufflehead diving.

More warm and wet

A flock of over a dozen robins just stopped in. And juncos have reappeared after at least a week with no sighting. A male red-bellied woodpecker stopped briefly on the fence. Then a yellow-shafted flicker started snatching food from the dangling vine that interested the mockingbird the other day. So the mockingbird showed up to claim its share.

Meanwhile, the flock of robins grew to more like fifty. It was quite easy to see the difference between males and females - I guess that's breeding plumage. A much larger flock of red-winged blackbirds arrived, including some grackles. The epaulets on the blackbirds were quite distinct. When the flock flew off, the effect was almost like a summer heat-shimmer in the air.

As though relieved that the ruckus was finally over, the house finch and chickadees came to the feeder that had been idle while all the other birds worked over the ground. And a pelican sailed upstream.

While my back was turned, the wet cleared off and now at noon it is sunny.

Foggy morning

Still warm with mist. Squirrel love is in bloom. Pelicans are cruising the creek. I wonder if sunless days make it easier to see through the water's surface to the fish?

In the afternoon a house finch found a very snug perch under where a clump of leaves had fallen out of the oak tree and caught on the camellia bush like a thatched roof.

Clouding up

As I expected, the warmer temperatures finally brought cloudy skies. And new birds!

Around noon, a yellow rumped warbler tried to get into the house, or so it looked. It flew into the windows and up under the overhangs and clung to the walls.

Then a small flock of goldfinches showed up, got a drink from the birdbath and chowed down on the feeder. The titmice and chickadees didn't stand a chance. A mockingbird kept snatching something off a vine tendril - morning glory seeds? And some kind of nuthatch went hopping up the dogwood trunk.

Several pelicans were out cruising the creek, but no eagles. Gulls and a few hooded mergansers, and I heard a kingfisher. Now it is raining.

Getting warmer

Well, yesterday did not cloud over after all, and today continues bright despite the higher temperature. Dawn came with a crow calling and crows were quite active this morning.

The feeder crew waited for the day to warm up. One chickadee had an interesting technique: on being intimidated by a larger titmouse, the chickadee simply swung backward and hung under the perch till the titmouse left.

Two eagles were cruising by today but they seemed more interested in the lake above the dam than in the salt water creek. On the other hand, several herons and gulls seemed to think the action was upstream.

Frozen creek

Friday was more of the cold and bright, with the creek thawing mid-day. The eagle swooped through, as did quite a few herons. As long as the creek is frozen, there is little activity anywhere - it's sort of a crude thermometer. The usual birds visited the feeder in the afternoon, including a female cardinal finally.

Today is supposed to get warmer and already the sky is getting cloudy.

Back to the back yard

Back here, the usual suspects were busy at lunch time: finches, cardinals, chickadees and titmice. I glimpsed what was most likely a wren but might have been a nuthatch. It was cold and bright but the creek thawed mid-day.

The pelican cruising the creek today reminded me that on the whale watching trip we also saw lots of brown pelicans, cormorants, gulls* of course, and one unflappable great blue heron on the platform with the sea lions.

*I finally identified the rather sooty gulls with red bills as Heerman's Gulls.

Report from San Diego

Hummingbirds were frequenting the bird-of-paradise flowers around the convention center and the palm trees were bursting into bizarre bloom - dangling pink and magenta strings. I can find pictures on the net that match but none seem to be identified beyond "palm tree."

After the convention, we went whale watching. (Of course I'd left the camera back in Virginia.) While waiting for the crew, we saw what I think was a willet, a bufflehead, and mallards of course.

On the sailboat, we were lucky enough to intercept several migrating California gray whales who spouted and sounded for most of an hour. Their tail flukes are very rounded, not pointy like the classic picture. Coming back we ran into lots of dolphins and then saw sea lions on a floating platform. It was the most successful such trip I've ever been on, and being with just a few others on a small sail boat was great. If anyone has the opportunity, I highly recommend Sail San Diego.

Slow day at the feeder

Actually, I was away too much of the day. Some house finches visited and I saw herons in the creek. That's all. My theory is that they know I got a fresh battery for the camera and they're all avoiding me.

The blog will be taking a short break now.

The eagle has landed

The eagle landed right on the dock piling. And me without a camera. Mary Reid Barrow says a nest has been reported on Saw Pen Point, just down the creek from here. Hopefully that means the eagle will be back regularly.

Is the mockingbird living on berries or are insects coming out on warm days? It is warmer today, and, of course, cloudier too. The house finches were back today along with the usual feeder crowd: chickadees, titmice, cardinal. There are crows around, but I haven't seen any in the yard.

Did everyone sleep in?

Blue sky and sun, colder and breezy, and no visitors. Finally about 9am a male cardinal and a lone squirrel stopped in. No activity on the creek, just one heron standing like a stump on the far bank.

Chickadees for lunch and a brief appearance by the eagle. Several squirrels playing chase and one Einstein who tried to get to the seeds by walking upside-down underneath the feeder. I need to get a new camera battery soon!

7pm and an owl hooting. I think it's a Great Horned Owl - hoo-o/hoo/hoo.

Bald Eagle sighting

I kept seeing what I thought was an eagle at a distance checking out the creek while it was frozen last week. Today there was no doubt. It swooped overhead and perched in a pine across the creek. Something must have been schooling because there were three herons and other assorted fishing birds active.

Everyone was up and out for breakfast around 8am. Chickadees, titmice, house finches, juncos, a jay and even a sapsucker. And squirrels, of course. It's still warm and very drippy. The snow is gone except for a lump here and there.

Noon and rain, and a flock of robins. What are robins doing here in January? The lunch crowd added a male cardinal, a mockingbird and a wren. Rain comes in waves and about 2pm fog.

Happy New Year

The snow that fell last Sunday is mostly gone, though the dock is still white with it. "Bridge freezes before roadway." Squirrels were more in evidence than birds. A chickadee visited the feeder as did several optimistic squirrels. Gulls cruised the creek while Canada geese sunned on the opposite bank. The temperature rose to about 60F and the sun was intermittent. All in all, a very drippy, hung-over warm winter day.

It would be nice to have a more exciting report to launch the year, but this is how 1/1/11 played out.