Cooler today

But bright and clear.

The black swallowtail caterpillars are coming along nicely. They seem to like rue even more than parsley. An adult black swallowtail is flitting about sowing eggs as is a tiger swallowtail. The yellow tiger swallowtail flies higher than the black but it appeared to be laing eggs on th beautyberry which is just starting to leaf out.

Cardinals, chickadees and titmice are still visiting the feeder.

Storm blew out to sea

Little cotton puffs were still streaming East this morning. A robin prospected for worms in the wet tree litter. I need to take a broom to the patio.

Much better. A female cardinal and a mangy male finch came to the feeder. A little green heron perched on a piling. I think I saw purple martins - some kind of swallow for sure - flying high up.

Windy

The come-and-go storms continue. Almost every creature is hunkered down out of the wind, except the geese. They appear to be engaged in noisy mating behavior. The female seems to want no part of it, judging by the noise, the flapping of wings, and the running off.

And now the rain is lashing everything.

Robin seeks SFR

Single Female Robin, that is. He was perched on the stone Neva gave me. He was making a soft whine but the camera didn't catch him with beak open.

The weather continues to play tag with thunderstorms.

A black swallowtail that must have already found a mate was busily laying eggs on the rue.

Bright cardinal, dull day

The cardinal perched and posed for quite some time on the wire structure that will hopefully prop up the hibiscus later in the year. Three squirrels played detective on the various tree debris on the ground, finding the occasional yummy.

The day is no longer dull - sun in the East and a dark threatening raincloud in the West. And now a downpour.

Continued hot

This morning a crow was preaching from the bare branch on the sweet gum. It throws its whole body into every caw. Robins were prospecting on the ground and a squirrel checked to see if the feeder had miraculously opened in the night. It had not - the wire fix seems to be working.

Sunny and hot for Easter

A wind out of the West is hustling the few wispy clouds along.

Clearing?

The rain keeps struggling to maintain itself overhead. Sunlight seeps through then gloom returns. Meanwhile, chickadees and titmice chow down.

I know the paulownia is not a native and can be invasive, but the flowers are gorgeous, like huge purple snapdragons!

Spatters of rain after lunch moved off east quickly. The blue-tailed skink has reappeared, again headed for the leaf-litter under the rosemary.

Crisp and clear, for now

Considerably cooler. The wild cherry is in bloom and the paulownia has begun to blossom. Squirrels and robins are scrounging on the patio.

The clouds have been curdling all morning and the remaining patches of blue are very muted. Several osprey contended over fishing rights.

It has grown quite gloomy and hints at rain. A finch, a titmouse, and a cardinal visit the feeder while a grackle and a sparrow hunt in the mulch. And the first brown thrasher of the year joins them! A rabbit is out early, either because of the gloom or because it has a family.

Watching clouds condense

It's almost like the big bang as the uniform haze grows clumpy. Meanwhile, three egrets were fishing downstream below the water tower. At least, I assume they intended to fish - mostly they were squabbling over precedence. One would rush at another and drive it off, it would have at the third who would come back at the first. I'm sure the fish applaud this silliness.

Now the sky has gone pearl-gray again. The wind continues as it has for days. Chickadees are coming to the feeder and squirrels are roaming below.

Overcast with flickers of sun

It looks like rain though the meteorologists disagree. The clouds are blowing fast to the NNE, but there's a layer of moisture making the sky very pale. It has pretty much burned off, but the blue is still muted. Now it is sunny and hot, but with a nice breeze.

I've been remembering a line from Bilbo Baggins, "In every woods in every Spring, there is a different green."

Now the overcast is back and the sun looks as though seen through a fogged window.

Breezy

No mirror-like reflections this morning, but an egret fishing along the bulkhead all morning. Chickadees on the feeder emptied it. I refilled but the birds stayed away this morning. Geese patrolled the creek and I saw a duck flying that might have been a wood duck. Robins were everywhere along with jays and grackles. I think the jays were harassing something across the creek. The male cardinal was collecting nesting material.

We went to Church Point to see the site of the sunken Thoroughgood graveyard and spent a pleasant time on a bench near a couple of geese. An osprey circled and there were small ducks on the water.

Later back home, a kingfisher perched on the dock. I saw a dragonfly hunting overhead. A large flock of small birds also went by overhead, making a high-pitched ts-se cry.

Carolina wren

This morning the wren is poking through the mulch. Very prominent white eyebrow, very cocked tail. Then a female hairy woodpecker showed up, tapping on the dogwood and the oak. Almost robin size, all black and white, hitching itself up the bark.

The creek is quite glassy this morning as it often is early in the day. I take that to mean that land and sea temperatures came into equilibrium over night. Later in the day we get onshore, then evening offshore, breezes which Wikipedia explains. The smooth surface was ruffled by 10am.

The fruit trees are mostly past blooming now, even the ornamentals. The carpenter and bumblebees have moved on the the blueberries - looks like a good crop.

Rain in the night

Everything is aglitter from last night's storm. The drifts of oak blossom strings are sodden.

Now the wind has picked up. The robins are finding something interesting in the wet lumps of oak blossoms. The finches are sticking to the feeder.

At dusk, the first wren of the year hopped around the patio and explored under the rosemary.

Another gray morning

Chickadees and house finches at the feeder. Pollen and stringy oak blossoms everywhere.

Clouds are getting patchy with come-and-go sunshine. Now it is very windy. The oak strings are blowing sideways and clumping in drifts.

And finally, rain.

Faintly foggy

A very light mist is hanging over the creek, picking up a gilding from the sunlight. The chickadees were hungry early. In the front yard, a mockingbird was buzzing and flashing its white feathers at something.

Chickadees and cardinals at dusk - he standing watch while she ate.

Signs of nesting

A grackle had a beak full of dead grass, but saw my camera and took off. The blue sky had cirrus brush strokes that gradually moved off into the East. Cardinals and finches on the feeder, robins everywhere. The Carolina jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens) is blooming and violets are all over the grass.

Two swallowtail butterflies, one black and one tiger, were flying in the afternoon. Arriving home after dark, I saw two rabbits cavorting under the magnolia.

Clouds over Williamsburg

Many tulip beds blooming there. Many vultures circling over the highway and many traffic backups.

Pleasant morning

The most local weather station is at the Pembroke Manor historic house. According to Wundergound, there are little stations all over town.

A crow stopped in early. The predicted scourge of West Nile fever doesn't seem to have depleted the numbers of rows at all.

I have posted some photos I took during the last several days.

The clouds have rolled in. I tried to take a photo of them from inside and got me too.

Warm and sunny

The cardinal is busy. It has been a day for shorts. Everything is dusty with pollen. And the emerging oak leaves are a tarnished gold, like the Frost poem.

The male finch ignored me to visit the feeder but the male cardinal was more shy.

Looks like Spring

Wet from overnight and sparkling in the sunlight. Chickadees, finches and sparrows are visiting.

Gray day so far

Cardinals, chickadees, titmice, white throated sparrows. My new camera is still waiting for something to stay still long enough for me to find the right button to push. Mockingbirds were all over, except in the back yard. Wisteria and Carolina jessamine are blooming and the crape myrtle is beginning to leaf. Azaleas are still on the old timetable though.

Later, the sparrow posed, and later still (Tuesday) I uploaded the photo.

Peek-a-boo sun

The overcast has thinned to a hazy blue in patches. The feeder looks untouched. Dogwoods are fully blooming - about two weeks earlier than 30 years ago.

At lunch, we were treated to drama. First the cardinal found the feeder. Then a house finch joined a white throated sparrow on the perch where they sat poking at each other. It took a while but the finch prevailed and the sparrow decided to hunt for lunch among the dropped seed hulls. Then a second male house finch showed up to contend for the feeder. Meanwhile, robins and juncos hunted on the ground. A little black-and-white streaked bird with cream shoulder patches was up in the oak tee - a black and white warbler?

Late afternoon rain. A grackle hovered in front of the feeder, but it was no use - the instant the bird put foot on the perch down it went. The grackle tried standing on the side, but still weighed to much. Still, though it couldn't feed, it chased off another blackbird. After it gave up, the chickadees and titmice came.

Another beautiful morning

Little cloud puffs and golden light. Later chickadees and doves.
The feeder is rehung - we shall see if the reworked fastening holds.
I took some photos of unfolding oak leaves, but wasn't satisfied.

Very still

The creek is glassy in the yellow dawn light. Before dawn, I heard the bird chorus but can't say which species.

Humid

Warm and wet and windy. Mostly overcast though there was a brief moment of sideways sunshine. A damp-looking squirrel searched the patio for windfalls.

Around noon, a wrath-of-God storm swept through from west to east and it's been pretty much raining ever since.

Heat predicted

(I posted this on the wrong blog - mortifying!)

This morning early, an egret was probing the mud along the bulkhead across the creek. Songbirds were everywhere, including one at the very tip-top of the dawn redwood. It was silhouetted against the sky so I cannot say what it was. We have a redwood because the greenhouse said that was better than a bald cypress. That was before I understood the need to plant natives. Both trees are deciduous conifers that turn copper and then shed their needles in the fall.

The morning sky held a lovely mare's tail cirrus cloud. The predicted heat has arrived. Pelicans are still fishing in the creek. I wonder if that's because the shad (or something) are running, or because it is more sheltered from the wind?

The day concluded with a strong smell of swamp fire, as though there's a controlled burn in one of the refuges. But there should not be with this wind! Flocks of cormorants were wheeling over the creek at sunset.

Squirrels' delight

Yesterday I tossed the last of a can of cashews out on the patio, mostly nut dust and a few fragments. An early squirrel discovered them this morning. First it chased off a rabbit that was minding its own business. Then it tried to run off a much smaller squirrel who kept coming back for more. Between them, I think the cashew bits are all gone. Afterward, the little one got an itch.

Today's paper had an article about the Cloud Appreciation Society.

Sunshine

I was getting tired of the gray skies. Ospreys overhead are calling kee-kee. Two crows had a dogfight over the creek. And a chickadee came and perched on the still-empty feeder sitting open on the patio, then left in disgust.

It is quite windy. And now suddenly, rain! The storm slid off to the northeast and the sun is back. Likewise the osprey. Rinse and repeat all afternoon. But no rainbows. The evening brought a flock of cormorants, some herons and pelicans.

Gloomy morning

Happy April 1st.

Something fishy is going on that's attracted a flock or cormorants and some pelicans. Lots of splash downs.