Warm sun, gusty wind

A pelican flew upstream at dawn.  Later I saw buffleheads mixed in with mallards and cormorants.  A great blue heron and a great egret flew past.  Two Carolina wrens tackled the mealworms I put out.  Soon sparrows arrived to do the same.  The white throats chased each other away from the food in some sort of pecking order, which the song sparrow ignored.  Regulars came for seeds and a downy and a butterbutt for suet.

Four doves walked up around mid morning.  A ring billed gull joined a line of fishing hooded mergansers while more gulls circled over them. Herons watched from the creek sides.  A squirrel played with something I thought was a pine cone. I glimpsed a junco and a titmouse but didn't get photos.

The female red bellied woodpecker came back mid day.  A Carolina wren decided it was warm enough for a spa day in the water I'd added to the birdbath.  While I was outside I could see a flock of gulls circling far downstream, well past where I can see the creek.  My being outside frustrated the birds but after a while some got bold enough to visit the feeders.  A mixed flock flew over and some robins stopped in the oak.

Bright sun

The female red bellied woodpecker was back, to the frustration of the downy woodpeckers and the yellow rumped warblers.  Sparrows were everywhere.  All three of the regulars made an early appearance.  A thin skin of ice floated on parts of the glassy creek.  I put out half of a moldy clementine -the half that wasn't moldy.

When I got home for a late lunch, the creek was ice-free and the water was dancing in the sun.  Buffleheads were fishing.  Downy woodpeckers and yellow rumped warblers were busy with the suet except when K tended the grill.

Hooded mergansers were fishing in the late afternoon sun.  A gull dived on this one, but pulled up when it saw the fish disappear down the duck's gullet. More gulls circled over the dam and cormorants joined the fishing.  A great blue heron landed along the bank. 

Sunny and cloudy by turns

Buffleheads were out on the creek fishing.  A pelican circled in the air below the dam.  A few sparrows c\scurried on the ground while the yellow rumped warbler competed with the downy woodpeckers for suet.  The feral cat played birdwatcher again. 

When I finished the newspaper, I scattered some mealworms from a fresh tub K acquired a few days ago.  It took the sparrows about one minute to arrive.  But the song sparrow ran off the white throat.  So the white throat tried the seed feeder only to encounter a flock of finches.  And that warbler chased off a finch.

At lunch, juncos appeared.  A titmouse visited the Sunflower Cafe.  The warbler gave it a try too.  A large blackbird flock bounced from yard to yard across the creek. A buzzard circled over the creek. 

Thanks to a busted pipe, I had to spend the afternoon in a laundromat. When I got out the sun was back, but evening was not far off.  Buffleheads were popping up on the creek.  A great blue heron landed just out of sight.

Cloudy

The female red bellied woodpecker was back at dawn.  Ridges of broken cloud caught color from the sun but the light on the ground was diffuse and shadowless.  The two yellow rumped warblers appeared to have made peace.  Sparrows and doves flocked on the ground and a pair of towhees lurked in the shrubbery.  Gulls sailed over and mallards paddled the creek.

The downy woodpeckers came later and frustrated the butterbutt.  There were flashes of sun, but mostly the clouds covered the sky.

Mallards and buffleheads were out on the creek but the buffleheads did not stay on the surface long.  I got lots of pictures of ripples.  A flock of gulls wheeled back and forth apparently chasing the one in front. 

Woodpecker, warbler, wren

Sunrise tinted the underside of the overcast.  Birds were up early before there was enough light to take photos.  A female red bellied woodpecker found the suet.  The yellow rumped warblers continued to fight, but not with the woodpecker.  A couple of Carolina wrens also visited the suet, and briefly, a couple of pine warblers.  The warbler was not successful at intimidating the wrens.  A titmouse came for a seed and a goldfinch looked at the feeders.   On the ground, a handful of juncos joined the song and white throated sparrows. And then the tuxedo cat frightened them all off. 

A spritz of rain hit the window around 8:30am. A pelican cruised over the creek and a great blue heron flew North.  A couple of buffleheads were out on the water.  Eventually the downy woodpeckers arrived.  Doves landed on the patio. 

The rain stopped after lunch.  A brown headed nuthatch visited and was chased away by the warbler, which then bathed.  I saw some more buffleheads a long way off.  Most of the morning visitors returned, along with the regulars.  The sky cleared and there was actual sunshine in the late afternoon.

A warbler bully

I had an early meeting and was on the road at dawn watching the waning moon descend.  When I got back, the feeders were quiet.  Hooded mergansers were out on the rough creek water.  A yellow rumped warbler visited the suet.

At lunch, the warbler was still around and I learned why the other birds were absent.  That little warbler was driving them away from both suet and sunflower seeds.  Some of the time it scanned surroundings form a perch around the feeders.  At other times it lurked in the bushes and zoomed out whenever another bird tried to grab a bite.  It was particularly fierce toward another butterbutt which it chased all over the yard.  But it also ran off chickadees, titmice, finches, a pine warbler, sparrows, and a white breasted nuthatch.  And I swear it was eyeing a jet passing over.

One of the squirrels has taken to making great leaps from tree to tree, unnecessarily.  Buffleheads were out on the water in the afternoon.  A blue jay shot past the new window.  The sky was hazy and the wind gusty but it was warm and sunny.  My pepper plant adjusted to being indoors sufficiently to put out a blossom which I tried to hand pollinate.

More melting

The creek iced overnight but bright sunshine started the melting again.  The birds got up late.  Titmice,  pine and yellow rumped warblers, song and white throated sparrows, downy woodpeckers, Carolina wrens, and the regulars started visiting the feeders around 10am.  I thought I glimpsed a junco, but if so it did not return.  The squirrels were canoodling again.

The sky was hazy despite the sun, and the air was much warmer.  All sign of snow was soon gone.  At least four great blue herons flew North but I wasn't ready with the camera.  Once the creek melted, I saw a few ducks, including a hoodie.  On the lake above the dam (which I can now see) several shovelers went by.

I took a book to the library and when I returned I saw first one then a second cat.  And there were feathers all over the patio.  One cat was a tabby while the other was black and white.  Meanwhile, the sun was setting through layers of stratus cloud.

Sun melting

We woke up to snow cover that seemed no more than what we had at sunset yesterday.  The creek was free of ice, later the tide was again higher than usual.  Mallards, hoodies, a bufflehead, and geese were out on the water, while a pelican and an egret flew over.  A butterbutt was the first to come to the feeders.  Chickadees followed.  I scattered seeds on the snow and the sparrows quarreled over them.  The song sparrow intimidated the white throats.  Later squirrels feasted and courted.

By noon all the snow in the sun had melted, but it lingered in the shade.  That's when a titmouse and a Carolina wren finally showed up.  I discovered geese in the grass next to the spartina, but they saw me too and departed. While we were eating lunch, the juncos finally appeared.  The sun got really bright.

And the day finished in a cold, clear night.

Wet

Snow and ice were all gone in the morning.  The wind overnight left evidence and the tide was over the bulkhead an hour before high.  Sparrows, finches, chickadees, and a bedraggled dove came for breakfast.  I left for a meeting. 

By late morning, the precipitation was falling half-congealed, but melting on contact.  A yellow-rumped warbler competed with a downy woodpecker for suet.  A second dove appeared, looking much healthier than the other.  A pelican flew upstream while a mallard paddled below and a bufflehead fished. 

I walked into the back room without my camera and witnessed a drama.  A cormorant battled a fish as big as the bird.  It repeatedly slapped the fish on the surface of the water but couldn't seem to get it started down the gullet.  Suddenly a pelican landed beside the cormorant and grabbed the fish.  They both pulled but the pelican won.  The cormorant pecked the pelican a few times then swam away.  Meanwhile the pelican also had trouble - it got the fish into its pouch but then belched it out and gulped again.  I think it had tried to swallow the fish tail first with all the fins sticking out the first time.

By mid afternoon, the stuff wasn't melting.  Waves of snow came and went.  The birds did not look happy.  About a dozen hooded mergansers maintained station on the creek for a good while, not fishing, just kind of huddling.  There were more males than females.

Snow

The day began overcast with not much activity, just sparrows.  The creek refroze overnight.  Around 10am the sun seemed to be burning through the clouds but by 11, a fine white ice was falling and melting.  Before morning was over, it switched to big clumps of flakes, then settled in to snow.  In the afternoon, the snow began to accumulate instead of melting.

Once the snow started, the birds got serious.  K put out a fresh block of suet.  Both kinds of warblers, downy woodpeckers, chickadees, and a Carolina wren were delighted.  A male towhee tried to seize the seed feeder from a female cardinal.  The sparrows, both song and white throat, also hopped on the sunflower cafe.

The wind grew gusty in the late afternoon as the snow quit.  Then rain began and soon became heavy with the wind whipping it into the windows after dark. 

 

Overnight snow

It was just a dusting, but this time it did not melt.  A strong wind pushed fluffy cumulus down from the Northwest.  Down close to the creek the wind blew downstream.  The creek was only partly iced. 

Sparrows were the first to come for food.  Downy woodpeckers were a bit behind, as were the feeder regulars.  Yellow rumped warblers showed up around the same time.  They had difficulty reaching the remnant of suet.  A pine warbler arrived mid morning.  It had less trouble with the suet but more with the woodpeckers.  Juncos appeared in the late morning.

Around noon, squirrels courted under the feeder.  The male had a bloody tail. I read that when more than one male follows a female, the second male may attack the tail in front of him.  I'd never seen actual evidence before.  The female acted almost ready to mate but I did not see it happen.  

Geese, mallards, hoodies and gadwall helped to wear away at the ice on the creek.  The wind blew more directly from the West by lunchtime.  Egrets flew over while a great blue heron stood on a dock that has a heron statue.  Gulls also circled the creek. 

The woodpecker pair did not want to share the suet.  They went up the post and back and forth to the feeder, and generally the male won.  The sun continued bright into the afternoon. 

I returned home around sunset which was a tangy orange in the West and a pink glow under the rising moon in the East.  The moon was quite round but several days from full.

Still frozen

Song and white throated sparrows, a yellow rumped warbler, and a downy woodpecker came for breakfast.  The dawn sky was hazy but by late morning the clouds had congealed into patches.  The regulars showed up around 9am.  This house finch was rosy, but not from cold. 

At noon I saw egrets congregating below the dam.  They jockeyed for position and flapped at each other when they got too close. 

By mid afternoon it was warmer than yesterday, above freezing, but the creek was not fully melted.  A cloud bank rising in the West had swallowed the sun by 4pm.  The moon rising was clear except for occasional cloud patches.  Juncos joined the other hungry birds. 

Freezing

The creek was iced and the ground crystallized.  I poured hot water in the birdbath and it froze.  I was away most of the morning, under a blue sky with an icy wind.  A heron waited above the bulkhead for the creek to melt.  Downy woodpeckers, Carolina wrens, a dove, song and white throated sparrows were hungry.

When I got home, the current had cleared the ice under the bulkhead and that narrow strip of open water was crowded with ducks and a heron.  Low tide made it even narrower.  Egrets congregated below the dam. A flock of geese sunned themselves on the grass above the bulkhead.  The feeders were busy as well as the mulch where seeds fall and the rosemary where I scattered mealworms.  Juncos and a butterbutt joined the regulars. 

After lunch, the pine warbler came for suet.  When I got home in the late afternoon, the yellow rumped warbler was trying to share with a downy woodpecker.  Sparrows were still foraging.  Open water on the creek had grown but there was still ice on our side.  Ducks were out in the water but the low sun's glare left me uncertain of their identity.

Blue sky

Yesterday's precipitation froze in the birdbath.  The creek was open and placid.  A wren scouted for food before the sun was up.  Juncos were out in force.  Chickadees and finches joined them on the feeder, and sparrows on the ground.  We were gone a lot of the day.

I think I saw a hawk but all I got was a blur with a long tail.  I also saw a stubby-looking heron follow a great blue flying upstream, possibly a night heron.  Geese, mallards, hooded mergansers, and buffleheads paddled on the creek.  Egrets flew over. 

The downy woodpeckers came later and the female refused to wait for the male to finish.  First a pine warbler, then a different warbler appeared.  A white throated sparrow lurked in the cedar but was in too much shadow for the camera. 

Rain and snow

It was just overcast and windy at breakfast.  The rain began around 9am and it turned to snow after 11.  The clumped flakes looked huge as they blew in from the Northeast.  The snow melted as it touched the ground and only lasted a moment on other surfaces.  And it was too dark for the camera to catch more than white streaks.  The creek was rough and I only saw a couple of hooded mergansers and a ring billed gull on the surface.  A pelican and more gulls flew over. 

The weather made the birds hungry.  A female towhee visited but was very wary.  Song and white throated sparrows, Carolina wrens, pine and yellow rumped warblers, downy woodpeckers, lots of chickadees, and some house finches all came for food. 

I thought the snow had stopped around1pm, but it just became sporadic.  A dove sat hunched facing into it.  A squirrel brought an excavated nut to eat on a lawn chair. Juncos finally showed up when the snow tapered off.  Cardinals too came out after the snow.  The water calmed and more hoodies appeared. The day stayed dark and most of my photos were worthless.

Clearing sky

It was gray at dawn but a West wind blew the clouds out to sea.  Not much rain fell overnight to judge by the birdbath.  First wrens, then doves arrived before there was enough light.  Juncos came for breakfast.  The warblers were up earlier than usual.  Two male cardinals glared while a female watched.  A turkey vulture teetered on the wind.  Song and white throated sparrows searched the ground for food.

Titmice arrived mid morning.  And of course there were finches, chickadees, and downy woodpeckers.  A blue jay and a red bellied woodpecker flitted around the edge of the yard.  Two pelicans cruised over the creek. 

In the afternoon there were waves of clouds, but each time I thought the sun was gone, the sky would clear again.  The creek, which was quite rough in the morning, gradually calmed.  I saw a bufflehead and possibly a ruddy duck.  The two warbler species shared the suet.

Squirrels were interested in more than food. Two followed one, I assume the one was a female.  She? led them on a slow chase over obstacles.  The sky was clear at sunset when clouds would have made it more interesting.  But the first quarter moon overhead was sharp-edged.

Lots of birds

The cat came back.  Shortly after dawn it showed up, saw us, and left.  Hooded mergansers disturbed the reflections on the creek.  The tide was very low.  Streaks of thin cloud barred the blue sky to the North.  A sparrow scouted the patio

The clouds spread into a haze.  Doves came around later, along with squirrels.  Chickadees and a female cardinal kept the feeder busy.  I also saw a male house finch.  A mallard drake circled a female that was bathing. One pelican flew upstream.  The Carolina wren pair slept in but when they arrived, they were hungry.  Downy woodpeckers were late too.  More white throated and song sparrows kicked the mulch around. 

Warblers appeared shortly before noon, both pine and yellow rumped.  Then a titmouse tackled the suet.  And honeybees visited the rosemary as the day warmed.  A great blue heron stalked upstream along the bulkhead.  The tide was higher than at breakfast. 

By lunch time the clouds thickened and covered the sky.  A mockingbird popped in for just a second.  A vulture flew overhead.  Mergansers fished and courted all day out on the creek.  Rain began before sunset and we saw lightning later.

Warming

There was a thin skin of ice on the shaded near side of the creek in the early morning.  A warm wind joined the sun in bring up the temperature as the day went on.  The creek was not placid.  A chickadee posed, turning first to one side then the other.  White throat and song sparrows foraged.  Later titmice showed up.  The downy woodpeckers worked on the suet. Then a pine warbler appeared to share the suet. 

I missed the middle of the day for a meeting.  After errands, I cam home past the lake on Witchduck road and saw some Northern shovelers. When I got home, midges were outside on the window.  On the creek, hooded mergansers fished and strutted - there was quite a chase near sunset.  A dark-appearing pelican flapped upstream and egrets flew home overhead.