Camera transition

I took no pictures but I also didn't get the new camera set up.  And I don't recall seeing anything though it was a pretty day.  

I still didn't have the camera set up on the 30th, but it rained all morning and I was busy all afternoon.  

 

Cloudy afternoon

The sun came back in the morning.  So did a mockingbird and a bluebird.  Other birds were very active up in the trees, hunting berries, I think.  Cedar waxwings?  I saw ducks on the creek but they were in shadow and I couldn't identify them.  

The afternoon grew overcast and really looked about to rain but nothing came of it.  While waiting for the dog to take care of his business, I spotted a crow going after an acorn.  

The clouds thinned as the sun was setting.  The ones that remained made a tinted backdrop for the cormorants commuting home to roost.  

Wet and windy

Songbirds stayed away.  Great blue herons occupied the docks, along with mallards.  The herons ignored each other, but they may have been sleeping.  Bushy chest feathers on one heron looked like a beard when it had its neck tucked.  

I spotted the female bufflehead again. A picture I snapped of a mallard drake lined up his bill and its reflection to make him appear to be the Pinocchio of ducks.

It rained less in the afternoon but the wind got stronger. The female downy woodpecker found the suet outside the window, possibly because that spot is more sheltered.  Eventually some rents appeared in the clouds, even as flying leaves photo-bombed my pictures.  It certainly did not feel as warm as predicted. 

More birds

Today's early birds were a white breasted nuthatch, pine warblers*, bluebirds, and a mockingbird.  *After examining the photos, I think it likely that one was a yellow throated vireo.  The cat was early too.  I almost caught Tarzan-the-Squirrel in midair, but not quite. 

An immature chipping sparrow and a junco foraged on the ground.  Then uncounted brown headed nuthatches made forays after sunflower seeds.  They were uncounted because they showed up singly but in such a steady stream that it had to be several birds.  A Carolina wren had to investigate the suet.  While hunting fresh gumballs, I came upon a pile of rabbit droppings.  Surprising that the dog hadn't found them first. 

There were hoodies on the creek and I think I saw a female bufflehead but it dived.  Slight ripples in the water transformed reflections into brushstrokes in a painting. The sun was warm and insects were active but the breeze was nippy.  The winter jasmine put out a couple of early flowers.  Stratus clouds moved in from the West.  Haze blew up contrails into a puffy starburst - there must have been a lot of flights passing over us.  

Rain

As the rain fell gently, but not lightly, the dog studied the situation, sniffed a lot, and decided to stay inside.  All I saw in the gray morning were equally gray titmice.  One landed on the feeder roof and skidded on the wet surface.  A disturbance in the creek was explained when a beak holding a silvery fish popped briefly above the surface.  The commotion moved downstream below the surface and out of sight.  Something else dived before I could identify it. 

The rain drizzled away around lunch time and hungry birds arrived.  Pine warblers argued over barkbutter soup.  They clung to the hanger and bobbed for underwater bites.  Colors were brighter on the freshly washed leaves even in diffuse light that obscured a bluebird. A multitude of house finches and chickadees squabbled over the sunflower seeds.  A Carolina wren held its place at the feeder.  I missed the Carolina wren, and a junco and a white throated sparrow on the ground because I put in a fresh battery and the camera was sulking. 

A great egret took over the neighbors' floating dock.  Two pair of hoodies paddled past.  The females looked more gray than brown.  I checked on the tiny mushrooms and discovered a nearby crop of full sized ones.  They look like honey mushrooms but I'm not brave enough to find out.  The final couple of hours of daylight were sunny but over so soon.  Sunset came at 4:50pm with almost a month still to go to the solstice.  

The cat came back

The creek was in a reflective mood again and it was a lovely day for a holiday.  Bluebirds squabbled and flitted around the wild cherry.  Vegetation was in the way of my line of sight most of the time.  And some of the time I just missed and sometimes the camera changed toe focus to something in the sun.  

And then the cat moved in.  I yelled at it but a few minutes later it was back.  Finally the dog noticed and took off like he'd been rejuvenated.  The cat did not return but, alas, neither did the birds.  Eventually a downy woodpecker was tempted by the suet.

Autumn beauties

The creek reflected sunshine bouncing off tree trunks.  A mockingbird picked up a barkbutter ball breakfast.  Bluebirds came later while I was cooking.  By then the creek had lost its mirror-smooth shine.  

As we ate lunch, the songbirds arrived in force.  A pine warbler went for the barkbutter balls.  The mockingbird came back but I still had trouble getting a picture.  Two juncos and a song sparrow got away from me too.  A white breasted nuthatch joined the chickadees and titmice.  Then brown headed nuthatches wanted sunflower seeds too.  The back of their heads and necks are white not brown.  One lingered on the feeder, not eating, just watching in all directions.  And all the other birds disappeared.  

A great blue heron waded upstream in water up to its belly.  Geese paddled upstream, briefly fooling me into thinking they were hoodies.  An off object washed up, like a ball with a conical tail and a round hole or black spot on its side. 

A violet was fooled by the warmer weather into blooming.  Yellow jackets buzzed around the camellia looking for flowers that hadn't been drained.  I found tiny mushrooms emerging along a maple root.  More clumps of pincushion moss had spore capsules sticking up like green ahir. 

I took lots of pictures of fall leaves but wind keeps blowing them down.  That makes the trees look green longer but prevents reds and yellows from achieving critical mass. The sky was intensely blue and cloudless.  But all too soon the cormorants were flying back to their roost.  

Not much

I didn't see songbirds today, possibly because it was warmer.  Late in the afternoon I checked on the peppers since there had been frost on the grass yesterday morning.  One was starting to turn red so I picked it.  As I came back around the house, I saw the hooded mergansers on the creek.  I think one may have been an immature male.  

Hooded mergansers

We had another lunchtime flurry of bluebirds.

A drake and three hens floated downstream in the late afternoon.

Busy lunch

I didn't see any birds earlier, but as soon as my hands were sticky, here they came.  Bluebirds and pine warblers checked out the menu but didn't dine. Brown headed nuthatches tried for sunflower seeds in between the house finches, chickadees, and titmice.  A pair of winter drab goldfinches poked around the birdbath.  The female downy woodpecker feasted on suet.  I believe I saw a male oriole up in the oak.  A pelican flew downstream but still no migrant ducks arrived.  After lunch the birds disappeared.  

Clouds returned in the afternoon.  An egret flew downstream and cormorants flew in every direction.  In the evening the clouds lit up in streaks of pink. The creek quietly reflected the pink and blue sky.  

Missing migrants

The days were cold and sunny.  All I saw yesterday was the great blue heron.  Today it was mallards and the cormorant commute.  The fallen pint tree was dying.  Some trees were still colorful but they were getting fewer. 

Bright and chilly

The sky was a brilliant blue but the temperature is supposed to drop nearly to freezing..   I didn't see much, just an egret and a great blue heron.   And when I took pictures of the heron, the camera seized up.  Good thing a brand new camera awaits me.  Now I need to find time to learn to use it. 

Cooler

The quiet creek was a mirror in the morning.  A blue jay found an acorn.  Clouds sailed East.  One turtle basked on the log.  At twilight there seemed to be a lot going on below the surface of the creek.  By then the clouds were thick and the light dropped quickly.  

Trip

I went out of town on Monday and came beck Tuesday.  Monday was kind of nice but all I saw were a few buzzards.  Trees in the DC area were leafless and the night was very cold.  Tuesday a heavy overcast hung low and dumped rain of the first half of my return.  When I got back, I checked out the yard and found evidence that the cold did not reach this far. The lantana was blooming again.  I found only one mushroom.  The fatsia was beginning to flower.  The rain eventually caught up around sunset.  

Nuthatches

The Northwest wind pushed the temperature back down.  At breakfast, some raindrops lingered on a North facing window, but later the day turned sunny.  The chill made birds hungry.  I think I saw a mockingbird in the trees but it and other birds left me unsure.  Both white breasted and brown headed nuthatches visited the seed feeder.  The chickadees were not pleased.  A Carolina wren had to investigate.  Some trees were still mostly green while others had lost almost every leaf.  Once the sun came out, so did the turtles. 

 

Heat wave

The paperwhite narcissus bloomed.  I found a ladybug beetle and put it on the rosemary in the hope that it might eat what eats the plant.  Southern purple mint moth caterpillars were suggested in a newspaper article.  After dark, a fairly large mot was attracted to the window but K spooked it.  

Waterfowl

I saw very little for the last two days. The wind and the tide were still high on the 9th. The camera cooperated for once and caught a falling leaf.  The next day I found a pincushion moss that raised hair-like spore stalks. 

In the wet, gray morning today, a flock of birds darted among the trees but I couldn't make them out.  Finally a bluebird landed on the post.   I almost missed it.  The female downy was back at the suet.  Then the rain returned. Even after it stopped, the air was very humid and quite warm. 

A little sun leaked through the overcast mid afternoon.  A great blue heron on the dock had its back to me as it watched the water.  Then I spotted a little pied bill grebe.  A couple of mallards made a commotion.  The female kingfisher perched on the downstream dock but the camera blurred all my photos by focusing on the water instead of the bird. 

After my online meeting, I saw a flock of cormorants flying around as though something had startled them.  But the Canada geese on the ground didn't seem concerned.  Nor did the great egret perched on the lake log. 

Lunar eclipse

I got up early to see the setting "blood moon" and it was impressive.  Though theoretically there was plenty of time, I had to stand in the street to line it up with a notch between two trees.  And the Northeast wind that had cleared the sky felt mighty cold.  So I went back to my nice, warm bed.  

The wind kept blowing through the sunny but bird-less and bug-less morning.  As a result the tide ran very high.  Fluff covered the saltbushes like dryer lint turning them gray.  The sky was intensely blue.   

Sticky

It was still in the 70s and the humidity was even higher.  The sky was frequently overcast but occasionally sunny, which made for lovely reflections.  Yellow jackets and honeybees roamed the camellias.  The strawberry runners I planted survived thus far.  A cabbage white flitted across the yard. 

I sat outside and sorted seeds to save.  The butterfly milkweed seeds were easy but the parsley and rue were tiny and mixed with debris from the seed heads.  Parsley seeds look a bit like the caraway seeds in rye bread, only they're a quarter of the size.  Rue seeds look like blue-gray kidney beans shrunk down to 1/32".  And I discovered that rue seeds are a bit oily.  A clump of brown mushrooms were turning black under the maple in the same spot where the bracket fungus emerged a year ago.  I also found a couple of single mushrooms in the front yard.

The female downy woodpecker had another go at the suet.  I didn't see any other birds except mallards slurping up the floating fluff from the saltbushes.. A squirrel got an itch while on the trunk of the hickory.  It managed to turn around to scratch while hanging by its toenails.  The high temperature turned out to be a record breaker.  

 

Still very warm

The sky was much more hazy with clo7uts often covering the sun.  It was so warm that I dried my hair outside.  The dog had a good roll in the rue.  Bees and wasps kept the camellias buzzing.  One Polistes wasp rested on the seed feeder, a risky location, I thought.  

The clouds colored up for sunset which of course arrived an hour earlier than yesterday.  

Indian summer

Clouds streamed North on a hot wind making the sunshine intermittent but keeping the air warm.  I caught a squirrel doing a Tarzan leap, but not in mid-air as I'd hoped.  Maybe next time.  Later I caught a pair of squirrels having sex.  They went up the cedar for more privacy. 

A Carolina wren perched on a chair back to get a better look inside.  A kingfisher landed on a dock post but took off again immediately.  

I checked on the peppers but they were still green.  A ladybug beetle was protecting them.  The sunflower next to the peppers had made seeds, but after teasing them out of the flower heads I found almost all were hollow.  I don't know if they weren't fertilized or if the drought kept them from filling out.  Glass snails lurked in the mulch between the peppers and the sunflower.  

The grass on the West side of the house was full of gill mushrooms.  There were brown, gray, red, and moldy green caps.  I know the red ones were russulas and I suspect the others were too.  

A monarch butterfly came looking for a meal but the only flowers left were camellias and by afternoon the bees and wasps had drunk them dry.  The saltbush released its seed fluff which coated the creek.  But the milkweed kept its seed parachutes under wraps.  I couldn't figure out how the weather could be right for one kind of airborne seed and not the other.  

About then the camera battery ran down and the replacement wouldn't work.  So I missed some great shots of a bold jumping spider.  As I sat picking out the sunflower seeds, the spider came marching across the table to me.  We made eye contact and I tried to wave my pinkie at it.  It decided to jump onto the chair so I got up and let the spider have it.  But soon it was climbing up the wall and away.  I hope it caught the roach I saw lurking under the soffit.  After dark the camera quit sulking so I took some practice photos of a moth on the window.  

Then I went outside to see what I could do with the moon.  A bright planet was leading the moon up from the horizon.  I checked online and learned it was Mars.  "Later, by November 30, Mars will be closest to Earth for this 2-year period (50.6 million miles, or 81.4 million km, away). And Mars will continue to brighten between now and December 8, when Earth will catch up to Mars in the race of the planets around the sun, bringing Mars to its once-in-2-years opposition."   No wonder it was bright.  

 

Bees in the camellias

The day was sunny and warm though in the early morning everything was wet.  I only got outside when the dog insisted.  Yellow sassafras leaves contrasted with the blue sky reflected in the creek.  A couple of the birds' sunflower seeds germinated.  I doubt they would survive being potted but they won't survive outdoors.  Both honeybees and yellow jackets buzzed around the camellias.  I think I saw larger wasps as well.  A lone turtle basked on the lake.  

Nuthatch

The creek was a still mirror in the morning.  The female downy woodpecker returned to the suet.  She may eat the whole thing at this rate.  Wait, a chickadee got a beakfull.  A white breasted nuthatch visited the seed feeder.  

Reflection

Though sunny, it was not as warm and I needed a jacket.  The morning creek was full of reflections.  An occasional gust of air made leaves rain down.  The female downy came back to the suet.  Clouds gathered in the afternoon and the moon did its "ghostly galleon" impression.  

 

Damp

Some light rain fell in the morning so I don't understand why a storm sewer across the creek fountained like Old Faithful.  We're on a different set of pipes so it didn't affect us and it didn't last very long.  In fact, it's odd that I was in the right place at the right time to see it.  The rain had ended and it was quite warm so I was outside with the dog. 

I was also in the right place at the right time to see a monarch butterfly that I think was freshly emerged.  It was pumping its wings which they do to fully expand them.  and when it flew, it fluttered weakly before dropping down a few feet further away from me.  I hope it's not to late for the journey South. 

A kingfisher flew downstream and out of sight though I may have heard it later.  A great blue heron preened as it stood on one foot on a post.  A turtle watched ducks on the lake log.  There were brief glimmers of sunlight in the afternoon and a fiery sunset.