Cold

The weather was much like yesterday, cold and bright.  Birds were puffed up against the chill.  The female oriole had grape jelly as a pick-me-up.  I was pleased that she found the dish.  Pine warblers alternated between suet and barkbutter crumbs.  (It was too cold at breakfast to go outside and refill the dish.)  Goldfinches didn't seem to know what to eat.  White throats kicked through the mulch.  A bluebird and a cardinal shared the seed feeder.  The downy didn't want to share suet with a warbler.  The mockingbird stayed faithful to hydration, making repeat visits for a drink.  

At lunchtime I decided to brave the cold, since the temperature had risen from the upper 30s to the upper 40s.  The fresh barkbutter balls got a warm reception from warblers, bluebirds, and of course blue jays.  A white breasted nuthatch varied its diet with a barkbutter ball along with the usual seeds. A brown headed nuthatch seized the moment to get seeds itself.  The oriole alternated between barkbutter and jelly.  The sky was a milky blue again. 

I spotted the sapsucker on a dogwood trunk, then later on a hackberry tree.  Something made a commotion eating hackberries.  A dove alighted on the patio.  Then a Carolina wren came to dine.  A crow surveyed the possibilities but got into a fight with a squirrel.  The squirrel got a drink from the ant moat instead of the much more accessible birdbath.  A female hoodie paddled by headed upstream. An egret fished under a dock.  I caught the kingfisher in flight, on the neighbor's dock, and diving on a fish.  Cormorants flew in every direction at sunset.