The temperature was 22° when I got up and rose all the way to 24° during the day. The gusty wind must have driven the chill down into the teens. Occasional sunlight broke through the overcast. The red belly was up early, soon followed by the oriole. The oriole was not willing to share with bluebirds. Eventually she left and I counted four bluebirds. Warblers and white throats hunted breakfast. A white breasted nuthatch, then brown headed nuthatches, visited. A Carolina wren poked that long beak into dead vegetation. Blue jays noticed the barkbutter balls. K refilled the glass dish twice. A white throat tried to get possession of the dish but neither a bluebird nor the oriole was intimidated. A chickadee walked down the pine trunk.
At lunch, white throats, nuthatches, titmice, wrens, and red belly were all still eating. A flock of a dozen or more hoodies, mostly drakes, fished on the creek. I had been afraid the dredging might have scared them off for the Winter, but today the equipment was docked. There may have been more females but they blended in with the water. A pelican fly-by was blurred by tree branches. A cormorant popped up out of the cold, gray water with a fish. A half dozen egrets flew away. A couple of buffleheads hung out with the hoodies. Of course there were mallards. They intercepted the cormorant but it dived. Bu then the light was very poor.
The snow began around 10pm.
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