Brown creeper!

I was gone during the rainy morning.  At lunch I saw a Carolina wren and a white throated sparrow.  During my early afternoon meeting flying egrets reflected on the computer screen.  A great blue heron perched on one of the dock pilings.  I also saw a little bird hopping up the trunk of the redwood, and yes, it was a brown creeper!  It investigated a knothole.  Some birds only like a dull gray day.  

Speaking of herons, one landed on the dock with a quite large fish.  It tried its best to swallow the thing, but the fish was too big.  Meanwhile, a pelican paddled beside the dock.  I don't know if the heron robbed it or if it was hoping the heron might drop the fish into the water.  The pelican gave up and the heron did drop the fish, but on the dock.  The heron left it there and went stalking along the water's edge.  

Even warmer

I missed some good photos in the morning, including a bluebird and a pine warbler sharing a dish, also a brown thrasher.  In the afternoon, I did get bad poses of a Carolina wren and a myrtle warbler.  The bluebirds were easier.  A mockingbird miss-gauged landing on a swinging dish and had to make a second try.  Sparrows foraged.. 

A squirrel attempted daylight robbery of the seed feeder.  It failed.  Apparently squirrels are not as smart as blue jays because the jays long ago learned they couldn't get seeds out so they don't waste energy trying.  

Pelicans were fishing again.  I'm pleased with some of the photos.  Turtles clustered on their log on the lake.  Later, brown headed nuthatches kept getting away faster than shutter speed. But instead, I got a brown creeper! 

Lots of birds

An overcast sky meant low light again.  The female red bellied woodpecker was back almost as soon as I restocked the oriole's treats.  And the oriole soon followed.  Lots of white throated sparrows showed up for breakfast.  Titmice, nuthatches, yellow rumped warblers, wrens, and the usual cardinals and chickadees all put in a breakfast appearance.  A downy came late to the party.  Meanwhile, pelicans flew back and forth, but too often behind a branch or other obstruction.  Eventually one plunged where I could see it and took its time swallowing its catch. 

The clouds broke up around noon.  A couple of herons carefully spaced themselves along the creek.  Cormorants and fishing ducks began to join the pelicans.  I saw both hoodies and buffleheads.  Crows herded a hawk across the sky, then back the other way, and I missed it both times.  Then, a surprise: a brown creeper worked its way up the multiple trunks of the wild cherry, dropping to the ground to begin again.  A pine warbler shared the suet with a downy.  A blue jay took off every time I got it in focus.

Mid afternoon, the cormorants alerted other birds and herons, hoodies and a pelican joined the fishing.  Meanwhile on the lake, shovelers were joined by dark ducks I didn't recognize.  My best guess is common goldeneye.  An egret landed on the dead snag near them.  Down on the creek, a lone female bufflehead fished after the other birds left. The Western sky lit up with tangerine-edged clouds at sunset. 

Windy

Chickadees were thick on the feeder, joined by occasional finches.  A white throated sparrow foraged below.  It looked like the same one as on other days - a white morph.  Mid morning, I got a couple of blurry photos of a brown creeper on the wild cherry.  A golden crowned kinglet dangled from cedar twigs hunting bugs, I suppose. 

A pelican flew up and down the creek several times.  The wind probably drove it from more open stretches of water.  The creek itself was very rough. Only chickadees showed up during lunch.  Afterward I glimpsed something at the mealworm dish, probably a wren. 

But when I went back to my computer, a great blue heron was stalking along the creek edge.  It passed under the dock and out of sight, but a second heron was watching for fish from the neighbor's dock.  That one jumped into the water up over its belly (low tide) and moved around under that dock.  Movement caught the corner of my eye and I discovered a kingfisher with its lunch on the dock bench.  It didn't stay.

Overcast became blue

A little rain fell in the early morning but the birds were singing when I got the paper.  "And smale fowles maken melodye," as Chaucer put it.  A red bellied woodpecker visited the suet scaring off a warbler. White throats foraged in the mulch.  A blue jay flitted around in the brush.  An osprey patrolled the creek. Just as I was leaving a downy woodpecker showed up. I was gone till lunch time. 

The wind switched 180 from NE to SW during the morning. An egret stalked along the bulkhead during lunch and an osprey hovered over the dam outflow.  A female junco and a titmouse visited the sunflower feeder.  Something pale blue-gray flitted around, but I couldn't be sure what it was.  I got a lot of photos of the spaces where a bird had just been.  But I did catch a brown creeper on the redwood. 

After lunch I sat outside.  The sun was warm but the wind was cold. A heron flew downstream, then a male kingfisher landed on the dock.  A buzzard flew over the creek.  I caught a squirrel in midleap with a nut in its mouth. 

Windy, cold and gray

During breakfast,  the feeders were deserted.  As I passed the school, a sharp shinned hawk zoomed in front of me.  I saw a robin on my way back.  But when I pulled into the driveway, things got lively.  A brown creeper was scampering around the sweet gum trunk.  A pair of cardinals were in the azaleas. A woodpecker inspected the pecan while a chickadee perched in the dogwood.

The woodpecker came around to the patio for lunch.  And the notch-tail squirrel scarfed up the mealworms I'd put in my chili-powder-lined flowerpot base.  So that idea didn't work. The cloud cover thinned and allowed weak sunlight. 

The sky continued to clear as the afternoon went on.  Juncos and white throats appeared.  Warblers and woodpeckers traded off at the suet. 

Bitter wind chill

Outside the patio door the packed snow and ice was a miniature glacier that didn't even dent when I stepped on it.  Wind gusts made the low temperature even chillier.  But the bright sun continued to melt spots and lengthen icicles.

Over the course of the morning all the recent winter visitors appeared: cardinals, finches, chickadees, tufted titmice, white throated sparrows, juncos, yellow rumped warblers, downy woodpeckers, and starlings.  A male towhee took over the feeder and a brown thrasher foraged through the fallen hulls.  A squirrel did its very best to break into the feeder, but failed as always. Two butterbutts briefly shared the suet, then went back to chasing each other. 

The temperature in the afternoon got above 20°F and the pool cover continued to melt.  A little bit of the creek on the far side melted, though I could only tell by the way the light reflected onto the bulkhead.  A crow walked around on the ice by the dock.  An egret flew down to the dam where I assume it found sun without wind. 

The male towhee came back in the afternoon, as did a titmouse.  A female downy got some suet after I chased off starlings.  I will need a new block of suet very soon.  White throats, warblers and the regulars were back too. A dove stopped by briefly.  And I caught a brown creeper hitching up the pine trunk!

Butterbutt was the last bird feeding.  Puffy cumulus appeared and tinted rose at sunset.  The cormorants commuted to wherever they spend the night.

White sky

The first pelican of fall sailed upstream at breakfast. Not much else happened in the morning.

In the afternoon, birds flitted all around the edges of the yard while only chickadees ventured out to the feeder.  A brown creeper hitched its way up and around the oak trunk.  It was two far to get a good photo of such a small bird.  A yellow rumped warbler landed among red dogwood leaves.  Mallards dabbled in the creek while a flock of cormorants came over the dam from the lake.  Gulls were wheeling over the lake as well. 

The ugly lump in the grass softened enough that I broke it open and proved it was a puffball. The day was warm but I felt chilled, perhaps by the lack of sunshine. The overcast showed pleating at times.  A basilica orb weaver left a strand of pearl egg cases dangling in a different dogwood. 

The nearly full moon looked misty as it rose.