Bye, blue water

Today the pool was covered for the winter.  Morning was chilly despite the bright sun and even after lunch I stayed in the sun for warmth.  A dark butterfly kept moving so I couldn't be sure of its identity.  After errands, I saw chickadees and cardinals eating seeds.  Then I caught a flash of kingfisher wings so I moved to the back window.  Not one, but two kingfishers were competing for a good vantage point to watch for fish. back and forth among the dock pilings they chased each other until an egret swooped in and sent them both away.  

At supper, I saw a Carolina wren and a downy woodpecker.  The downy ignored the suet and ate seeds.  She appeared to be missing her tail feathers.  

Full moon

The Northeaster continued to push water up the Lynnhaven and the full moon (not that it was visible) pulled the tide even higher.  It was gray and cold and sporadically drizzling.  A Carolina wren got hungry enough to join the cardinals, chickadees, and house finches.  Trash bobbed in the creek along with geese.  Across the creek, an egret walked along the bulkhead that had emerged as the tide dropped.  

Gull games

The wind was somewhat diminished but still pushing the tide into the grass.  Our living shoreline looked quite flattened.  I saw no birds but a few seed eaters until late when there must have been a school of fish in the creek.  Gulls skated on the air, twirled and skimmed the water.  To the Northeast, the clouds looked pleated.  Geese huddled in the lea of a dock.  A cormorant splash-landed.  A great egret landed on the dock, then shifted to a piling where it got its feathers back in order.  The light got a little better and there was even a bit of color to the clouds at sunset.  

 

Hot sun

Thinking that the sun would be less intense this close to the equinox, I didn't wait for shade.  The larger bullfrog awaited me in the skimmer.  It acted lethargic but eventually it hopped off my palm and into the water.  I didn't see it again.   A skink rafted on a sinking leaf and I assisted it onto a rescue stick so it could have the satisfaction of saving itself.  A field cricket was also rafting so I set its leaf raft on the concrete.  I also fished out a couple of black ground beetles and a mint moth.  Something tickled my back and after brushing it off  my skin, I saw it was a very tiny spider.  The long-haired yellow cat sneaked past while I was swimming and I yelled at it.  An egret flew behind the trees and something that might have been a kite soared in the hazy blue sky.  The seed eaters were all I saw at the feeders.  Squirrels were busy up in the trees.  The only photos I got were plants.  

Hot sun

Today got a lot warmer.  There were clouds and some haze but mostly sunshine.  My morning was taken up with meeting the mayor.  After lunch, I sat outside and saw a blue dasher dragonfly and a damselfly landed by my foot.  Some butterflies did not cooperate but I found a tiny caterpillar on the milkweed.  Caterpillars were deserting the parsley because it was all eaten.  I went swimming after 4pm for shade.  A small frog let me lift it out onto the pavement.  I also rescued two wasps, a spider, and a May beetle.  Hummers visited the feeders.  I saw two skinks.  One climbed the cedar tree and the other climbed the retaining wall.  An egret landed by the dock.  

Sunny

The sky was hazy with fuzzy cumulus coming from the West.  It was a little too warm and humid to be pleasant, unless in a swimsuit.  I caught three frogs and sent them away.  One seemed to be in poor shape so I carried it to the birdbath in the hope that rainwater would wash off the pool chemicals.  Other than that, there were beetles.  On the mountain mint there were the usual bees and wasps and a skipper.  A Yellow-legged Mud-dauber Wasp found something interesting in the patio surface.  Some other wasps and bees were acting oddly too.  

I saw an orange butterfly (monarch?) and a yellow (tiger swallowtail?), neither of which cooperated.  Little skinks teased the camera.  I could not find the Argiope.  A great egret rested on the dock.  A very high-flying bird might have been a swallow.  A mockingbird looked grumpy from molting.  It dined on barkbutter balls.  

Figs

In the morning, the sun spotlighted the orchard spider.  I checked out the fig trees because I wondered about the effects of the drought.  They were ripening and then drying right on the branches.  Neither birds not insects seemed to have paid them much attention, though something I couldn't see was moving around in the higher foliage. And I startled a large insect in a nearby (not fig) bush.  My picking was well-timed as rain fell in the afternoon and evening.  Probably the ripe figs I couldn't reach will rot.  

Judging from paw prints and sand, a raccoon had been washing its supper on the pool step.  My only rescues from the water were a couple of beetles and a spider.  I saw egrets flying and a blue jay that may have been headed for the figs.  A skink came out and basked on the step.  During lunch we saw a hummer visit the milkweed and a palamedes swallowtail fly quickly across the patio.  Titmice squabbled over the feeder.  

Cherry pickers

A pair of Carolina wrens showed up at breakfast.  Because of the weather forecast and the evil fly I swam in the morning.  There were a good many May beetles needing rescue and one very small mama spider.  I glimpsed a butterfly but, surprisingly, no Odonata.  A skipper found the first flowers on the mountain mint.  An egret stalked along the bullkhead.  The crow came looking for treats.  

In the afternoon, birds feasted on the wild cherry.  I saw mockingbirds, chickadees, cardinals, and some I wasn't sure about, maybe an Eastern kingbird?  A bluebird looked around before joining the cherry pickers.  The recent rains plumped up the cherries which had been wizened and tough in the drought.  The blueberries seemed to be waiting for more encouragement.  Scientific American reported that there is a structure in plant cells that reacts to the sound of falling rain.  DEQ had not lifted the drought warning despite the recent rain. It still only accumulated to 2/3 of the average for the first half of the year.  Today's rain arrived around 3pm.  

Heat wave

A brown thrasher took off just as I pressed the shutter button.  Fortunate it only wanted to get closer to the barkbutter balls on the patio.  The mockingbird preferred to eat them from the dish.  A white breasted nuthatch agreed.  A Carolina wren took its treat under the furniture.  A crow finally came for the barkbutter balls.  I glimpsed a bluebird.  

An egret waded under the new bulkhead across the creek.  I saw 91° on the thermometer.  The tiny butterfly I'm guessing was a spring azure was back to torment me.  So was a cabbage white.  The milkweed bloomed.  

 

Pairing up

It looked like the cardinals were getting in the mood to nest.  An egret flew upstream and I believe I also glimpsed a great blue heron.  A pine warbler ate suet.  The two doves returned.  I chased off the short haired yellow cat which was trying to hide behind an azalea.  Starlings bathed alongside a white throated sparrow.  The male red belly came for seeds, but still no sign of a female.  The day was sunny and warm though clouds thickened toward evening.  

Waterfowl

A wren dug into the seeds for breakfast.  So did a downy. I saw a goldfinch, but it got away.   A brown headed nuthatch also collected seeds.  K put our a fresh block of suet and the warblers found it.  The clouds lifted as time passed. At high tide, I spotted the orange cat perched on a stump at the water's edge.  

Pelicans fished along our stretch of the creek.  A variety of gulls fished too - herring, ring bill, and black back.  The sight of a great black back gull with a fish attracted a young pelican still in brown plumage.  A great egret flew upstream.  A cormorant photo-bombed a picture of a gull.  I saw another red breasted merganser.  A great blue heron stood watch below the dam. A mallard pair paddled across the water.  A female bufflehead dived.  

Mixed weather

The morning was full of dark clouds and light rain.  During a lull, the pileateds visited.  The seed feeder birds ignored the weather but not each other.  The cardinal did not tolerate the house finches.  After the pileateds left, the male red belly showed up - note the red belly.  Carolina wrens took their barkbutter balls to the azalea to eat.  

Finally after 1pm the clouds began to tear apart and the wind picked up.  Meanwhile the temperature had slid from the 50s to the 40s.  I saw bluebirds but didn't get a picture.  The red belly returned.  White throats foraged along the far edge of the pool.  Squirrels foraged and flirted.  Sunset lit up a ridge of clouds in the Northeast.  The clouds expanded as the light dimmed, seeming to boil with red light.  Egrets and cormorants, and maybe other birds flew home.  

 

Pileated pair

The temperature dropped thirty degrees but we had sunshine.  Several white throats foraged among the dry leaves.  Then the woodpeckers arrived.  So did a crow and each species was wary of the other.  The crow spooked first.  At lunch, I saw an egret hunched up under the bulkhead.  A pine warbler was saddened by the empty dish feeder.  I had dumped the mealworms because they were soggy from yesterday's rain.  

Windy

Morning was sunny but wind made the creek choppy.  Pine warblers enjoyed the fresh suet but a wren and a titmouse were disappointed by the empty barkbutter dish.  I refilled it.  A junco roamed the patio.  The male red bellied woodpecker made repeat visits to the suet.    

Pelicans paddled up the creek.  The sky became overcast in the afternoon.  I saw an egret flying up the lake and another on the shore.  Two pair of hoodies paddled upstream along the bulkhead.  

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.  

Still very cold

This morning the creek was iced but the feeders were busy.   Blue jays woke up hungry for barkbutter balls.  So did a white throat, a pine warbler, an orange crowned warbler, and a Carolina wren. Even a cardinal stopped there on the way to the seeds.  A red bellied woodpecker was obscured by the suet block.  Brown headed nuthatches joined the cardinals and chickadees on the seed feeder.  Juncos foraged and occasionally flew up to the feeder instead of waiting for seeds to fall.  A bluebird couldn't make up his mind.  Bright sunlight made some birds silhouettes.  

An egret flew over the creek but there was no reason for it to land.  Squirrels foraged in the leaves under the feeder.  At lunch there was no activity at the feeders.  The creek was still mostly iced at sunset.  Only the channel under the bulkhead had melted.  

Hard freeze

The ant moats were solid ice but the creek flowed free.  A Carolina wren was hungry enough to brave the cold.  Soon a white throat arrived.  I had a meeting but kept an eye on the creek.  Gulls and pelicans flew over the creek and egrets prowled under the bulkhead.  Female buffleheads dived and the sun shone.  

The songbirds emptied the dish of mealworms but I waited till after lunch when the temperature had climbed to 32°° to dash outside.  It took the birds a little while to forgive me.  The wren took a barkbutter ball down to the concrete and hammered it into fragments.  The orange crowned warbler chose jelly and followed up with suet, then checked out the barkbutter.  Meanwhile a white throat was foraging under the seed feeder.  The wren decided that looked like a good idea.  

In the late afternoon, egrets congregated on the sunny side of the lake.  Pelicans returned to patrol the creek as the light faded.  

Busy

A couple of pelicans and at least eight egrets flew over the creek in the early morning before the dock workers arrived.  My photos were all blurred by foreground vegetation.  The tide was very low.  A Carolina wren and an orange crowned warbler came to the feeders.  But mostly workmen were coming and going all day, inside and out.  

Chilly

The prediction was for a sunny day but the sky took its sweet time clearing.  The gray sky at breakfast lacked wildlife even though I restocked the dishes.  At lunch a brown headed nuthatch bullied chickadees.  Then a cardinal took over the seed feeder.  The temperature was in the low 40s but there wasn't much wind and the creek was flat.  A squirrel leaped the tree gap.  

Later the black cat walked across the lower patio.  I went outside to see if I could see the round moon, but vegetation was in the way.  Three egrets flew over, one at a time, headed North.  Many cormorants flew every which way as the shadows got long.  

 

More fish

After lunch, I noticed that egrets were congregating below the dam.  Soon they were flying upstream, joined by diving ducks and cormorants.  I went outside for a better view but the wind was too much for me.  There were fewer egrets than yesterday, I think, but just as many cormorants.   Unlike yesterday it was low tide and the fishing seemed to last longer.  I believe the ducks were all hoodies.  

Up on the patio, a Carolina wren made the feeder rounds and tossed a barkbutter ball down to the patio.  An oriole got a drink.  A couple of juncos hunted food scraps on the concrete.  The sky was blue with passing clouds.