Pretty day

It was warmer and breezier and a few clouds passed by.  Chickadees kept the seed feeder busy. Plenty of leaf color dressed up the trees.  A female mallard slept on the dock.  Flying bugs glinted in the sun.  Falling leaves fluttered.  A couple of round, little birds did too.  Unfortunately, my only photo was blurred but I could make out a big black eye and a yellowish wing.  I think it might have been a ruby crowned kinglet, but I can't be sure. 

Clearing

At breakfast time, a gull and an egret found something of interest in the water flowing from the dam.  A blue jay was annoyed that I hadn't hurried to get fresh mealworms out.

During lunch I saw a house wren in the fancy new birdhouse.  I hope it will stay but unfortunately the afternoon brought too much activity to its doorstep. 

After lunch, the overcast began to thin and soon it was sunny.  I chased off the geese three times and then there was a huge commotion behind a screen of vegetation.  I think something got a gosling.  One goose hung around for a long time daring whatever it was to come out of the reeds and fight like a goose.

 A yellow crowned night heron paused on the dock bench.  A cloud of little black bugs hovered over the vegetation at the North end of the patio.  They landed on violets and cinquefoil and the rose, but not the rue or the money plant.  They look like miniscule lightning bugs with read head and dark back, but they may be flies, not beetles.

I startled a young skink.  A periwinkle had crawled to the top of a spartina stalk when the sun came out.  A small wasp was fascinated by something deposited on a rose leaf.  Meanwhile the temperature climbed and I came inside.

Cold sunshine

The suet attracted downy woodpeckers.  I spotted a white throated sparrow eating beauty berries.  A song sparrow joined the white throats briefly under the seed feeder.  Hoodies and geese were out on the water early. 

At lunchtime a flock of cormorants chased fish upstream.  I didn't see any other birds join the hunt today.  I spent too long trying to figure out what the cormorants have been catching this week.  My best guess is Eucinostomus argenteus, spotfin or silver mojarra.  A few have been found in Buchanan Creek by scientists collecting for ecological evaluation.  They have little commercial or sport use, so information was sparse. 

 Despite the chilly breeze, there were insects flying, mostly yellow jackets, I think.  One caterpillar was still hanging around the parsley.  Squirrels got into everything and ate up all the mealworms.  Mallards sucked something from the creek surface and the drake appeared to be after a barnacle.  


Some clouds appeared around sunset and turned beautiful colors, so I had to capture their reflection, preferably with cormorants  or egrets flying to roost. 

Pollen season

A gust of wind created a brief pollen storm, while dead oak flowers continually drifted down all morning.  Meanwhile, termites boiled up out of the mulch beside the birdbath to go on their mating flight.  I was surprised no predators came for them.  The pair of downy woodpeckers visited as did the cardinal pair.  The male towhee was back.  A titmouse and a starling appeared briefly.  White throats have not left yet.

The day began sunny but clouded over as the morning progressed.  Blue jays flew across the yard but never came close.  A mocking bird did its best to eat suet. The towhee , the starling, the woodpeckers, and the white throats all came back during the afternoon, as did the three regulars. 

The clouds got increasingly dark, then rain sprinkles began in the late afternoon. 

Sunshine

Cardinals courted on the feeder perch where he didn't have to work hard to feed her.  House finches and chickadees were joined by downy woodpeckers at the feeders.  I put out mealworms which were gobbled up by a squirrel.  White throats and a male towhee foraged under the feeders and I glimpsed a wren down on the lower patio.  An emergence of flying insects, probably mating termites, from the mulch attracted dragonflies. 

Yellow pollen made artistic swirls on the water. As night fell, I saw two bright planets, one descending to the West, the other just past zenith.  But no moon - tonight is the dark of the moon.  Friends reported fog out over the bay but I saw none. 

Exquisite Spring day

The sky was so blue that jets dared not leave tracks.  One small, ragged cumulus cloud trailed veils of vapor, uncertain whether to condense or dissipate.  The wind's chill balanced the sun's warmth, luring me to go to sleep after lunch.  But physical therapy on the schedule made that impossible.

Bees were out, along with smaller fliers.  Some were either ants or termites looking for mates.  K caught an aphid with a tiny emerald body.  A pair of robins called to each other and finally flew out of the quad.  We found the dove nest and apparently there's at least one nestling.  I saw its beak poke up at its parent.  The other parent was taking a rest on a bench back in the sun.  

We came back out in the evening.  Two grackles chased a crow with a beak full of something orange.  The robins were back.  Gulls streamed by overhead.   One might have been an osprey.  Then the sun dropped below the roof and the air quickly chilled and we came in.