Birdwatching

The black & white cat basked for a while on the pool cover, but the birds were just too fascinating.  Pretty soon, the cat was up on the steps   There was a lot to see.  A goldfinch in winter drab got a drink.  A pine warbler streaked past on the way to the suet.  A bluebird landed atop the post.  Chickadees and house finches argued over seeds. 

After K shooed the cat, twice, a Carolina wren helped itself to barkbutter balls.  A mockingbird  wanted some, but didn't hang around.  Meanwhile, a brown headed nuthatch also came for seeds.  A couple of doves paraded around the pool cover.  The first junco of the Fall foraged under the sakaki.  

The domestic cherry had lost almost all its leaves.  The blueberry bushes were turning orange.  One hickory was bare but the other, less exposed, retained its coppery foliage.  The humongous fungus got mildewed from the rain.  Mosses were still green from the rain.  The odd thing I first saw weeks ago and thought was a puffball was unchanged.  Clouds blocked the sun and the breeze felt chilly so I came inside.  After 4pm the sun escaped the edge of the overcast and I hoped for migrant ducks floating through the reflections.  No such luck, just a mallard.  

Wet

Pelicans flew by and at least one dived in front of us, but my only photos were of the one perched on the navigation sign.  I saw buffleheads and hoodies but got no clear pictures.  I did catch a cormorant about to sprint across the water.  The creek was flat but reflections were gray and there was trash floating with the tide.  Even when the rain was over, drying out took all day.  It did make the moss and lichens green.  The dog kept hoping that if we went outside, K would come home.  It was too wet to sit. 

Warblers, orioles, bluebirds, and a Carolina wren showed up as soon as I dumped water and put food out.  The female orioles disputed precedence with each other but always let the male go first.  But they also ate barkbutter balls and suet.  

 Hungry goldfinches were bullied by house finches.  The house finches even ejected a brown headed nuthatch.  When one finally got a chance at the feeder, it was rude to a chickadee. Between goldfinches, pine warblers, and female orioles, there were too many birds with olive-yellow backs, and black & white barred wings.  Eventually one goldfinch scrounged for seeds on the ground.  White throated sparrows were foraging there too.  

The downy woodpecker stayed focused on suet.  The mockingbird, on the other foot, refused to go near the suet cage and stuck to barkbutter balls.  The pileated woodpecker returned and no one argued with him.

Autumn beauties

The creek reflected sunshine bouncing off tree trunks.  A mockingbird picked up a barkbutter ball breakfast.  Bluebirds came later while I was cooking.  By then the creek had lost its mirror-smooth shine.  

As we ate lunch, the songbirds arrived in force.  A pine warbler went for the barkbutter balls.  The mockingbird came back but I still had trouble getting a picture.  Two juncos and a song sparrow got away from me too.  A white breasted nuthatch joined the chickadees and titmice.  Then brown headed nuthatches wanted sunflower seeds too.  The back of their heads and necks are white not brown.  One lingered on the feeder, not eating, just watching in all directions.  And all the other birds disappeared.  

A great blue heron waded upstream in water up to its belly.  Geese paddled upstream, briefly fooling me into thinking they were hoodies.  An off object washed up, like a ball with a conical tail and a round hole or black spot on its side. 

A violet was fooled by the warmer weather into blooming.  Yellow jackets buzzed around the camellia looking for flowers that hadn't been drained.  I found tiny mushrooms emerging along a maple root.  More clumps of pincushion moss had spore capsules sticking up like green ahir. 

I took lots of pictures of fall leaves but wind keeps blowing them down.  That makes the trees look green longer but prevents reds and yellows from achieving critical mass. The sky was intensely blue and cloudless.  But all too soon the cormorants were flying back to their roost.  

Waterfowl

I saw very little for the last two days. The wind and the tide were still high on the 9th. The camera cooperated for once and caught a falling leaf.  The next day I found a pincushion moss that raised hair-like spore stalks. 

In the wet, gray morning today, a flock of birds darted among the trees but I couldn't make them out.  Finally a bluebird landed on the post.   I almost missed it.  The female downy was back at the suet.  Then the rain returned. Even after it stopped, the air was very humid and quite warm. 

A little sun leaked through the overcast mid afternoon.  A great blue heron on the dock had its back to me as it watched the water.  Then I spotted a little pied bill grebe.  A couple of mallards made a commotion.  The female kingfisher perched on the downstream dock but the camera blurred all my photos by focusing on the water instead of the bird. 

After my online meeting, I saw a flock of cormorants flying around as though something had startled them.  But the Canada geese on the ground didn't seem concerned.  Nor did the great egret perched on the lake log. 

Wood ducks

At last, the plastic came off the windows in the morning.  Mid day was beautifully warm and sunny.  Something dug lots of little burrows in the front grass.  They look like anthills but I suspect ground nesting bees.  I did see a couple of ants walking up a window. 

The array of flowers had changed a lot in four days.  The early daffodils were nearly done and even the dutch hyacinths were past their prime.  I went around the house to admire the redbuds and upset some birds who thought that was their space.  A myrtle warbler peeked at me over a magnolia branch.  Both the redbuds and a peach sapling were in bloom.  Violets, buttercups, and birdseye bloomed in the grass.  I could see flower buds on azaleas.  Even the moss had sent up spore stalks.  

Fewer turtles were out than yesterday.  A young brown pelican flew upstream and returned not much later.  After I was back inside I notices a pair of wood ducks at the water's edge.  Unfortunately a clump of wild onion kept confusing the camera.  Then I spotted a second pair about ten feet away.  All four ducks were having a spa day, bathing and preening, and also snuggling.  Wood ducks dive quite well I observed.  Eventually the first pair sailed away and the second pair hopped onto the dock for a rest.  A mallard drake was hanging around, probably up to no good.  The wood drake came to the same conclusion.  I'm not so sure about the female, though she got in the last word.  We really need to get a wood duck box! 

I startled pileated woodpeckers that fled too fast for me.  A red bellied woodpecker was also wary, but I managed not to offend.  The sky clouded up as the afternoon grew later so I gave up on greeting the full moon. 

Hot winter day

Another shirtsleeve day with the temperature peaking at 71.  Daffodils started to bloom.  I took a lot of moss pictures.  A myrtle warbler posed amid dogwood buds.  Turtles basked.  There were lovely tinted sunset clouds.  

Still warm

The sky was orange when I woke up but it soon went gray.  The creek was gray too, and rough.  I believe I saw two pileated woodpeckers early in the morning, but they were in the trees and they soon flew off in opposite directions.  I suppose they could have been crows, but they moved and perched like woodpeckers.  Mid morning, the overcast started tearing apart and pretty soon birds arrived at the feeders.  I wonder if a hawk had been keeping them in hiding.  Like yesterday, bluebirds and pine warblers came first.  Unlike previous days, I got the mockingbird. The diffuse light helped the camera focus on the foreground, but it failed me on the red bellied woodpecker.  

A male Baltimore oriole showed up.  I couldn't tell if it was the same as the one I saw a week ago.  It seemed interested in the grape jelly but then something spooked it.  I did not see it again.  Blue jays  couldn't stay away from the barkbutter balls.  A Carolina wren investigated all the food except the grape jelly.  The wren got into and argument over suet with a pine warbler.  Then the warbler fussed at a titmouse.  What a grump - maybe it was the molting feathers.  

I snapped a shot at a bird in a tree that turned out to be a brown thrasher.  The camera gods were with me on that one.  There were sparrows around but I missed them.  One butterbutt still had its Summer bandit mask.  A female cardinal on the seed feeder was rude to a brown headed nuthatch.  Wind from the West pulled clouds into elongated sausages.  

We went for a short walk with the dog in the afternoon.  A buzzard monitored our progress.  I saw mistletoe loaded with berries.  I was looking for lichens to identify with my new book.  I also saw some fern moss, family Thuidiaceae.  Gulls circled against a background of cotton puffs. 

Fog

I remarked a couple of days ago that it had been a long time since we had a foggy morning,and lo, the weather gods listened.  Eventually, the fog turned to mist and then broken overcast.

Pelicans flew over the creek at lunch but not later when I had my hands on the camera.  Not that having the camera in hand helped when I saw a kingfisher - he saw me too.  Crows set up a hue and cry to harass a hawk and I missed that too.  I did not miss the turkey vulture that took a perch on the neighbors' dock. 

Paperwhite narcissus bloomed near the yellow rose buds.  Blueberry leaves were colorful but dropping fast.  Fern-like moss grew next to a smaller, simpler species.  While I was poking around in the yard, a flicker and a red bellied woodpecker had words.  A downy just grabbed a barkbutter ball and kept going.  I glimpsed a wren on the barkbutter too.  A squirrel tried panhandling and when that failed, feeder robbery.

Gray

The day was wet and windy but the rain was too light to reach under trees.  Nevertheless, I decided to start transplanting moss to bare spots.  Bluebirds weren't the only ones to like the little tub of bark butter.  A downy woodpecker got a share. The downy with the red cap argued over the bark butter with a regular female downy, then a normally marked male.  Later a Carolina wren had some too. 

A brown thrasher tried all the feeders.  A hummer got some liquid refreshment.  Blue jays were around.  Raindrop rings marked the water.  Periwinkles climbed to avoid the high tide. 

Mild

On the 9th, we got up in the middle of the night to go to Newport News.  We returned in the evening.  I saw plenty of gulls around the HRBT, but not much else. 

On the 10th I saw a couple of white throats foraging..  The Carolina wrens shared the suet.  The wild cherry had real leaves and I spotted a violet. Buffleheads paddled in choppy water.  An egret fished downstream. 

Today, the male red bellied woodpecker posed in the pine.  The egret  was back at its fishing hole.  A Carolina wren came calling and later sand for us.  A white throat focused on the mulch.  The female red belly came for suet.  Titmice got seeds. 

And I saw a butterfly!  What's more it was a new one to me.  Gray Hairstreak Strymon melinus but it was very dark.  The Spring morph is supposed to be darker but I didn't see any photos s dark as this one.  

Yesterday I meant to record the visitors to the feeders, but the time slipped away.  It almost did again today.  But I wanted to record the pine warbler that was too fast for me. And, of course, the myrtle warbler, defender of suet against all small birds.  It drove off a white breasted nuthatch, alas.

Moss was fruiting.  Blueberries were beginning to bloom.  I spotted a bluebird in the grass.  It may be time to avoid the bluebird house.  Turtles were soaking up warmth but a couple of geese were crowding them.  A bufflehead drake paddled by.  And the cat arrived and sat. 

Calm

The morning began cold and bright, but with only a light breeze.  I found that the rainwater in the barkbutter ball dish had acquired a clear ice lid.   There was no ice on the creek though it was as flat as a mirror and as full of reflections.  The warbler and the downy woodpeckers were back to their dispute over the suet. Carolina wrens and song and white throted sparrows returned. 

When I got back at noon, I went around the front yard picking up sticks and other fallen stuff.  Some fallen branches had jelly fungi and one had the beginnings of a polypore, I think. Moss had sent up setae with capsules atop.  Daffodils were recovered from the thrashing the wind gave them.  The warmth before the wind had also brought the red witch hazel into flower along with the Carolina jessamine.  While driving I noticed maples, callery pears, and one purple magnolia in bloom. 

The morning's blue sky was beginning to get hazy.  At lunch, a pine warbler entered the suet stakes.  I also saw the red bellied woodpecker.  By mid afternoon the sky was gray and the sun gone.  But after dark the full moon was bright despite clouds.

 

Windy

The storm left sky and earth scrubbed and shining.  But the wind was still gusty. Turtles lined up to bask, overseen by cormorants.  Lots of periwinkles found resting places above the water.  An egret paced beside the shore.  A little moth spread its wings on the window.  The wind trashed an orchard spider's web.  Geese brought their six goslings to graze. 

A dragonfly zipped around the yard about 18" above the grass.  I wasted pixels and only got a blur.  Earlier I saw a black and a tiger swallowtail.  I found a patch of a different kind of moss, Polytrichum commune - Common Hair Cap Moss.  Most moss in the yard is either pincushion - Leucobryum glaucum or  Fern Moss - Thuidium delicatulum.  I believe the stuff on and under the retaining wall is cypress-leaved plaitmoss Hypnum cupressiforme.  The fuzzy fiddleheads of Christmas fern were beginning to unfurl. 

K cut off the redwood branches that were blocking my view of the lake.  Thus I saw a great blue heron land on a dead tree.  Then an egret landed on a nearby log.  A raft of cormorants paddled down the lake past the egret and some got out of the water.  The egret joined the heron which eventually departed.  So did the cormorants. The feral cat came by at dusk, and was rolling on the lower patio as though in catnip.

Morning rain

It was just gray at breakfast.  The rain started around 10:30am.  The nuthatch returned for more suet.  Buffleheads and hoodies fished on the creek.  A lot of trash had been swept into the water.  Yellow jackets were joined on the camellia blossoms by flies.

In the afternoon, some sun got through the clouds.  The rain had softened jelly fungus and popped up more honey-brown mushrooms. It greened the lichens and moss on the dogwood trunk, yes on the North side.  Parsley germinated all over the French drain, instead of in the mulch where I want it.  The tropical milkweed was still in bloom. 

Very warm

The creek reflected gently wavering images under a blue sky.  White throated sparrows were still here.  Titmice and the regulars ate sunflower seeds.  A male downy checked for suet, but unlike the female, didn't try the seeds.  A couple of starlings walked across the patio. The tux cat prowled through a couple of times.

When I opened the garage in the mid morning, in flew a bird.  Of course I didn't have the camera.  I went in and got it, but by then the bird was about to leave.  When I got home, I saw the first house wren of the season as it scuttled under a patio chair.  After lunch, we potted a pepper "pod."  The rose next to the driveway was covered with aphids.

Osprey circled over the creek in the afternoon.  A blue-tailed skink slithered through the mulch.  Bees and wasps sought nectar.  A huge carpenter bee kept looking in withered azalea blossoms.  A bee fly basked on a sunny ivy leaf.  Cabbage whites flitted around and at one point I saw a dragonfly. 

Later in the afternoon a squirrel climbed up to nibble on the hickory buds.  The pecan was beginning to leaf out.  A sunflower seedling started below the feeder.  Unfortunately, poison ivy also put out leaves.  Wild columbine was in bloom.  A couple of small blackberry brambles had blossoms.  Even moss was beginning to put up spore stalks.  Quite a heap of fallen tree limbs was piled up by the fence.  The last time I looked they were still hanging off the trees, though dead and rotting.

At supper the cardinal was feeding his mate.  Another bright moon in a clear sky followed the simple sunset. 

Warm and sunny

It is too wet outside to sit, but very warm. Mergansers were out on the creek and I could hear geese. Squirrels were chasing each other, as were crows. Finally a chickadee woke up. Moss is sending up fine green hair as a prelude to making spores.

The whole day has been beautiful. I spent some time on the dock watching gulls fish. They upended just like dabbling ducks. I could not see what they were catching. Mergansers were in the same area. Mallards are starting to court. Jays and chickadees provided background music. Finches were on the feeder and sparrows on the ground.

Late in the afternoon I saw a mockingbird on the fence.