Possum

At breakfast, a squirrel performed acrobatics to reach food in a dogwood, but I couldn't tell if it was eating berries or something else.  I was going to report a nothing day and then, after dark on the way to a gathering, we saw a possum cross the road.  It was hustling but even so it was not very fast.  I didn't have my camera along so you'll have to take my word for this.  

No bunny, just a possum

Enough sunlight got through the white sky to cast shadows.  The wind wasn't as fierce as yesterday, fortunately because the air was not as warm either.  The temperature did rise into the 80s. A bluebird came for breakfast.  

After lunch I spent some time outside.  The coral honeysuckle was a mass of flowers - something for hummers if the sugar water has gone bad.  A few coral lilies had started to bloom.  Fern fiddleheads were unfurling.  A freshly bathed bluebird flew up from the pool puddle.  Next a white throat got in.  A couple of doves drank from the pool puddle.  I could hear woodpeckers fussing because they thought I was too close to the food.  

Once I was inside, birds rushed to the feeders.  Blue jays got their barkbutter.  A cardinal went courting with a barkbutter ball.  A male cardinal had some of the dried up, pollen covered jelly. I took photos of movement in the trees but missed most of the causes.  A myrtle warbler, however, was just slow enough that I got one photo.  A male red bellied woodpecker enjoyed some suet.  Then a female pileated woodpecker took over.  Finally a mockingbird got a turn at the barkbutter balls.  A white breasted nuthatch paid an evening visit to the seeds. 

The possum came back and lay down in the pool puddle.  Despite this, doves decided it was safe to get a drink.  An egret huddled on a dock post.  A true bug of some sort landed on the window.  It was shaped like last year's bordered plant bug but lacked the red outline.  

Opossum

As we were eating breakfast, a portly possum ambled across the lower patio.  A blue jay watched and a mockingbird ate suet.  Sometime later the possum returned and I went outside hoping for a clear photo.  We looked at each other but there was too much vegetation in the way for the camera.  The possum went downhill, then right between the bank and the creek, and out of sight. 

A bluebird watched from the post before settling in on the seed feeder perch.  A Carolina wren opted for suet but also grabbed a seed.  White throats continued their foraging.  A dove wandered around thee pool puddle.  It was a perfect day for turtles but they must have found somewhere else to bask.  A bumblebee pollinated the Solomon's seal.  I saw some flowers on the blackberry brambles by the dock. 

Critters living dangerously

A female red bellied woodpecker had a go at the suet.  A squirrel worked on building another nest, this time with rattly magnolia leaves.  The temperature climbed past 70, but this was supposed to be the peak of the hot spell.  Yellow jackets took advantage of the temperature to feed on camellia blossoms.

I stole an hour outside after lunch and saw the sky getting cloudier.  On the creek there were a few buffleheads and a pied-bill grebe.  A squadron of geese flew downstream so low that one wing cut the surface.  An egret settled in at the lake.  

Crows screamed till they flushed some sort of hawk - the glimpse I got wasn't enough to identify it.  Actually, it was when the blue jays joined in that the raptor gave up.  A towhee tossed mulch behind the cedar then whistled as it ran down hill.  I think I heard another one in that direction.

After dark, a possum prowled around the birdbath ignoring us.  The dog slept through the visit.  K thought it was a very large possum but it looked normal to me.  Certainly it was a very bold and foolish marsupial. 

Possum!

The changeable weather was what I associate with Easter - showers alternating with bright sunshine. An opossum crossed the patio in front of me to snuffle for fallen sunflower seeds.  Then it hustled off around the corner of the house.

Starlings kept interrupting other birds to get at the suet.  Downy and red bellied woodpeckers, the brown thrasher, orioles, and warblers all wanted suet.  A Carolina wren and white throats foraged below. The cardinals found a way to share the seed feeder perch.  Usually their combined weight is too much.

The rain turned the bark butter balls to something more like granola.  This didn't bother the bluebirds, but it was too tedious for blue jays.  Two male bluebirds came to blows over the bark butter ball feeder. 

In the late afternoon, a titmouse sampled each of the feeders.  A goldfinch looked around at the feeders and turned up its beak.  Clouds tinted rose for sunset. 

Rain

The possum came back and explored the patio before continuing in the opposite direction from the first sighting.  But the rain streaks on the windows and screen plus the low light made photography impossible.  Cardinals visited the feeder and white throats rummaged in the mulch. 

The rain tapered off and birds came out.  I saw a Carolina wren but I wasn't in a position to take a photo.  A blue jay took advantage to snatch bark butter balls.  A female red bellied woodpecker frustrated a downy.  Then a brown thrasher landed on the suet.  It had a difficult time reaching the food but it didn't give up. 

A male yellow-shafted Northern flicker landed on the beautyberry trunk.  The myrtle warbler and the downy woodpecker waited impatiently for the brown thrasher to finish. 

A female bluebird paid a very brief visit to the bark butter balls.  A flurry of little birds flitted through the hackberry.  I'm pretty sure there were chickadees and myrtle warblers.  I spotted a titmouse among them. 

A bufflehead pair floated on the quiet water that reflected the gray sky.  Cormorants splashed down. 

As the light began to fade, a pine warbler got some time with the suet. 

Possum!

It trundled to the middle of the pool cover where its weight made the water well up for a drink.  Unfortunately, it drank with its back to me and when it finished, it trotted off quickly.  The light was not good and, indeed, rain began minutes later. 

The male red bellied woodpecker was eager for suet.  A titmouse came for seeds.  Birds flitted among the new leaves on the wild cherry, but I couldn't identify them.  The rain was light and intermittent. The light was bad all day.

Late in the afternoon I spotted Northern shovelers on the lake.  I think there was also a wood duck. A female hoodie surfaced briefly on the creek. 

Pool party

Hummers acted suspicious toward the feeder.  The creek had that placid Autumn morning look. 

I soaked the mountain mint, the roses, and the hibiscus in neem oil.  We shall see.  A bumblebee enjoyed the zinnias.  Another camellia flower opened.  

A very ungrateful skink did all it could to avoid rescue from the water including running around on my shoulders as though I was a Lyft it had called.  But I won.  There were also two green frogs, one big, one little, that I tried to convince to stay out of the pool.   The water was dusty with tiny flying insects, some of which wanted blood. 

A mockingbird was in the beautyberry bush, then flew to the red cedar and hopped around the branches over me as I floated, camera-less.  Blue jays flew together from one oak to another.  Some of them visited a knot on one limb that I suspect collects water.  I would need a drone with a camera to find out.  A Carolina wren found the mealworms. 

After dark an opossum visited.  It did not pay attention to the mealworms, which surprised me.  It seemed more interested in fallen sunflower seeds.  A green lacewing rested on the window.

Praying mantis

I was bemoaning in my head how little time I had had to observe wildlife when up popped a small green praying mantis. Actually it edged around the railing and at first I thought I was seeing a grasshopper's leg. It was not well camouflaged on the chrome.

A goldfinch got away from me along with dragonflies and butterflies and skinks. Hummers looked for other food but didn't find the scarlet climber so far. On my way home after dark, a possum bustled across the street.  It moved surprisingly fast on its short legs.

Possums and foxes!

There was a sprinkle when I left home at an hour I'm usually asleep. The birds were singing to wake the sun.  But when I got to Norfolk It was like being thrown into a shower.  I had 20 feet to cross and I was soaked.  But it was over an hour and a half later and the cloud cover was getting thin spots.

As I was pulling out of the parking lot, I saw a mockingbird and a crow about a yard apart on a wire, glaring at each other.  The crow tried to fly off and the mocker bopped it.  Then the crow hid behind a street sign but the mocker was not fooled.  They flew over me and the crow landed in the street while the mockingbird lit on a branch above.  I had to leave while they were still at it.

The sun shone sporadically and the day warmed into the 70s.  In the afternoon, two opossums drank from the pool cover puddle.  I saw an orange butterfly.  As dusk was falling, two foxes walked under my window.  Something I'm guessing was a muskrat swam very fast and disappeared under the dock.  After dark, when I went out to brick the feeder, I thought I smelled skunk. 

Much the same

It is cold and dreary. Finches breakfasted with me.  A heron fished.  Veils of mist blew upstream

followed by a pelican.   Sparrows are out feeding.

We had lunch with chickadees.  A pelican hauled out onto the dock across the creek and huddled there for an hour.  Another got out on the bulkhead for a while.  Gulls played with the wind gusts.  The cardinals, both sexes, continue their turf war.  Finches and sparrows dart in for a seed while they're preoccupied. Oh, it is such a dreary day and the window glass is obscured by rain. 

A possum crossed the patio as we were eating supper.  That's the first one I've seen in the yard in years.  Actually, all I saw was the rear and tail.  Make that the first possum since February 19, 2011, same time of evening, same behavior. 
 

Very windy

It is sunny and warm, but the wind is very gusty. A couple of chickadees and a finch couple struggled to the feeder. A half dozen geese landed in the creek. A mallard pair headed downstream. Gulls seem to be playing, not headed anywhere, just sliding across air pressure differentials.

At 8pm a possum crossed the patio and headed down the steps. The wind continued noisy.