Wind and tide

The wind-driven high tide still rose higher than the dock though we passed the new moon peak three days ago.  A couple of birds prowled the far bank of the creek where the bulkhead was almost completely submerged.  My best guess is they were solitary sandpipers.  A  downy woodpecker came for bark butter balls.  A honeybee had the mountain mint mostly to herself. 

Cloudless

The brown thrasher got an early start on the bark butter balls.  Blue jays were not far behind.  One hunted below the feeder for anything that might have fallen. 

Ospreys were active all day.  I thought a half dozen were circling and diving after breakfast in the placid creek.  A small grayish bird scurried around the dock. I think it was a solitary sandpiper. 

Skinks were also enjoying the sun even though the air was a bit cool.  At lunch, one had a very red head.  In the afternoon I saw a blue tail with its second tail and very little sense.  It left hiding where it was safe, then dithered where to run, then nearly crossed my toes to go to the other side of the steps.  .

The birds emptied the bark butter feeder and I didn't refill because rain was predicted.  At supper time the cat showed up. 

Winter Wildlife Festival

The mulch was frosty and the birdbath solid ice, but there was open water on the creek.  The water at dawn mirrored the sun on the far bank.   White throats were undeterred by the frost as they kicked the mulch to reveal fallen seeds.  The female downy was already eating suet.  Titmice must have been hungry because they started raiding the feeder earlier than usual.

Blue jays came to see if there was more bark butter, but pecked at the leftovers.  Some robins just wanted water.  A myrtle warbler experimented with seeds.  A heron fished below the bend in the creek. 

Another heron waited for a fish in one of the shallow ponds around the Back Bay Wildlife Refuge office as I embarked on the Back Bay/False Cape Terra-gator and Tram Tour.  The bigger impoundments had geese and tundra swans.  Our ranger said they were Canada geese but they were silhouettes to me.  I saw a turtle sunning on a limb fallen into the ditch, but it slid into the water before I could focus.  Taking pictures while riding in a tram on a dirt road wasn't easy. 

Since birds were scarce I took a lot of photos of vegetation, especially when we got out and walked in False Cape State Park.  Some fellow travelers found an owl hairball full of bones including a jaw I believe belonged to a muskrat.

Then we boarded the Terra-Gator and came back along the shore.  Alas the windows were filthy and also picked up fragmented reflections.  There were great blackback gulls and I think lesser as well, herring and/or ring bill gulls, some kind of sandpiper, and I believe terns.

Sunset came soon after we got back.  It was all glow and cloudless.  The derth of birds in the woods illustrated a point form last night's lecture - that suburbs have far more species of birds than nature preserves, at least in the temperate zone.

Blue sky

When I woke up there were clouds all over the sky but they cleared off quickly leaving intense blue.  It was cool and breezy on the front patio where I sat to watch the bluebirds.  The jasmine flowers smelled heavenly.  Then a hawk swooped into the pecan.

Wasps and orange butterflies were out in the sun in the back yard.  Geese led their goslings along the creek.  A solitary sandpiper landed on the dock but was so fidgety, I couldn't catch up.  I saw a blue jay in the cherry.

As I returned from the library, I saw the bluebird pick up a worm off the sidewalk.  Bumblebees worked on the wild indigo.  A female hummer visited the feeder in back.  And later while I ate supper, so did a female goldfinch.

A family of mallards headed downstream while a yellow crowned night heron stalked along the water's edge. The day never got as warm as I'd hoped, but it stayed clear to sunset. 

Lovely day

It was sunny with just a breath of a breeze, but heavy dew and a real chill to the air.  The creek was flat and reflected the sunlit trees.  A slantface grasshopper got inside somehow and was sitting on the window frame.  I evicted it with some difficulty and it hung around outside all morning.  The grass was full of dew covered funnel webs. 

Down by the dam, a Great and a Snowy egret appeared to get along, for a while.  The male downy was back for breakfast and the early sun cast odd shadows through the suet cage on the woodpecker's feathers.  All the regulars came too.  Robins and cedar waxwings invaded the dogwood for berries.  They ate fast and were gone.  I think I spotted an oriole with them.

The tide was in and mallards perched on the neighbors' flooded dock.  The wind was more evident out over the water, making the reflections waver.  A cormorant fished along the dam. The spotless spotted sandpiper showed up again.  A great blue heron flew downstream.

At lunch time, first a catbird and then a mockingbird ate beauty berries.  An orange sulphur butterfly flitted all over.

Breezy

The West wind did not deter honeybees.  The regulars showed up at the seed feeder.  An egret flew upstream.  And a piece of rope on the concrete resolved itself into a small snake.  The sky was intensely blue with cream puff clouds.

I went down to the dock to see how things were after the flood.  An egret perched up in the trees.  Other egrets and a heron flew over.  A flock of geese paddled downstream and waddled up into the neighbors' yard.  Later one of the kids ran them off.  Mallards were out on the water and cormorants in the sky.  A small bird flew past me under the dock and landed on the next upstream.  I was facing into the sun to take its picture. A friend on HRWE identified it as a spotted sandpiper.

Last weekend's Northeaster blew the needles off that side of the redwood.  It blew over the flowering saltbush.  I saw one spike of phragmites among the spartina. The sky got hazy and streaky with pressure ridges and bubbles of cloud.  The sun was hot until it got close to the horizon.