Frost!

The sun is bright with no clouds and the creek is a mirror with just a breath of air movement.  No birds are up yet.  Leaves are drooping on the annuals.  This frost is two weeks earlier than last year but only four days earlier than 2011. It is a light frost that won't finish off much. 

I guess that was just Dawn holding her breath, because there's a definite breeze now. The temperature is rising.  A white throat ran a house finch off the feeder but later shared with her.  I was surprised to realize that the sparrows are bigger than the finches.  Chickadees have also shown up to feed.  Squirrels are dashing around.  A buzzard sailed over and a great blue heron flapped downstream. 

Project Feederwatch has an interactive webpage of what birds like to eat.  I may try some of the others beside black oil sunflower seeds. 

Hooded mergansers!

 A cold wind out of the North was pushing cream puff cumulus clouds overhead.  K says a chickadee was waiting on the perch when she went to unblock the feeder, but I haven't seen any more birds there.  Sunshine had the creek glowing and revealed the ducks.  Of course they flew when I tried to take a photo. They are framed by the leaves but the camera chose the wrong focus.

It is cold and windy and the creek is now glittering as the wind roughens the surface.  There was clear sky briefly but now the clouds are moving through again, but from more West of North.  The photo was from earlier when dawn tinted the clouds. 

By lunch, sunshine dominated, though clouds still marched South.  A great blue heron flew upstream and let fly a load of guano all over the creek.

Only the white throat braved the cold to visit the feeder.  This photo is from the morning when a beach ball bobbed around in the creek.  The wind broke off a couple of sunflowers. 

In the late afternoon, many egrets flew North overhead, tinted by the sun.  This flock was followed by ones and twos. 

Winter roars in

No wind this morning.  Chickadees and white throats were competing for the feeder when a female cardinal dismissed them all.  A song sparrow foraged on the ground.  I love the way the peavine shakes and then a bird pops out.

Wow, that didn't last!  Before noon, heavy dark clouds blew out of the North, threatening snow and freeze. Brrrrr!  

Carolina wrens appeared mid-afternoon. The wren and the white throated sparrow are having an eyeliner competition here.  Sparrows, chickadees, finches and cardinals fed despite the wind.  Gulls played in the sky, but crows and cormorants had to work to fly.  Geese stuck to the creek.

At sunset, sleet started.  It coated the road briefly but was gone by 8pm.  The argiope has gone missing and her web is shredded with leaves dangling from it.  I hope she's tucked into a warm crevice, maybe behind the porch light. 

Another sunny day

There were soft clouds in streaks earlier but now they are just wisps.  The sun is warm but the breeze chills.  Finches and chickadees came to the feeder, then Carolina wrens and white throats.  Yellow jackets and honeybees are pollinating the peas.  A buzzard circled overhead. I thought the morning glories were done, but there are blossoms today.  The sunflower is making many buds.

A song sparrow showed up at lunch.  There was a fight in the peavine between two white throats.

In the late afternoon cormorants are flying every which way.  Cardinals, finches and chickadees tussle for a place on the feeder.  White throats make the peavine jiggle.  Sunset put a brief pink blush on the cloud wisps. 

Wind and sun

The creek is sparkling but the chickadees on the feeder are still in shadow.

A flock of crows boiled up out of the pines but I couldn't make out the cause of their upset.  A cloudless sulphur butterfly competed with the blown leaves.  I also saw a cabbage butterfly.  A white throated sparrow took over the feeder and scared off the chickadees.  The wind is whipping the sunflowers and thrashing the trees.  Two doves visited the birdbath.  Bees worked on the pea flowers and the camellias. 

The sky stayed cloudless all day.  Towards sunset, cormorants and egrets road the wind home.  A white throat came to the feeder, then another chased it off.  The sun set and the male cardinal came, followed by the female, followed by me with the brick to shut the trough. The wind finally dropped after sundown.  As I bricked the feeder I saw the first quarter moon high in the SE.

Mme Argiope continues to guard the porch light, and her four egg sacks.  She's gotten rather lazy with her zigzag stitch. 

Breezy blue

A beautiful day, so where are the birds?  One white throated sparrow is poking around the birdbath.  Cormorants and geese have flown past on whatever business they think is so important.  A white domestic duck escorted two mallard couples upstream.  Some squirrels have bounced around the yard.  I saw a tiny grasshopper nymph on the azalea when I went to look for the trashline orb weaver spider that was there earlier in the year.  No sign of it now. 

Late afternoon: some white streaky clouds and, of course, cormorants.  Cardinals came for supper along with white throats.  The clouds moved off East at sunset, so no color, then when the sky had gone silver, smoky stripes of thin cloud rolled in from the West. 

Colder

Blue sky and bright sun reflect in the creek despite a light breeze.  Cardinals, chickadees were joined by a female finch, and a titmouse on the feeder.  The finches have not been around much lately.  On the ground, a sparrow darted under the peavine and a blue jay hammered something in the grass.  Some bird tore at the beauty berry bush. 

The breeze has freshened into gusts.  A white throated sparrow visited the feeder.  A very small squirrel roamed the patio.  It looks like it belongs to a Summer litter.