Sunny

The day began gray but cleared by mid morning.  The wind was cold but the sun was warm.  I saw a birdwing grasshopper down at TCC and back home one of those T shaped moths landed on the window after dark.

Egrets and cormorants came driving a school of fish around 10am.  There were at least 6 egrets.  Later, a pelican cruised up the creek and back down.  Then toward dusk, a female kingfisher landed on the dock bench and proceeded to repeatedly whack the fish she's caught.  The fish looked way too big for her to swallow.  It was a wild scene but the low light made the camera struggle.

Gray morning

There wasn't any activity at the feeders.  A feeble spatter of rain began falling around 10am.  I saw some hoodies on the creek, but no cormorants.

The clouds disappeared between 3 and 3pm.  A jittery flock of birds zipped around the hackberry, unfortunately back-lighted by the sky.  I think it included a titmouse, a chickadee, a nuthatch, and goodness knows what else.  Several of the birds were fluttering around pine cones.  I also saw several blue jays and glimpsed a male yellow bellied sapsucker. 

In the sunshine, a great blue heron stood like a post next to the piling that guides the neighbor's floating dock. Clouds blocked the setting sun and by 6:30pm there were lightning flashes and sporadic heavy rain into the night. 

Fair weather for voting

It was cool, but bright with the remains of heavy dew.  The creek was glassy until a hundred or so cormorants chased fish upstream.  The birds flew back down so I guess that the fish either escaped or were all eaten.  The creek slowly smoothed, only to be disturbed by geese.

Lots of birds came for lunch.  The regulars were joined by a female downy woodpecker, a white throated sparrow, and a yellow rumped warbler.  A buzzard flew over.

Four egrets flew into the afternoon sun as though in formation. A grasshopper landed on the window.  The sky grew hazy and a mallard pair glided on the creek which was dusted with fallen leaves. 

Breezy and fishy

The creek was not placid this morning.  Geese, cormorants, an egret, and other waterfowl all took off downstream.  I spotted what appeared to be a very small duck later, but might have just been an odd angle.  A brown thrasher tossed mulch under the cedar.  Then a couple of squirrels began foreplay up and down the trunk.

At lunch time, a flock of cormorants were driving fish up the creek.  They were accompanied by gulls, egrets, and at least one great blue heron.  Pretty soon the whole hullabaloo came back downstream.  When they continued down past the dam, I got a glimpse between the tree trunks of a pair of hooded mergansers.  What kind of fish they were after was a mystery. Puffy cumulus clouds began to appear in the blue sky. 

Just before sunset, again, a kingfisher appeared, only this one was male.  He caught dinner and took it across the creek into the shade. 

No more saving daylight

No more dawns for a while, the sun was already glittering on the creek when I got up.  A kingfisher zoomed across the creek down by the dam.  Later a heron flew upstream, U-turned and flew back to the dock across the creek.  A single crow pursued a red tailed hawk back and forth overhead.  A couple of squirrels canoodled on the cedar trunk.  None of them waited for me to fumble with the camera. 

Some small brownish flying bugs caught the afternoon sun, but were too fast for me to identify.  First one, then a second flicker flew over the yard, flaunting yellow-shafted wings.  The white-throated sparrow returned.  A couple of doves hung around and one startled a squirrel.  Later, I saw a squirrel chase a dove out of the cherry. I also saw one nibbling on morning glory seeds!

Fish kept leaping and a female kingfisher perched on various pilings like Goldilocks testing suitability.  It settled on a post on the neighbor's dock next to a great blue heron.  A large flock of mallards followed a convoy of Canada geese. I couldn't get the heron into the picture with the kingfisher, but I did catch a passing mallard. 

Sunny

It was a beautiful day but we were gone from early morning till late afternoon.  In the morning, the sun painted warm reflections on the creek.  In the evening, a male cardinal shared the birdbath with the first white-throated sparrow of the Fall.  They were both drinking, not bathing.  Cormorants flew over the creek.  A sickle moon hung overhead in the twilight.

Chill wind

A cold front rolled South in the night bring rain and a big drop in temperature,  The sky cleared around dawn which again tinted the clouds.  The wind pushed the tide much higher than one would expect for a moon approaching first quarter.

The chilly wind may have discouraged birds and bugs.  I saw none of the latter and only a few birds.  A male cardinal bumped the window and a male finch visited the feeder.  A yellow rumped warbler and a titmouse sampled the suet but got away before I could focus. A buzzard circled. 

Geese and mallards were out on the water and the new neighbor fished from his dock.  I got a glimpse of an egret by the dam outfall.