Daily Journal
Walked about 3.1 miles this morning – overcast, but not too cold despite the dusting of snow last night.
Happened across a flock of juncos flittering about a clearing, and noticed a purple finch watching them from a nearby bush. A couple of titmice flew from branch to branch overhead, and a nuthatch bobbed down the trunk of one of the larger trees.
Saw the fat cardinal in his bush again, and the cluster of bushes behind him was blazing with the bright red feathers and neon orange beaks of other cardinals, cheeping background vocals to his loud song. The cardinals were out in force this morning, singing loudly from tall branches and chirping from the underbrush.
The mud was frozen enough that I could walk out by the beaver dam, which has seemingly doubled in size since I last saw it. Lots of fresh deer tracks in the snow around the banks of the creek, and a skittish bluebird tried to stay one tree ahead of me as I walked forward.
Then I walked down to the park, and saw a couple of enormous chattering crows preening themselves on branches over the creek. A blue jay, seemingly annoyed with the cavorting squirrels, did his best hawk impersonation, screaming and swooping down in their direction. The squirrels scurried for cover, while another blue jay nonchalantly went on digging through the dead leaves on the ground. I heard a red-bellied woodpecker, and when I finally spotted him, I noticed that the tree to his left held a small downy woodpecker, while the tree to his right hosted a couple of nuthatches.