dodging the wind and rain

High winds yesterday morning. Rain came later in the day. This is the kind of weather that big birds like: gulls, herons, the bigger woodpeckers, some of the larger passerines (Am. Robins, Blue Jays) like very much. The smaller birds tend to lie low and the passerine migrants are stalled somewhere. After the rain let up this morning, there was a busy period with nearly all the local birds actively looking for food! 'Local' in this case also includes White-throated and Swamp Sparrow, Ruby-crowned Kinglet and Yellow-rumped Warbler, all relatively recent arrivals. One new bird: a thrush greedily gobbling Red Cedar berries; it was undoubtedly a Hermit (I didn't see the tail but the face and the densely spotted throat seemed right). Eric Salzman