Day 17.307: High tide and lofty birds

Some photos from the chilly morning visit to cemetery today where we saw the tidal river higher than any of us recalled. The jetty was almost completely submerged. The line of it runs right past the small island with the trees.

For almost-certainly unrelated reasons, many of the birds we saw were also high - in the branches of trees. 

Bluebirds eating oriental bittersweet fruit:

Red-bellied woodpecker catching the early morning sun:

A mourning dove in the same tree:

A mystery blackbird perched between us and the sun making identification impossible. 

But then obligingly moved and was revealed to be a young red-winged blackbird:

Three blue jays in a row;

An unidentified duck - low down, but higher than normal given the tide (incidentally it was still an hour before high tide when we were there). 

As usual, we suspect the hawk saw us before we saw it. 

A dark-eyed junci:

And a tufted titmouse: