The week started warm and humid, shirt-sleeves weather, and then the arctic cold front moved in on November 30, producing hard freezes three of the next four nights.
Ahead of the front, the first American goldfinches of the winter arrived on November 28 at Owl Water, sticking close together like tourists just off the bus in a foreign city. We usually have at least two flocks of 30 or more on the place for a couple of months.
I may need to widen part of the "stream" since one robin bathing fills it side to side. This one's splash-range suggests where some of the water goes; beyond that, another robin watches.
Small birds seem to prefer the first pool below the "fall"; it's more enclosed by the sides and may feel safer. It also has a sloping pebble "beach". This male yellow-rumped warbler came out of the water and did a complete fluff-out...unfortunately I just missed seeing his crown patch standing up (you can see it here, but not the complete puffball he wore for a second or so.) These birds normally look so sleek and well-groomed that the puffed-out version was laughable.
This one, for instance, posed prettily on the dragonflies' perch-stick, among the water-iris leaves, and only my fumbling fingers prevented a dozen good shots.	Here's one on a favorite drinking rock. With photographic malice aforethought, I placed a rock in the water right where it would be easy to photograph from Owl Pavilion. Birds can and do drink anywhere along the stream...including behind the Indian grass clump...but this rock makes it easy for them, if they don't mind a little shutter-click..
This Harris's sparrow has much less black on the head and face than the one in last week's images...it might be the individual first photographed here this fall, but I can't be sure.	A close-up view of the head shows how each crown feather on this bird is bicolored in black and brown. That produces the "brush-cut" or brindled effect, especially when the bird erects those feathers, as it often does when alerted.
This pair of house finches flew in from across the meadow, chirping at one another as they flew, and immediately headed for the upper pool, where both drank and bathed together. The very black liner "walls" that help them feel safe got in my way of this picture, but I did capture the two heads together.
"Faster than a speeding bullet..." the Superjay takes off for the south fencerow. This is the weirdest in-flight picture I've seen....the wings were folded between flaps, but still...

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