After the sleet and rain yesterday afternoon the temperature dropped and the rain froze as it fell so we looked out on a glistening world this morning. It was beautiful but everything was covered with such a heavy coat of ice that the birds could get nothing to eat until it began to thaw about noon. I went out before breakfast and put warm water in both of the bird baths and broke the film of ice on the big pool. Then poured hot water over all the suet to get the coating of ice off. I also put out bread crumbs again and tiny pieces of chopped apple on the trays and ground. The cardinals (6 at one time), Juncos, white throated sparrows, a few song sparrows, Myrtle Warblers visited the tray and ground all day.

I saw a Tufted Titmouse at the suet today for the first time. There were six Cedar Waxwings eating ligustrum berries at the dining room window when the mockingbird came back to feed and he was mad with rage. He sailed into them like a young torpedo and sent them flying. Not content with that he continued to chase until both were almost exhausted. Then he came back to eat. But at intervals all day long he would chase the Waxwings whenever he would see them. He really is a “terrible tempered Mr. Bong”. I saw two more new birds which I had never seen before but couldn’t identify them as I was holding the bluebird box in the oak tree while Eddie was putting it up. One of the birds looked like a white breasted nuthatch and was going up the trunk of a pine after the fashion of a nuthatch. The other was a tiny little bird who was so inquisitive about our business that he came in the Oak over our heads and popped all about looking down at us. I was on the verge of dropping the Bluebird house to look at him when he left. We put up two bluebird houses today. One on the East side of the garage and one on the East side of the trunk of the oak tree. I saw the Hermit Thrush fly out of the Ligustrum today but I do not know whether he eats the berries or not.