Today I had hoped to do a little birdwatching in the Prenzlauerberg neighborhood after meeting a friend for coffee. But today the Berlin weather reached its nadir. Or perhaps I should say that it reached a point that had better well be the nadir. I still met my friend, but only after some terrible experiences for the both of us. Waiting for (delayed!) transit involved pools of slush encroaching from below, steady drips of icy water from above, and light but constant precipitation, of the just barely frozen kind, penetrating from all sides. Once the transit arrived things did not get much better, the trains being crammed with wet, grouchy commuters, some percentage of whom I am sure were carrying the flu virus that has recently struck a few of my friends. So I decided that today was a day I would happily leave to the birds to enjoy by themselves, and headed home immediately after coffee, where I sat on the couch with my warm cat and read about birds instead. Hopefully the weather will soon improve so that I can have some colorful photos and stories for you, dear reader. Until then I will be studying the nomenclature for wing feathers and techniques for identifying gulls.