All Quiet in the Backyard

This morning, a few voles, some late night-early morning feeders. The chickadees, nuthatches, magpies, gray jays, and stellar jays are about all we've seen lately. We have seen two brown creepers in the past two weeks. No owl nor other unusual bird. Of course, the one sighting of the golden-crowned kinglet was a big surprise. I found out that sometimes they do linger on into the early winter, as long as they can find frozen bugs, and sometimes they even feed on suet. That was a new one for us.

Awaiting a midnight marauder in the form of an owl. With all our voles showing up nightly, we think some predator will pick up on that.

Cold temperatures and some fresh snow, blowing about in this morning's brisk breeze.

Surprising Sighting for November

This morning around 11 AM we saw a golden-crowned kinglet out in our spruce copse near the house. I'd seen a brown creeper yesterday, so at first when I saw the kinglet, because of its small size and quick movements, I thought it was the creeper, but of course it did not go up and down the trunk, but was instead flitting around in the spruce branches. Then it suddenly came out towards the end of the branch where I could clearly see its head with the black and white lines around the eyes and the golden crown. What a surprise!

The other beauty we saw earlier was a handsome male spruce grouse, black throat and distinctive feather patterns very clear.

The front page of the Clarion had a great photo of a raven silhouetted against the full moon.

Photo feature: And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting ... | Peninsula Clarion

Photo feature: And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting ... Peninsula Clarion

A Welcome, but Infrequent Visitor

This afternoon we saw a brown creeper creeping around the trunk of our nearest biggest spruce tree, low to the ground. He disappeared and then briefly reappeared behind and around the next spruce trunk over to the right. Then moved further right to the next trunk and on up to the 6-7' level. Then into the branches and gone. Just the right moment to be looking out.

A few moments later, we saw a red-backed vole munching on whatever they like to munch, right below the feeder and then about an hour later, we saw 4 voles running up and down the trunk to the feeder. We are so happy to see all these voles, a good sign that their population did not crash as we had feared. Maybe our saw-whet owl will be back around Thanksgiving as he was last year and the previous year.

Our chickadee population is very healthy looking, we are thankful for that. A lot of black-caps as well as boreals, and of course the nuthatches are regulars.

Snowy Yard

This morning we had a male hairy woodpecker visiting our backyard feeders. We've had about 7 inches of snow and the weather's gotten colder, so we finally can put out suet and the magpies and jays have been visiting the feeder, and today we saw our lovely woodpecker. The brilliant red stands out so clearly against the white and black, and of course, the background of snow and dark trees, makes the red even more stunning.

Healthy Chickadees

Today, as the wind and rain/snow blustered around, black-capped chickadees came into the feeder. There were about 6 of them. We've had chickadees with deformed beaks in the past so we are always looking closely but they all looked very healthy and lively. Their color contrast is so sharp and elegant. They are always our most faithful visitors.

Beginning of November

October ended with a few more sightings of spruce grouse, they always take us by surprise. We have been seeing them quite often, but the other day we stepped out into our courtyard and three of them flew up from right by our feet into the spruce trees. We still occasionally see a hairy woodpecker, sometimes the male and sometimes the female. Chickadees regularly and nuthatches. Gray jays and Steller jays. Magpies. We keep listening for and watching for owls. We have seen more vole activity on the feeders, so that is encouraging, an owl may show up one night on the feeder, and we keep checking late at night as we wake up and look around. Even though it's been cold at times, overall there is not that much ice on the rivers yet, so there is still a lot of bird activity. On a drive from Homer, I saw a lot of eagles, ravens, crows, and gulls. In some ways, it seems like early October. We are anticipating snow and colder weather at any point.