Rain Society

The last three weeks have been rainy-stormy. Then a few days of clear weather and colder, with frost. Today, cloudy and now raining again. We have seen a male hairy woodpecker the last week, approximately. Hadn't seen him practically all summer. Nice to have him rejoin our backyard club.

Fun Fun Fun

Two days ago, we saw an immature yellow-rumped warbler, also known as Myrtle's warbler. There was a gathering of juncos and pine siskins at the feeder, during a break in the rain, and one little guy sat off to the side, looking slightly different and behaving slightly differently. I took a look with binoculars, and sure enough, it was an immature warbler. Then yesterday, again during a break in the rain, we saw a ruby-crowned kinglet and a fox sparrow. The fox sparrow was flying around our tripod where we have our recirculating water for the bird bath, but that was disconnected and drained the previous day. So he was looking for his usual bath, but did not find it. Just goes to prove how they are such creatures of habit. The edge of the porch, only a few feet away, holds two small birdbaths, standing water, not recirculating, but the birds tend not to go there unless they are crowded out of the moving birdbath. So he just flew around where it should have been and then left.

Fall is Here

Back after a long absence. Saw some nice birds while Outside, including two new birds, Red-Eyed Vireo and Carolina Wren. Also saw black-throated green warbler, one we've seen before but only one time. The Vireo is not a new sighting either but we've never positively identified it before. Lots of familiar birds, cardinals, blue jays, tufted titmice, white-breasted nuthatches, doves, chickadees, goldfinches and house finches. Saw flying overhead several times, a great blue heron. Also red-tailed hawks and turkey vultures. Plus wild turkeys.

On our return, we noticed a lot of juncos of various maturities, as well as some immature sparrows, and one or two white-crowned adults, an occasional golden-crowned sparrow, and a fox sparrow. Some of these birds we don't see so often, like the fox sparrow, but they often show up at the end of the season. Stellars Jays seem to be back. Although there aren't many fall colors yet and no frost here at our house, the air feels more fall-ish.

Hawk Sighting

Nothing much to write about for a while - had a great sighting today, though, of a Northern Harrier swooping around our backyard for about 5 seconds. Woulda missed it if I hadn't just coincidentally been looking out. We have had dozens of immature white-crowned sparrows, nuthatches, boreal and black-capped chickadees, juncos and pine siskins, coming into feed and drink, bathe, hang out. It's been a very busy month. Nothing very new or exciting. No kinglets for ages, and only a couple of sightings of myrtle's warblers.

Sunny Bath

This afternoon was very sunny, had not been watching outside for a few hours. Then around 5 pm, we looked out and saw a brown creeper on our spruce tree copse, and in a few moments, he was on the tripod at the birdbath along with three immatures. They flitted around and finally settled in to bathe. The most we have ever seen is one at a time! This was pretty cool. A lot of immature birds of various species coming in to bathe, the last several days.

Blink of An Eye

Three sightings in the last 3-4 days -- owl flying over our house in the late evening on Solstice, I looked one way and Tom looked the other, he saw the owl, I did not. Next morning, I saw a harrier fly over our backporch while I was glancing out the back window, no more than 10' up off the ground. Tom had just looked down into his breakfast plate. He missed it this time, I was the lucky one. Then yesterday, out on the Kenai River flats, 2nd visit, I stood and stared at the flats and kept looking for the Willet which had been reported. Suddenly the wings flashed by my field of vision (prob. 400 yards or more out) - I looked at the bird landing - he stood there and looked around, ate, walked, did nothing much. I kept hoping he'd fly again to make sure I knew what I was seeing. After about 3-4 minutes he did fly, and the distinctive wing pattern appeared. I watched him fly off for about 5 seconds. Yippee! A new bird on my list. Came back later - more people there, including Tom, no luck. Again this morning, no luck.

Harrier

Great sighting of a northern harrier today, swooping thru and around in our backyard, thru the trees, more amazingly since the harrier's wing span is so huge and there is not much space to navigate, but he turned sideways and went up and over and around. Assumed he was chasing some prey, never did see what it was or if he caught it. Quite a sight. All in all, probably took about 10 seconds or maybe a bit more. One glance in the wrong direction, would have missed it entirely.