It’s What Season, Again?

It’s no wonder I seem to be more confused than usual lately.

It’s the third week of October, and right on schedule, the Arctic birds are starting to arrive. Rough-legged hawks, snow buntings and tundra swans are being regularly reported. My yard now has a couple of resident mountain chickadees, and the common redpolls have already made an appearance.

It’s the third week of October, the temperature is around 20C  (70F), the sun is shining, and I’m still wearing shorts and flip flops. Plovers, snipe, American tree sparrows and even rusty blackbirds are being reported in the area. My yard is home to four happy, well fed mourning doves. There’s a common grackle floating around occasionally.

I don’t know whether to think winter or summer. We haven’t seen a cloud since the first of the month, but the leaves are red and yellow. My roses are still blooming. If I was to spend the entire day on the deck, I would have to add/subtract clothes about four times.

We’re in the process of winterizing the house and making it more energy efficient but it’s hard to get in the swing of things when all the windows are open and there’s a warm, gentle breeze blowing through.

I took some time away from working the other day in an attempt to get pictures of the mountain chickadees. If anyone thinks black-capped chickadees are hard to catch in a photo, spend some time trying to photograph their hyper active mountain cousins. This is the best I’ve come up with so far.  I think my rate is 1 bird to 10 bird-less shots…

But no matter how busy I am in the house, it’s nice to know that as I’m slaving away, there are some keen eyes watching the birds in the yard on my behalf!