And just like that, it’s almost Halloween. Somehow, the past 2 months have flown by in a blink for me! The photo above is of my last flowers of the season in my backyard. They were lovely this year.
Because I’ve been so busy recently with winterizing plus a family emergency (all’s good!), most of this month’s post with be photos. Hope you don’t mind.
Soggy Blue Jay in late summer showers
Immature Crow parked in the bird bath. I had 4 baby Crows this year.
Beautiful Cedar Waxwing in my Mountain Ash tree. It had 1 youngster with it.
The young Cedar Waxwing
Adorable Chickadee in my Honeysuckle Shrub.
Lots of Dark Eyed Juncos in the yard this year!
Still lots of Purple Finches around too.
Second batch of White Crowned Sparrows have just moved through. This one is an immature.
Some White Throated Sparrows are still here. Love them!
Adult White Crowned Sparrow standing on my Heron statue
The Grackles LOVED the sunflowers that grew in my yard this year.
Some autumn visitors have returned or passed through recently.
American Pipit – I love these little birds! Sometimes I see hundreds of them in the fall, other times, like this year, I only see a small handful. I only had 3 on my lawn this season.
Lovely Grousie has returned to my yard for another season! I actually think I have 2 Ruffed Grouse coming around as their personalities are quite different.
I have now had 6 Rose Breasted Grosbeaks pass through the yard this season. I think that’s a record for my yard in one season.
Some beautiful water birds have been passing through this region lately.
We found this Greater Yellowlegs in a pond on a back road near here on Thanksgiving weekend. I found 4 more at my local beach last week.
A first-time sighting for me: Pectoral Sandpipers moved through this region in the past 2 weeks!
These 2 Pectoral Sandpipers had quite the physical altercation! One finally flew away from the other after battling for about 3 minutes.
As you can see, we now have some snow on the ground. It won’t stay just yet as we are FINALLY supposed to get some sunshine in the coming week. We are all desperate here for some natural vitamin D!
I found a flock of Horned Larks at the local airport. Look closely: it’s hard to see but the bird furthest to the left is actually a Lapland Longspur … the only one I’ve seen so far this season!
3 stunning Fox Sparrows visited my yard this week. Always excited to see our largest Sparrow!
A friend of mine made a discovery of Snow Geese on our local golf course this morning:
Some white phased Snow Geese (photo used with permission, by J. Senzca)
And a blue phase Snow Goose (photo used with permission, by J. Senzca)
In other news, Project FeederWatch is beginning on November 10th & runs until April 5, 2019. Please consider signing up for this highly worthy winter-long bird count! I run a webcam in my backyard for it (aimed at my feeder station), that I have on loan from Cornell Lab of Ornithology. We are back up and streaming for the season! Please check it out & feel free to leave a comment or two!
Thanks so much for reading & viewing. See you in November!
My favorite, the Cedar Waxwing!
It’s on my bucket list to see one in the wild some day! Beautiful photos Tammie! Thanks for all you do!
I love these! Thank you.
Love the blogs
Tammie …Another great post! What a treat for us to see the incredible variety of Northern bird life that lives & passes through Manitouwadge & your backyard haven.. .. Thank YOU & Judy S, for sharing these wonderful images, & thank you for ALL you & Ben do to make their lives a bit safer, & us more aware. P.S…time to do a book ❤️
Hi Tammie.
What camera and lenses do you use? I love your photos in this issue of Notes. I particularly love the detail in your photo of the Dark Eyed Junco and the White Throated Sparrow. And did you shoot these photos at a distance, or fairly close up? I’m a huge fan of Notes and your bird webcam.
Regards,
Karen Peltier
Your notes are never disappointing Tammie and the pictures are awesome.
Amazing and beautiful–you are so fortunate to have all these birds visit you..Thank you so much!
oops. Just deleted my comment. It sorta said
“Thank you for posting! and a few other words about me being a bird-deprived city dweller.”
So: thank you again.