Autumn Gold

We have been banding American goldfinches – 30 to 50 or more a day, and still are catching bandless birds. This adult male stood out in the crowd today, as he was much more brightly colored than most of his companions, which have faded to shades of greenish-gold and mottled browns.

There were evening grosbeaks inspecting [...]

Nuthatches and White-Tails

Fall migration continues, and although we’re not seeing a lot of warblers, we are getting a nice variety of sparrows, finches, and even pine siskins, which we haven’t seen in years and years.
One of my all-time favorites are the red-breasted nuthatches (RBNU), and we finally caught this one a few days ago. The RBNUs nested [...]

Back to Birds…

Like the spring migration, the fall migration has been a little weird, probably due to the above-normal temperatures and lack of northwesterly winds. I’m terribly late in getting detailed reports and numbers together, but we’ve had some nice birds in the past week or two.

This stunning yellow-shafted (northern) flicker was a nice catch; usually they [...]

Thanks

Thank you to everyone who sent comments concerning the loss of Boomer.  It was a hard day.  I still have my moments, and I’m sure I will have them for a long time.  I will not be getting another dog – in 15 years I’ll be too old to do this again.  I have a [...]

Boomer

Boomer died today. He was 15 – maybe 16.  He died peacefully at the vet’s, while being held in my arms. That’s all I can say right now.

Online Again and Caterpillars

I’m really tired of moving! No matter how big or small the move is, there are always complications – like having limited internet accesa on two different computers! Finally, all new connections have been made, and I’m able to post here once again.
It’s been an interesting week or so, on many fronts, and it’s going [...]