Towheeblog

September 22  The Wind and The Rain

Overnight the wind brought down manty leaves, conifer needles and small limbs.  Dawn brought the end of rain and that, in turn, brought out the birds and squirrels, pleased with the new day.

The tree squirrels today were clear on the pairing of busyness with business.  Their bumptious busyness was the business of being squirrel.  Gorging themselves, then caching more for future feasting.  Surely their taste in food is as expansive as any French gourmand: from birds‘ eggs to hazelnuts.  Yet you never see a fat squirrel.  Their frantic aerial acrobatics seem to keep them trim and toned.  In squirreldom, one false jump, one road crossing a step too slowly—finis.

The birds were appreciative of dry morning.  At least a hundred starlings had come back into town from the feats in fall fields.  Now they shall set about denuding any bush or tree with fruit or nut or berry or seed.  In this they have the eager assistance of waxwings and robins.

You can see indications that this may be a siskin winter.  Last winter: nada.  Winer of 2015-2016 very siskin-rich.  Today several crowded my feeder. Temporarily, at least, they out-number the juncos. Want to make a Golden-crowned Sparrow look huge?  Place him next to some siskins.

Never given to overt friendliness a lone Bewick’s Wren encountered Nora and I on our neighborhood walk.  We were greeted with sharp scold notes and nasally snarl.  Mr. Bewick did not accept our nearness to his hazelnut tree.  There was not question about his right of possession in that wreny brain.

Seen yesterday this may be the last American Goldfinch in our garden this year:With the cold weather finding prfey gets harded for predators seeking arthropods.  So the woodpeckers are becoming regulars at the surt once more.  Yesterday a female flickers, this morning a Downy.  Across the street I saw a sapsucker at work.This cat is ready for Halloween, costume in place, mask like the Phantom of the Opera.

820 NW 19th Street, McMinnville, Yamhill, Oregon, US
Oct 21, 2017. 12 species

Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)  X
Northern Flicker (Red-shafted) (Colaptes auratus [cafer Group])  1
California Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica)  1
Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)  1
Chestnut-backed Chickadee (Poecile rufescens)  2
Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis)  1
American Robin (Turdus migratorius)  10
European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)  X
Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon) (Junco hyemalis [oreganus Group])  12
Golden-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla)  2
American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis)  1
House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)  X

820 NW 19th Street, McMinnville, Yamhill, Oregon, US
Oct 22, 2017. 16 species

Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)  X
Red-breasted Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus ruber)  1
Downy Woodpecker (Pacific) (Picoides pubescens gairdnerii/turati)  1
California Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica)  1
Chestnut-backed Chickadee (Poecile rufescens)  2
Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis)  1
American Robin (Turdus migratorius)  20
European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)  100
Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum)  15
Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon) (Junco hyemalis [oreganus Group])  8
Golden-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla)  1
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia)  1
Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus)  1
Pine Siskin (Spinus pinus)  9
American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis)  1
House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)  X