Towheeblog

In nature nothing we see, hear, feel, sense, nothing lasts forever. In this hour, in this time, more than ever we note that nothing lasts. Not the centuries old forests in the Cascades, not the coastal beaches in the face of a hurricane, not the tropics’ glorious coral reefs, not the once-tremendous flocks of monarch butterflies, not our neighbors, not our selves.
Smoked in I watch the world outside through glass, air filters blowing and droning constantly. And I cannot miss the comings, and the goings, the here at this moment and perhaps not again until next year.

This morning a Willow Flycatcher was hunting from the edges of our trees and rose bushes. The first I’ve seen here and maybe the last until…

Yesterday there was a single young White-crowed Sparrow, clean feathered. Today two, even younger, their feathers still those of new fledglings, fuzzed and indistinct. Will there be any tomorrow? Most of their kind are headed further south.

It’s been two days since I got my look at a Hermit Thrush, none since. A swift yesterday but perhaps “sayonara” until spring.

TIME TO KICK ASH

WHITE-CROWN STARES BACK

CHICAKDEE ACTION

WRENEGADE OF THE GARDEN
He’s around every day, youngster, I suspect, with that pathetic imitation of a wren tail:

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American Goldfinch, left. House Finch, right:

SONG SPARROW

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The roses are still blooming profusely. An occasional butterfly or dragonfly passes the window, A large garden spider has her web hanging from the frame, a small fly hangs therein. A snack before dark.

I broke one of my own personal rules today and am chagrined. I always tell myself, “never leave home without your camera.” We needed to make a grocery run after four days in the house. As we drove down our driveway a skunk sniffed and moped along the hedge that edges the drive. In normal times I would exclaim about this generally nocturnal critter, “What’s he doing out in broad daylight [it was about 230PM]?”
Of course, there is no broad daylight around here now. No high noon. We have dusk, we have low light levels, fog-like fuzzy vision, then we have darker skies and then we have night without moon or stars. The poor skunk may have had no idea he was abroad in the after noon. Noon, what’s that?

954 Ratcliff Drive SE, Marion, Oregon, US
Sep 15, 2020. 14 species

Mallard 6, fly over
Downy Woodpecker  1
Willow Flycatcher  1
Steller’s Jay  1
California Scrub-Jay  2
American Crow  X
Black-capped Chickadee  2
Bushtit  20
Bewick’s Wren  1
European Starling  X
House Finch  3
American Goldfinch  12
White-crowned Sparrow  2
Song Sparrow  1