Good morning everyone and a very happy Saturday to you as well! It’s a bit chilly this morning with a temp of 48F (9C). It’s supposed to warm up to 70F (21C), though that’s a little hard to believe. It has been nice and sunny as well, but the clouds are moving in now. Tomorrow the temp is supposed to climb all the way to 85F (29C). I just can’t imagine that one, though it has happened like that before around this time in September. We get one hot day, then the temp falls back to normal, which is what will happen this year too, Monday the temp falls again drastically. Oh well.

There are 15 blue jays out here this morning, and 5 chipmunks, 4 of my chipmunks are no longer coming so I guess they have enough stored away for the winter and they have decided it’s time to stay in their little dens. Well, with all the peanuts they have been hiding away this summer, those “little” dens must be quite big! It should be quite nice down at the river these days. The old pine needles are turning brown and starting to fall covering everything below with those bright rusty brown needles. It looks very nice and that new layer of needles can get quite thick in places. Much of the path at the river is just a thick mat of pine needles, very soft and quiet for walking on.

But it would be fairly quiet now, might hear some chickadees and nuthatches. A few woodpeckers would show up now and then. There would still be a few sparrows around, crows too, blue jays would be heard now and then though most have moved into town for the winter. But there wouldn’t be the singing of the summer birds, just little chirps here and there. The chickadees actually sing more in winter than summer it seems, singing out their name as they hunt for food and hide as much as they can for the tough winter months ahead. Most of our winter birds will do that, otherwise they wouldn’t survive the winter. The ones who find bird feeders for the winter have an easy time, which is good.

I feed birds, which helps them, and by their coming around it brightens up my winter, which helps me. Some of our winter birds have already started coming around looking for food. This is the time of year they start planning where to eat for the winter, so I will need to start feeding properly very soon. I have to make my feeder a little more bear proof first, if there is such a thing. I’ll make it harder for them if nothing else. And I’ll make sure there’s no food out there at night. But it’s necessary to begin, or I won’t have many birds around this winter.

More color is showing up in the trees, leaves are falling, scattering around on the lawns, giving that beautiful fall look. We had a few days this past week with a lot of eagles heading south. We always have a few that stay here along the river, but most go south. Mostly it has been bald eagles, but I have also seen a few golden eagles. Autumn can be a beautiful time of year. For us it is mostly cool, cloudy and wet, but we do get some nice sunny weather too, usually in early October, but it doesn’t normally last very long. But it’s so nice, beautiful sunshine and bright colors, a fabulous mix. I think the chipmunks are calling for more food. I hope you all have a beautiful weekend and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2021 Steve McLeod.