Fall Birdwatching

[pameladean]

I don't know if it's the Niger thistle in the bird-feeders, the fact that I am regularly up and about much earlier than I have been for the past few years, or mere variation in the behavior of the birds, but we are actually getting Confusing Fall Warblers coming through right now. In addition to the unidentifiable warblers, we have about a dozen ruby-crowned kinglets, at least two black-and-white warblers (they walk headfirst down tree trunks and I was glancing at them from a distance and thinking that they were nuthatches, but they are much less stocky; in any case, we may have had them before), and what I think, though I'm not sure, are common redpolls. I also wonder if the common redpolls are the chunky finch-beaked reddish birds that dreampark saw on her bicycle rides earlier this year.

I think I've also seen some goldfinches. It's not the greatest time for birdwatching, even with binoculars. The places the birds like to haunt are against the southern sky, which has the sun in it; the leaves are still mostly on the trees; and these birds, especially kinglets, tend to flutter and move around a lot.

But I am cheered to see them.