Friday, October 2, 2015, provided a change of weather from what we had been experiencing earlier in the week.  The day was overcast and much cooler.  My wife called me on the phone shortly after I finished my walk and coffee and told me that the yard was full of American robins.  I was home a few minutes later and they were still around, remaining until after I had taken a mid-morning nap.  I decided that there were probably some good photos to be had and that there was a good chance that our recent Varied thrush visitor might be among them.  I retrieved my camera and took to the yard.  There was no Varied thrush (either by sight or sound) but the birds just kept coming… especially the American robins.

Here are some of the more innocent photos of the robins staging around the watercourse…

There were so many robins trying to use the birdbath that conflicts inevitably arose.  Here are just a few of the incidents of threatening posture that I recorded…

I was hoping that all the activity would bring in a few rarer visitors, but aside from an absolutely featureless Yellow-rumped warbler and a flock of about 40 Snow geese headed south, it was pretty much the same old crowd.

Here’s one of the many European starlings that came down from the treetops for a bath…

and one of our first Golden-crowned sparrows which will presumably be with us for the rest of the winter…