We’re beginning to transition to our cooler fall weather. I’ve been disappointed in the number of fall migrants entering the yard, but on the other hand, some of our winter residents are beginning to arrive.

As is my usual habit lately, on September 23, 2021, I spent time in the afternoon monitoring the yard for birding activity. The (Oregon) Dark-eyed juncos are beginning to arrive and will soon be our most numerous yard-bird species, assuming that I can keep discouraging the House sparrows. I continue to marvel at the feather patterns in the detailed photos I get, something that may not be evident in the photos I post to my blog.

We have one very active juvenile Spotted towhee in the yard that has figured out how to garner peanut halves, and it’s a beautiful specimen of a bird! I think the two sets of adults that were around the yard for the breeding season may have departed the immediate area.

Golden-crowned sparrows have returned from their breeding grounds north and east of here. Our first arrival on September 10 seemed to be a juvenile which I at first had trouble identifying, but now several adults have arrived. By winter we should have 6-8 residents which will be with us until the sporing.

For the past couple of weeks we have had at least one Golden-crowned kinglet pass through the yard every day, but I have yet this year to obtain a decent photo of one.

There are perhaps two problems with what I perceive as a relative dearth of migrants this fall. As I stated in a prior blog post, I was overrun with House sparrows this fall. I responded by restricting the amount and kinds of food available to them and that has been a creative success. On the other hand, over the past several weeks we have had a rather unwelcome (especially to other birds) visitor to the yard, often several times a day. This is one of perhaps a pair of juvenile Cooper’s hawks whose main prey is other birds!

But back to September 23… as I was about to retire for the day I noticed a large group of raccoons heading for the yard from the adjacent parkland. I realized that their path would probably bring them in front of my camera lens, so I waited patiently. I wasn’t disappointed! There were at least five in the main group, but I believe that two others crossed our alley before the main group was separated by a walking neighbor.