The birds have begun their fall migration, and some of them are visiting my backyard.
Last week an Eastern Phoebe spent part of her afternoon sitting on one of my feeder poles. I didn’t see her eat or drink anything. She just seemed content to sit still and take in her surroundings for a half-hour or so.
A beautiful Baltimore Oriole also landed on my feeder, but I couldn’t scramble to get my camera in time, so I was only able to snap this far-away shot when he flew to some power lines. His wife was with him too. She was jumping around in the arborvitaes.
I spotted a small flock of Brown Thrashers hanging out in the neighbor’s hickory tree one evening. I wouldn’t have noticed them, except they started calling to one another which caused me to look up.
A couple of warblers have also stopped by to look for insects in the garden.
Unfortunately new flocks of grackles are also dropping by. They’re making a mess of the birdbaths and gulping down food like it’s the last nourishment they’ll ever see. Normally I’d take down my feeders, but I don’t want to risk missing a visit from an interesting migrating bird.