Flying South

Last night I heard the sound of Canada geese flying south. I heard hundreds of them. Thousands. This morning, before dawn, I still heard them, the sound far away as they are flying very high.

This morning a ruby-crowned kinglet strikes the window in front of my computer. It wasn't a hard strike. The bird simply moved back several feet and sat on a twig, twitching its tail for a few seconds before moving deeper into the forest. My foster kitty Patience was thrilled by the encounter. She spent 3 months in a cage in a kill shelter without any access to windows before coming to foster here. Since then, she spends all her time looking out one of my windows. This week her favorite spot is on top of the computer, which placed her about 4 feet away from the kinglet.

Last evening the sky was filled with starling and grackles, a scene reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. Throughout the day, corvids (blue jays and crows) were moving south. Over at the pond, I found this killdeer, more geese, several mallards.

The trees are changing color, though many still have a ways to go. Although the color this year is pretty good, certainly better than last fall, the trees aren't all turning at the same time, so I don't know if the impact of the colors will be as dramatic as usual.

The cooler weather makes the dogs wild. Baby Dog charges around, dashing from one thing to the next, always at full speed. Dog wants to run too, and last night we played "chase" in the driveway. First, I chased him, then he chased me. It's his favorite game at the moment.