Monday, Oct.17 close to noon, I first heard, then saw, then heard some more, one perky little Pacific Wren, in my woods - luckily, it persisted in its calls for 5 or so minutes, as it flitted in the understory, from branch to branch.

Today, at around 12:30 or so, I was drawn outside by the calls and sounds of many different birds, mostly feeding on cotoneaster and other berries, and pecking seeds out of the moss on my roof (juncos, Steller's Jays, Spotted Towhees and a good variety of precious and prevalent LBBs). Then in flew my FOS (first-of-season) Redbreasted Sapsucker, inspecting a couple of conifer trunks for sap-hole-drilling potential.

Both species seem to be earlier than I recall noticing in previous years, but then, I haven't always spent a lot of autumnal time out in the yard, doing much more than catching photos of the changing foliage. Nor do I keep lists of the whats and whens of each year - instead I have to look back in my photo library and email collections, engaging my memory as much as possible, to zero in on birds and dates.

I'm currently working on a Flickr Fall Foliage album a link to which I will share when it's ready. Maybe, if I'm lucky, I will end up with a bird photo or 2 to liven up the "living color". :-)

Barb Deihl
Meadowbrook Neighborhood - NE Seattle
barbdeihl at comcast.net