Few Birds on My Fall Walk

Tuesday, I went on a fall walk where I only saw a few birds. Perhaps the birds are as confused by the weather around here as the rest of us.

Almost seventy degrees on Monday, thirty five degrees on Friday morning. Though really, at this time of year, warmer days almost always signal a cold snap or storm arriving. I’ll just enjoy the warm days and be glad we only saw a few snow flurries yesterday.

While I took my camera, I really went on my walk to try and get some photos of the fall color before the leaves all fell off the trees. The color changing of the trees was late this year so it’s odd how the leaves still cling to the trees at this point in the month. By Thanksgiving, if not sooner, they’ll probably be bare.

Since I wasn’t really looking for birds, I found myself surprised to encounter a group of killdeer right as I began my walk.

Killdeer

Killdeer are here year-round though I seldom see them. They prefer more open ground so I don’t expect one to come out of the Oak tree to visit the backyard feeders anytime soon (ever).  This park has quite a bit of openness to it (and often floods in a wetlands kind of way). However, I can rarely get close enough to these birds for decent shots. Even these aren’t the best but it’s the closest I’ve ever come around here with camera in hand. 

Even though you can only see a couple of birds in the photos above, I stumbled on quite a large group of them. Usually, I only see one or two at a time. They, of course, flew off a bit deeper into the middle of the park as I walked on the path. Never staying within a decent photo range. (Blaming the birds here but should also admit to not having picked up my camera regularly for a few weeks so a bit rusty with focusing)

After checking out the river, where I heard and saw several uncooperative for photos Bluejays, I turned and continued a different route through the park.

Snowbird!

The dark-eyed juncos actually arrived last week as I spotted a few in the backyard. However, I’d not taken a photo of one (this year) until I caught this guy in the trees as I walked away from the river path and  went through more forest type areas.

There seemed to be a large group of them back further in the trees (note: most the trees were on the other side of the path). Among them I also spotted a few sparrows.

 Sparrow

This sparrow only stuck around for one photo, had to come home to see what I’d captured. It’s either a song sparrow or a fox sparrow but I can’t really tell from the photo. I remember being quite excited to have a fox sparrow visit the backyard last year. Hoping it’ll return.

While I heard a lot of Bluejays and of course, a few woodpeckers, I didn’t see many other birds. Of course, that might have been because I couldn’t help but crunch the leaves under my feet.

Crunching Leaves

It’s hard to sneak up on any creatures when the paths are covered with crunchy brown leaves. The joy of crunching these leaves underfoot is something everyone should get to experience at least once. We’re lucky around here as we get to do it every year. (I’m sure some of my leaf raking neighbors might disagree)

Other Birds Spotted This Week

While I’ve not been out there watching as many backyard birds (this fall has returned to busy and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every school marching band activity after having had none in 2020), there also seem to be just a few birds out there. Some of it, I think, is due to me putting out less during the summer/early fall when we had Chip the stray cat out there. Or maybe the neighbor’s have better food. Who knows.

However, Thursday morning I looked out and saw the welcome sight of the white-throated sparrow! And heard his song this morning.

In the past two days, I’ve spotted a pair of Carolina Wrens, the dark-eyed juncos again, my resident chickadees and tufted titmice. And of course, the downy woodpeckers.

Time to stock up on some birdseed again.

What birds did you spot this week?

Linking up with The Bird Depot hosted by Anni over at I’d Rather B Birdin’.