September 28, 2005 [LINK]

Winged migration

Jacqueline and I went for a walk on the road leading to the Frontier Culture Museum this morning, and saw several Canada geese and Mallards on the pond, but no migrating herons or shorebirds. Around the thistle plants that have already gone to seed we saw quite a few goldfinches, most of which have now lost their yellow feathers. There was one especially bright-colored bird in their midst, however, and as it flew off by itself I could see that it was actually a Yellow warbler! It was rather windy, wreaking havoc with the camera's focusing for closeup shots, but I still managed to get a couple photos of the many Monarch butterflies that are passing through town. They like the thistle flowers.

Back home, we saw an unfamiliar dark gray bird land on the chair on our back porch. By the time I had figured out what it was -- an Eastern phoebe -- it was gone! Birds often show up in strange places during migration season.