Autumn birds

If you look at the image above, out of context, you might think you are looking at an injured Anna’s hummingbird. But the thing is…I watched her fly out of the tree direct to the ground, then flop herself out like this. No humans were around except me, and I was watching from inside my backyard office. For that reason, I am inclined to think this behavior was not for me.

She stayed there a long time – not still, but not getting up. It was long enough that I recovered from my astonishment, and grabbed my camera and was able to get a dozen great shots.

Then, she tipped her head a new direction to look around, and whoosh! Flew off as quickly and as healthy-seeming as when she flew down there. It looked like Killdeer behavior, of trying to tempt a dangerous creature away from a nest. But who was she displaying for? I do not believe it is a male trying to attract a female because I have seen that behavior, when he flies way up into the sky, then drops like a rocket making a whistling sound.

It’s the end of the apple season, and my tree is almost empty of fruit, but this one remains and it is so eye-catching. I feel as though it’s how an apple would look if imagined perfectly by an artist:

One of my most popular TikToks lately was a finch eating an apple from the ground, but I loved capturing this one in the tree. The red caught my eye, but once I saw the photos enlarged, what I love most is the messy beak. It’s so cute and relateable.

At the base of the apple tree I see two more all the time. The bark on this apple bears a lot of interesting bits for a wren and a woodpecker. They like the old fence behind the tree just as much.

The Bewick’s Wren has flitted and flicked around for months, but I can never catch it. Up down in out. Flick! Flick! I just have time to grab my camera, then flick! it goes deeper inside the foliage. One day it stayed out a long time and I finally got photos, but it was through a very dirty window, so they didn’t turn out great.

After that day, I washed the window, and somehow, a couple days later, caught the wren once more.

The nuthatch was so pretty and not common. I followed it around and could not get a shot except the blurry one above. I threw it into this post anyway, because I like the big pine cones. This tree is in the neighbor’s yard, but so large and close that we get to enjoy it as well.

I will leave you with two of my favourite birds. When they take dust baths, these girls are SO happy. I have a big covered area in a different area beside the house that I try to keep dry so they can do a bit of this over the winter, but we receive so much rain here that it is never the same as the months of July and August and September, when things are dry as dry can be. I had to snap this photo because today around noon the rains are supposed to begin. No more hot days are projected until 2027.

Live it up, ladies!!