Lively October

October is so lively, so full of change and energy. Weather is changing. Leaves are changing. And almost daily, new migrants are visiting the trees in my yard. I can't keep up with them all. I want to paint each and every one of them.I love the chance to meet a new bird, read about where it nests, see where it travels, where it will spend its winter. I marvel when we have a chance meeting, that the wonderful oak tree in the front yard provides rest and foraging along his journey.

This is my sketch of one of these birds, the Magnolia Warbler (probably a male) created in my new Brenda Books sketching journal. It's a beautiful new journal with real rag watercolor paper. I'm finding it intially a bit intimidating--so brand new and inviting. You know, the feeling. You don't want to mess it up.
But that's watercolor and journaling. You plunge in. You make a mess. And altogether, it doesn't turn out so badly. And on top of that you have this wonderfully intimate experience, with a bird, with its lifestyle, with the magic of October.

The Sweet Encounters

Sometimes encounters are all the more sweet because of the stories we hold in our hearts.
I came upon this beauty, along with the White-throated sparrow and the Song sparrow in previous posts, on my walk through Ijams Nature Center late last week. When I first spotted him, he was high in a tree. I took a couple of snaps anyway.I was glad I did. This was the only view I got of the yellow rump patch.
Enchanting. That subtle fall plumage against the yellows and blue, and the quiet of the moment. A rest along his journey?

It was only this spring that I got better acquainted with warblers as they were migrating through my yard. And it was with great delight that I encountered a Blackburnian singing in the low canopy, so close that I wanted to stop breathing for fear I would startle him.
I think my earliest futile efforts to see and identify wood warblers make them all the more endearing to me now. I count these up close visits among my treasured wildlife moments.
He/she's a bit shaded here...
but none-the-less a beauty. I thought I was about to lose him, when he once again landed on a branch close by with a bit of sunlight.

A yellow-rumped or a Magnolia? I keep waivering between the two. But the magic lingers just the same.

Note: The consensus from the bird blogging community is yellow-rumped warbler. Thanks everyone for your comments!

Nature Paints

Today is crisp, windy, bright.
Keeping my chimes busy with their lovely tones.
After a soaking rain yesterday and during the night, the leaves are damp, changed, falling, the air full of movement. And for a short while it pulled me out the door to wander... a refreshing experience, whether you are looking at the palette from a distance or viewing the details up close.

To the east, pastels...

and to the west, deeper hues.
But everywhere you look there's art!

Next: my warblers (really!)

Subtle and Feathery

There's another hue in fall's parade that titillates the senses, a subtle beauty that can go unnoticed in the brilliance of the leaf parade. It's the rich taupes and grays, the neutrals of drying seed pods, now bursting with feathery treasures that glisten in the sun. The drying leaves even curl like ribbons to celebrate the occasion. The pond at Ijams Nature Center was shaded in these late afternoon photos. Among the reeds I heard a busy visitor with a raspy chirp. I caught this photo of him in the shadows. ...identified in the end, as a Song sparrow, with a little coaxing from Bernie Krauss of Bern's Northwest Nature Moments Photoblog. Thanks Bernie.

Next post: the warblers