Windy, wet, and dim. Temperatures in the 40s.
As I got ready for bed last night, I noticed the wind had picked up and heavy rain was falling.
Winds today were variable, sometimes with heavy gusts. The rain wasn’t so steady, either.
Cliff T. had shared a Brambing photo on the Sitka Birds email list yesterday. I had asked him to let me know if it showed up again. I was just getting going this morning when he called. The Brambling was back (around the same time as he saw it yesterday).
That got me moving, and I was able to get out the door without much delay.
I didn’t see the Brambling when I arrived, but staked out a spot under the shelter of the eaves. Fortunately, the wind was blowing from behind me, so the house offered additional protection, and I was able to stay dry even as the rain fell.
Several people have commented on the lack of birds at their feeders this year. I’m not sure what’s going on, but when we’ve had food out, there have been plenty of juncos around. The same was true at Cliff’s feeders. It’s hard to say how many juncos I saw, as they tend to move through like a river, more than compact flock. I’m guessing there were dozens, at least.
I caught brief views of Brambling twice. It flew back into the thicket of salmonberries before I could get a photo (or even a good look).
There were plenty of other birds to watch. Most numerous were the juncos, but at least two chickadees made regular visits.
In between visits to one of the three hummingbird feeders, an Anna’s Hummingbird kept watch and chased off any others that came into the yard.
One dark slate-colored Dark-eyed Junco perched where I could get some photos. He sat still enough that I managed a couple of reasonble photos, even in the very dim light.
The pigeons amused me. They clearly wanted to visit, but seemed wary of me. They would fly over, sometimes landing briefly and other times just circling back out. It’s hard to imagine they didn’t know I was still there, but they always seemed startled when they arrived.
Finally the Brambling came out and hopped along the edge of the salmonberries. I was prepared to go home without a photo, but I was happy to get enough of a look to get a picture.
While I was out, I checked Silver Bay, the channel and Swan Lake.
I didn’t see much in Silver Bay, though the wind wasn’t blowing much there.
The channel had the usual assortment of species, and I got a distant look at the Yellow-billed Loon.
I had guessed the ice might go off the lake this weekend, but it was gone today. Last night’s rain and wind probably helped. I saw more Trumpeter Swans than on previous visits (I counted, but can’t remember exactly 10 or 14, I think). No Hooded Mergansers that I noticed, but I did see the Wood Ducks.
Given the dim conditions, I was not really tempted to head out again.
I continued work on the new gallery set up. Today’s efforts mostly involved getting the initial set up done for the last three months of 2024. With that done, all I need to do is go through and use Lightroom’s flagging options to indicate the photos I want included in the gallery. The galleries will be automatically populated, then I can just hit publish on the whole set of them from time to time to update. (Since I didn’t have this set up when I initially created the photojournal posts, I’ll need to go back and adjust them as well, but going forward it should be easier.)
This afternoon I made significant changes to the front page of my site for the first time in at least 10 years (and probably since I first published it in 2007).
This evening I worked on catching up with radio show posts. I’m into October now and still have several to go.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today