That in between season…..

We seem to be in that in between season….even the weather is a bit of this and a bit of that….cool when there is cloud or fog, but heating up instantly every time the sun pokes it head out…

it was incredibly quiet today…

a dozen or so Green-wing Teal just off of the log bay….

and some Mallards….that was it.  Not a Heron in sight and nothing but a couple of Flickers calling….

it is a little more interesting at the feeders….this is a terrible picture but shows that there are still some Band-tail Pigeons about.  Seems late, but then they were late moving up into the mountains this year…

This scruffy fellow is one of the Pine Sisken that have shown up again, along with a couple of juvenile American Goldfinch… 

and yes, that White-throated Sparrow is still here and I did manage to get some better pictures of it…  You can definitely see the relationship to it’s cousins, the White-crowned and Gold-crowned sparrows.  There has also been a Red-breasted Nuthatch visiting the feeders the last couple of days, but haven’t managed a picture yet. 

Last night, when he didn’t take a camera, my husband spotted a Barred Owl.  We know there are Barred Owls around, but that was the first actual sighting of one for some time.

And speaking of ‘sighting’ I just have to throw this in.  We’ll never see one of there here at the estuary as they live up in the alpine areas in rock slides and can’t handle warm temperatures…

This cute little guy is a ‘Pika’.  We were up in Manning Park yesterday and there were a number of them busy harvesting vegetation.  These guys, apparently, don’t hibernate but they have to harvest enough food through the summer to see them through a very long winter.  Although I know where they live, I’ve never been able to actually spot them any time but in the month of September.