Mid Month already!

 Here we are, the middle of the month of October already and in keeping with the theme of this year of 2020, nothing is quite normal.

For example, here we are with the estuary once more covered in water!  Good for the fish, that I hear are arriving, not so good for the eagles that are starting to gather to feed on the fish as there is no where for them to land.

A lot of birds around right now....

of note, this, one of a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers seen this morning.  Also, I'm pretty sure I heard a Varied Thrush today.  Lots of Black capped Chickadees and a few Brown Creeper.

We got for a good walk over at Harrison Bay this afternoon....

you can see how high the water is.  Virtually no beach there at all.

still the Bald Eagles are gathering, like this adult....

and this juvenile......counted 13 in total along the length of the walk.

the usual smaller birds were out today as well, like this Song Sparrow.....

and this Spotted Towhee - I think this is a young one just changing into adult colours as the eye isn't as bright red as it will be an it doesn't have that many spots yet.

A bit of a surprise was this.....

Fox Sparrow - seems early for these guys to be showing up, but then everything seems to be pointing to an early and severe winter - and why not?

There was also a fairly large flock of these....

which I haven't been able to ID.  At first I thought they were Yellow-rump Warblers, but no,they aren't....they definitely acted very warbler like and were busy going over the poplar trees.

Last thing of note....

a couple of these large King Bolete Mushrooms - this one being nibbled on.