We’ve reached mid-November and “daylight savings” has ended; we cannot hold onto the light, and it fades early in the valley. The ground is brown and crunchy with fallen oak leaves. Most of the trees and shrubs are bare now, and the view through the understory stretches far. This annual transition of the seasons is a strange and wonderful thing: the bittersweet passage of a favorite season is laced with the anticipation of an exciting new season and the promise that the cycle will continue.
Migration is well along. We’ve seen and heard various waves of ducks and geese for several weeks; the tundra swans are the current wave. Last week the raucous song of sandhill cranes in the backwaters seemed like more than our usual few summer residents, so they too were probably just passing through. For the past two weeks, a pelican was swimming around and hanging out on the hummocks in the slough in front of the house. It seemed the pelicans had left several weeks ago, so this large lonely white bird was a bit of a concern; it may have been injured, but it seemed able to flap both wings and move about. Dennis saw it take a short test flight around the slough a couple of days ago, then a few hours later he watched it take off and not come back. We can only hope it’s back on course for its winter home.
Meanwhile, the winter birds have found our feeders. The blue jays and flickers feed whenever they please, but the other birds take plenty of turns. It is a constant parade of cardinals, tufted titmice, several types of sparrows, gold finches, chickadees, juncos, nuthatches, and woolly (hairy and downy) woodpeckers. Bald eagles and red-tailed hawks frequently soar overhead, perusing the valley, roadsides, and sloughs for their next meal. Deeper in the woods, we occasionally get a glimpse of the wild turkeys and pileated woodpeckers. And every night we know the owls are nearby as we occasionally hear the soft voice of a great horned owl, or more often the louder barred owls asking, “Who cooks for you?”.
Inside the house as the light fades, the question quickly turns from “who cooks?” to “what’s for dinner tonight?”. A question I must now go answer!
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