The birds are beginning to flock up. They must be finished molting and getting ready to migrate. We’ve had a cool, wet summer, but reproductive success appears to be good locally, with large numbers of young birds. Yesterday morning I happened to look out the window at a great time: a very large mixed-species flock of about 40 warblers had gotten together in the chokecherry tree and they were really active.

There were five species of warblers (Wilson’s, Yellow, Yellow-rumped, Orange-crowned, and Townsend’s warblers). What a sight! For some reason the Wilson’s were chasing the heck out of each other, and occasionally a Ruby-crowned Kinglet would get involved. There were also a few young juncos hanging around looking sort of dumb, like they were wondering what was going on. This morning there was a junco-fest, with several of them chasing one that had a big chunk of mushroom it wasn’t willing to share. Mushrooms are abundant, so it wasn’t clear what the fuss was about.

Reproduction may not have been so good in low-lying areas, where flooding was a problem throughout much of the Interior this summer. Sandhill Cranes have been gathering in fairly large groups seemingly a little earlier than usual. Their haunting calls are sure welcome, though. We’ve had a spell of gorgeous June-like weather that would have been more welcome then, but we’ll take it now. Deck time….