These two aren’t the greatest pictures ever taken as far as quality…but to my credit they were taken from a car window in the sort of drive-by photography style. As an added perk, the snow buntings are a new life bird for me. They summer in the far Canadian arctic and winter in barren fields in the northern U.S.

Male Wood Duck

Great Horned Owl

Josh took these last two pictures during a little drive by birding while I navigated…its a rough-legged hawk.

Yesterday we had some visitors in the backyard, Pine Grosbeaks. It didn’t matter how close to them I got with the camera, they were not about to leave their feast.

The males are red and gray…

And the females are yellow and gray…

Unfortunately I have not been able to spend very much time with the camera in the last couple weeks. Hopefully I will be able to get some nice photos over this extended holiday weekend, but in the meantime I figured I would post some photos from a couple months ago of some gulls.

We watched this first gull for about 10min as it was picking up and dropping clams from 30 ft up on the rocks, trying to break them open.

No, not Merlin the magician…but the small falcon. Spotted this merlin during what I like to call ‘Drive-by Birding”.

So I did a little vehicle maneuvering, which resulted in me ditching the ride for a foot chase in order to get a closer picture.

Pike’s Peak

Garden of the Gods

One messed up black squirrel

A red-tail in its nest…with an eagle’s nest above it. Obviously with big nests come lots of bird poop

And the red-tail leaving it’s nest.

You wouldn’t be able to tell from the temperatures (in the 80s) we have been experiencing here in NY, but there are other signs of fall all around. Here are some photos from the week.

You can’t go anywhere around here without seeing signs for or hearing locals talk about the famous salmon fishing that takes place this month. Every October the salmon make their famous run up the rivers to spawn. Anglers from all over come to try and wrangle these big fish.

Late summer and early fall means stick insects are out and about mating, as are the couple in the photo below.

And lastly, this Northern Flicker was rustling in the leaves on the ground this morning outside our house.

No, I’m not talking about the time of year when the insect activity dies off…its the time of year when the hawks migrate

Fall hawk migration takes place September/October, where a lot of the species fly as far as South America.

Anyhow, I have been noticing an increase in hawk activity on the base, especially this week. Usually the field in the picture below is patrolled by a pair of Northern Harriers, which I haven’t seen at all this week. In their place though was this handsome red-tailed hawk.