It is clear that summer is winding down. Well, I guess it has wound down now that Fall is "officially" here. Nonetheless, there are still many interesting things to see at the garden.

Looking at birds first: the numbers today were fairly high, but diversity was low. Good numbers of white-throated sparrows are now moving through the area, along with white-crowned sparrows. The
juveniles of both of these species bear a second look as they may appear to be of a different species at first glance. The same is true for most young sparrows (and for young of other species too). Sparrows are notoriously tough to ID, particularly now in fall plumage and with all the first winter birds mixed in. Nonetheless, in addition to the above species there were lots of song sparrows still around, as well as chipping sparrows, and one fox sparrow. Cardinals, rose-breasted
grosbeaks, robins, eastern phoebe, goldfinches, catbirds, crows, a raven or two, chickadees, and a white-breasted nuthatch - amongst the other species noted.

I was paying more attention to insects, however, so may have missed some avian species.