So today is the first day of autumn (in the northern hemisphere). Depending on which day of the week it would fall (nice unintended pun there), I would go for a walk around Boomer Lake—or the closest Saturday or Sunday. Technically I could have tried today—but between the pandemic (I don’t trust the reporting of the numbers for where I live) and the overcast weather (which makes most pictures a little too dark) I decided not to do a walk. I’ve decided that even a short walk will have to be done fairly early in the morning (to avoid others), so I have a couple of choices in terms of mornings for a walk at some point before the end of the month.

Green Heron seen last summer at Boomer Lake.

I missed seeing all the little goslings and ducklings this year but I am hoping to be out a couple of times to catch some of the migrating birds (both the ones that stop for a short layover and those that winter in town) between this fall and the coming spring.

I’ve created a series of pages dedicated to my bird-watching hobby (Birds, Birds, and Birds is the ‘home’ page), and more pages will be added to the series, and pages will be updated as well (with potential additional pages added within to house some more of the photographs).

So far I’ve managed to make a page for the migratory ruby-throated hummingbird, the year round red-bellied woodpecker, and the year round great blue heron.

Migration of various animals (such as birds and butterflies) will start to pick up in intensity over the next few weeks—though if they summer further north, they may have already started their migrations a few weeks ago. Some animals base their migration on the amount of sunlight—so as the sun starts to set earlier and rise later, they start to head south.

Monarch (or Viceroy) Butterfly seen resting at Boomer Lake early last fall.

Over Labor Day, we actually saw part of the dragonfly migration (they were also being followed by kestrels and Mississippi kites)—though we haven’t seen any since (but that is understandable—it all depends on the direction of the winds for both that particular day and the few days leading up to the current day).

What is your favorite migratory animal??