8 November, 2020 These birds LOVE Evelyn’s flowers! 

Or in this case, beautyberries: 

I took that picture a little after 3:00 Monday afternoon. It’s a good thing I did – I haven’t gotten tons of other images this week!

That gorgeous little bird is a Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis), the first I’ve ever seen! I’ve seen White-breasted nuthatches since I knew what a nuthatch was, e.g. the late 1960’s or early 1970’s. They’re outside my window all the time. I began to see Brown-headed nuthatches here last  year or the year before. The first time I ever knew such a bird existed. When I clicked on the picture at the top of this page on Monday afternoon, it was another nuthatch first for me! And what a treat! 

Speaking of treats. This week’s post is going to be short, and I hope sweet. To that end, I saw a blooming gardenia on Tuesday! It’s a little faded, but that was the time of day – I guarantee if I’d been there around noon it would have been glorious. And it still smelled glorious! I had no idea a gardenia could bloom in November: 

I saw a male Pileated Woodpecker working industriously (he gave that impression, anyway) in a big sycamore at Pony Pasture this morning. I couldn’t talk the light into shining just the way I wanted, but he’s a good looking guy on a good looking tree. You can tell he’s a male by the red patch just behind his bill, directly below his eye. Females have an unbroken black line there: 

Yuki was off visiting some other region of our fair state this morning; it was just Mackey and Turner and me (and that woodpecker, and a few other people and dogs and birds) at Pony Pasture this morning. Yuki’s loss – he missed a pretty morning!: 

Our gardenias have slowed down with the short autumn days, but Ev still has these gorgeous pansies blooming. I took this picture this afternoon: 

Just on the other side of the stoop – I can almost take these two pictures without moving – she’s growing “violas.” Members of the violet family I’m pretty sure. But very bright! Violas: 

The moon was still clear in the sky when we were on our way back from the river. This is a “waning crescent” moon – it’s getting smaller. Always if it’s light on the left like this, it’s a waning moon. It looked pretty in the sky:

Here’s some info about it: 

Aha – another picture I took today. When Mackey and Turner and I were coming home from the river. I know I post a lot of pictures of hawks, but this one is a beautiful example of how “Red-tailed hawks” got their name. This is a male. I took this at 10:50 this morning: 

Stretched this blog post out too much! I have to get to bed! 

Have a great week, 

Jay