Fall might be my favorite season. It has a mysterious feel about it that I can’t quite put my finger on.
I love the smell of burning firewood on a cool night, fresh-picked apples, seeing the decorative pumpkins, camping out in a tent and especially the colorful foliage.
I don’t like the term leaf-peeping though. It sounds like a crime. I prefer saying that I’m going on a fall foliage ride.
The Girl With Something Extra: There was a show that ran 1 season from 1973-1974 starring Sally Field and John Davidson called “The Girl With Something Extra”. I tend to remember the titles of a lot of shows from the 1970’s since there was only 3 major channels on television at the time.
I was a little surprised when I first found out that it was the females that have that orange breast band (also juveniles to a lesser extent) and not the male.
I used that show title as a way of remembering that fact.
My most underrated piece of birding equipment: I don’t know what took me so long to invest in these rubber boots. It allows me to comfortably cover areas that I would normally avoid because I’m not a big fan of wet socks. I’ve been able to find birds that would have eluded me otherwise.
I headed out to Wangunk Meadows hoping to add a couple of new species to my yearly county list which as 190. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find any new species as the end of the year approaches.
I was walking around for a couple of hours without any luck.
Then there was a “Flicker Of Hope”.
I was able to find my first purple Finches of the year. The female has that broad white mark across the head.
Then with the help of my trusty boots I was able to stomp through some heavy brush to find the secret hiding place of a 1st winter White-crowned Sparrow.
It would be nice if October could last twice as long.
Now it’s time to break out the heavier clothing and prepare for November.
Larry Nichols
Married, I am not a casual weekend birder,-still learning-still making mistakes. I am not a writer or photographer but enjoy blogging about my outdoor adventures. I am currently using a Canon PowerShot SX50 HS camera, Meopta Meostar 8x42 binoculars, and a vortex spotting scope. The Name Brownstone Birding Blog comes from the fact that I in which Portland has been known for its brownstone quarries for many years. Much of the brownstone used for older buildings in New York came from the town of Portland.
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