Bear month

 October is the month that bears usually roam around causing havoc. I preemptively put out the unwelcome mat today. Greased the pole and hope for the best. The birds seem to navigate just fine among the spikes. 

The chain broke on the pulley system so I spent most of the morning fixing that. Everything takes me so long to do. Really cut into my bird watching plans. Tomorrow I'll water some trees and stuff and watch birds in between moving the hoses. Then I have to go to town to monitor the Costa's there. I guess having so many bird areas to watch is a good problem to have. Very few hummers left, so servicing feeders isn't running me ragged anymore. May be my last Lucifer shot for the year.

The oasis is still real birdy. The Least Grebe is still here. I missed the Sage Thrasher the other day but did see a Townsend's Solitaire today. Haven't seen either of those species here in years. It's exciting to think what else will show up this month. October of 2012 was when the Varied Thrush showed up after a drought similar to this one. I didn't get good photo ops of the solitaire. This is the best I got as it hid way back in the vegetation.

By the time I realized ebird has been flagging Gray-headed Junco sightings from the area lately, it was late in the day and light was bad. I'll try for better shots tomorrow.

It was fun to observe this American Robin determined to drink from where the water runs over the birdbath rim. Mike put that log under there the other day, and while it doesn't look "natural," it's good for photography. Apparently birds are happy with it too. I imagine this robin won't be the last one to use it to reach the water source.

And as much as I do not like what sapsuckers do to the trees, they still are easy on the eyes.

Red-naped Sapsucker