Oct. 27, 2019 - Fall Visitors

In an effort to attract some migrating sparrows to our yard this fall, I spread some bird seed on the ground. It attracted some migrants but also some “regulars.”

Blue Jays disappear from our yard in summer. I assume they are off in the woods raising their families. But by fall, they are back in even larger numbers because they bring their youngsters with them.

JayBlueDunningLakeItascaCounty20191011

Chipmunks gathered seeds in their cheek pouches and scurried off to store them for the coming winter.

ChipmunkEasternDunningLakeItascaCounty20191010

Dark-eyed Juncos were one of the migrants I was trying to attract. They nest in Canada and Alaska but return to the lower 48 for the winter. There are six different Junco subspecies, each having different plumages. The one that travels through our area is called Slate-colored. To make it even more confusing, some Slate-colored Juncos are dark, like this one.

JuncoDarkeyedDunningLakeItascaCounty20191011

Other Slate-colored Juncos are light gray, like this one.

JuncoDarkeyedDunningLakeItascaCounty20191011

Another migrant that was passing through was this Fox Sparrow. There is some color variation between Fox Sparrows from different parts of the country. The ones we see in our area have a reddish tint to their plumage like this one.

SparrowFoxDunningLakeItascaCounty20191011

We had a small flock of White-throated Sparrows feeding in our yard. They usually go farther south for the winter but, last year we had one that stayed in our yard all winter long.

SparrowWhitethroatedDunningLakeItascaCounty20191011

Naturally, our resident Red Squirrels took advantage of the seed smorgasbord in our yard.

SquirrelRedDunningLakeItascaCounty20191011

For the 20+ years that we have had our home in northern Minnesota, we’ve only had Red Squirrels in our yard. This year, we have been seeing a pair of gray Squirrels with some regularity.

SquirrelGrayDunningLakeItascaCounty20191010