As crispy short Fall days take over the long hot Summer days, we have been enjoying the beautiful fall colors, and the ever more fights between those feisty hungry Anna’s hummers. A few new birds have showed up as well, so that is interesting to see. I do have to say the most impressive birds we saw were those majestic Bald Eagles on our hikes along Green River! They are incredibly patient birds as we have noticed while they were waiting for the spawning salmons passing by…
Here are some Fall spectaculars that Nature presents to us…
Green River, WA
Proud Mama Eagle, look her super focused sharp yellow eye…
Apparently it will take a bald eaglet 5 years to acquire white head and tail feathers, and bright yellow eyes. And they can live up to 40 years! Quite amazing! We think this one might be a couple of years old, because he/she was not right next to Ma eagle, a distance away still in the proximity.Juvenile Bald Eagle, might be a couple of years old…High alert…Take off…He must be a this year’s eaglet, he was right next to the ma eagle and flew away as we were taking pictures of ma eagle from opposite side of the river. We did not even notice him…great camouflage, what a wonderful work of nature! Curious Eagle wondering what we are doing…Not easy to capture when they are flying…We saw two eagles sitting side by side on the upper branch of this tree, so very awesome! Unfortunately I could not get the camera out fast enough to capture their special moment….
Golden-crowned sparrow
Never noticed this kind of sparrow before, but then again this is our first year feeding the backyard birds. They are larger than the song sparrows. They breed in Alaska, and then spend their winter along the Pacific coast.
He is so territorial, can’t stand me being close to the feeder. literally hovering over my head!
He is the feistiest one! Guarding the feeders day in and day out!
Male Anna’s hummingbird.
He is the boss. Buzzing and zipping around everyday to guard his food and fight off other hummers. Occasionally he’ll share his feeder(s) with one other hummer…
Such a beautiful Bird!Not on alert hummer!Black-headed Grosbeak, Females or young males
What an adorable look from this little goldfinch!
Some of my flowers such as bacopas and calibrachoa seem like cooler temp in the Fall than the dry hot Summer.Around 6:30 am, the moon was really bright. Dec 3. 2020Around 7 am, Dec 3, 20206:46am, Nov 3, 2020
6:48am, Nov 17, 2020Sunset. 7:28 pm, Oct. 27, 2020Interesting clouds dwarf the Majestic Mt. Rainier!
These are some of my plants still carrying on well into the Fall. I cover them when the temp drops below 40 F. Just want to have them for as long as I can and hopefully they can overwinter…
Bacopas! I do really like them as you can tell.Geraniums from last years plants.They are really wonderful heat loving plants as long as you keep them out of the cold/wet weather, they will bloom like this for months and on… What I have here have been blooming since early May, which is actually a month later than if I had bought them from Costco!This carnation has a really nice clove scent, and she is pretty too.One thing I learned about carnations is if you want keep the plant in a certain shape, say not leggy, you just need to pinch off the spent flowers to the sections where you want your plant to look like, the new growth will start right where the old stem was pinched off, like the picture above.
Well before we know we are already a month into the winter. After the new year day it seems to me the spring is really on its way…With my winter Daphne showing their abundant flowers buds, the Hellebores starting to bloom and spring bulbs like hyacinths, tulips, daffodils and peonies are poking through the ground, I know spring is not far away! And it is time to make some cuttings for the bountiful spring colors!
12 thoughts on “Colors of Autumn”
Thanks, Jiao! Thats really interesting about the eagles. Beautiful photos, as usual!
I like the humming bird pictures!! Can’t believe your flowers from this summer are still alive. Impressive! I can’t even keep my houseplants alive over here…
Well they were great then, not any more. They are still alive but lost all the vibrate colors… But won’t be long they shall sprint back to life again,I hope!
Thanks, Jiao! Thats really interesting about the eagles. Beautiful photos, as usual!
Thanks Ruth! They are truly amazing birds! You’ll get to see a lot of them in AK I’m sure!
Nice job Jiao!
Great photography!
Really enjoy all the pictures,
Information and stories!
Thank you for sharing them
I’m looking forward to more!
Thanks Ginger, glad you like the photos! They sure bring me lots of joy!
I like the humming bird pictures!! Can’t believe your flowers from this summer are still alive. Impressive! I can’t even keep my houseplants alive over here…
Well they were great then, not any more. They are still alive but lost all the vibrate colors… But won’t be long they shall sprint back to life again,I hope!
You have some beautiful photos here Jiao. I especially love all the birds!
Thank you Carrie! We love them too, they have definitely won our hearts since those juncos decided to nest in my flower pot 3 times last spring!
Oops, Cassie, sorry!
We didn’t know it would take the eaglets that long to get their white feathers! Interesting. Great pictures and narrative. Thanks Jiao
Thank you Gail! We didn’t know that until I googled it, ha!
Pretty colors – good post 🙂