About this time last year, I had a post entitled “Golden Fall”. Yes, the title says it all. We don’t have much reds in our fall, no maples, but we have foliage like gold.
Here are some photos I took after returning from Toronto a few days ago, just in time to witness the changing of the seasons and catch the last remaining songbirds before they fly south. This is ‘my Pond’, home at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.
An Orange-crowned Warbler in the golden foliage. It’s goodbye until next Spring, my avian friend:
Here’s another one. Olive against red.
A ‘Where’s Waldo’ puzzle for you:
The White-breasted Nuthatch against a watercolour backdrop:
Two-frame capture of a shy subject. See it in both?
Home is where you know every path and turn, where to shoot with the sun at your back for the best light, and where to look for your friends whatever the season, to wave goodbye as they leave, and then welcome them back for another new lease.
***
Ripple Effects 
Wow, that’s beautiful. It makes me think of the line from the Hopkins poem about “goldengrove unleaving.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Jeanne,
I wasn’t thinking of Hopkins’s poem but now that you mentioned it, well, I take it as a compliment. True, I was in a way lamenting that parting is inevitable, and yet, we’re consoled by reuniting after months of absence. Robert Frost’s “Nothing Gold can Stay” also resonates. Thanks for your two pebbles! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow. Awesome photos
LikeLike
Thanks… and welcome to the Pond.
LikeLike
Pond ??
LikeLike
Ahh, you’ll soon find out as you explore more. Here at Ripple Effect, this very site is the Pond, where visitor can throw in their 2 pebbles (instead of 2 cents, sharing their thoughts) and leave some ripples. Pond is both metaphorical and real. The real one is where all these bird photos are taken, natural environs in my neck of the woods.
LikeLike
Okay. Relax. You just bombarded me with lot personification. You appear to be literary bug
LikeLike
Oh, those shots in the foliage are gorgeous. Beautiful captures here. I know what you mean about bidding farewell to your friends for the year. I’m glad you could begin your goodbyes in so lovely a setting.
LikeLike
Jeanie,
I sense you have similar sentiments as you lock up your house by the Lake for another winter, and say goodbye to Ellie and Harry and all your other Nature’s friends.
LikeLike
Lovely, we are having some crisp blue and mist autumn days here this week. It’s good to see a proper Fall though.
LikeLike
Well you see, Denise, this ‘proper’ Fall comes after some early snow and wintry weather a few weeks ago!
LikeLike
beautiful nature shots. our trees haven’t started changing yet, but the weather has
LikeLike
Here in the foothills, we can sense the weather change acutely. I for one do not dream of a white Christmas. We had a nasty, long winter in 2017, so I just hope it won’t repeat this year.
LikeLike
This is just a test, Arti -my comments aren’t showing up tonight. I’m trying to help WP sort it all out.
LikeLike
What absolutely lovely photos. There’s something poignant about the flight of the birds to their new homes. You feel it now, and we feel it in spring when they turn around and head north again.
I love your colors, and I’m so taken with the inquisitive little nuthatch. I do love watching their antics. I just noticed today that — suddenly! — the swallows all are gone. I never know when they leave; one day, they just aren’t here. I’ve seen a few white pelicans overhead, and some teal are here now. The migratory mallard flock has arrived, but we’re still waiting to wave hello to the beauties that you’re bidding goodbye!
LikeLike
I’m just curious, where do your swallows or white pelicans go, Linda? You’re already so south, and warm, do birds need to head towards even warmer climate? And, what are some of your winter birds?
On another note, I’m glad you’ve sorted things out with WP. And, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll leave your original Test comment here, just for the record. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t think we’re sorted yet, but at least I’ve already heard from Askismet. I remembered that if we ever have problems with comments and spam, they’re the people to contact. I’m keeping this link in my files from now on!
The white pelicans go north from here in the summer, then return in the winter. And the swallows head farther south — I’m actually not sure where. We get raptors galore in winter — hawks, kestrels, and such. And, we get coots, teal, mergansers, whooping cranes, osprey — even more. Soon, the migrant songbirds will pass through on their way to Mexico, Central America, and such. And the hummingbirds still are lingering at the feeders, waiting for the first really strong cold front to help them across the Gulf of Mexico.
LikeLike
Oh… you live in a bird paradise, or, bird’s passage to. As for Pelee National Park I mentioned, it was cold and windy when I got there. Couldn’t get any photos except the raging Lake Erie waves beating the shore.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, I’m so sorry. It’s disappointing to go to a place like that and have conditions be so averse. I hope you’ll have another chance at it someday. But at least you have your glorious home territory!
LikeLike
It was a good trip going there and found out May is the month for spring migration. So, I just might go there again next Spring! 🙂
LikeLike
Love the pose of the white-breasted nuthatch ~ what a lovely picture! We are just beginning to see a few colors here in Connecticut…
LikeLike
Barbara,
You know, Nuthatches are easy subjects. They like to pose to have their photos taken. 🙂
LikeLike