Unleaving

Hopkins' poem came to mind as the leaves fall.  Actually, my favorite phrase from it is "wanwood leafmeal" which is the perfect name for what happens to the fallen leaves.   Anyway, today there are smudgy, soft, edgeless clouds and some sun.  It is windy though when I first got up the creek was glassy.  We are past the fall color peak and the dogwoods are nearly bare.

Today's birds so far have included: crows, geese, and cormorants; on the feeder, chickadees, cardinals, a wren and a nuthatch; underneath, a towhee, sparrows, and a half dozen doves. Sleepyheads showed up around 11am:  mallards, flickers, titmice and juncos. 

There are puffballs where the pecan tree used to be, uphill from the redwood.   The weeping conks on the oak stump seem to be finished.  Something left part of the yellow jacket nest on the stump - just like a honeycomb, only paper.  The nuthatch has been busy.  I saw it under the feeder poking through the mulch and taking a drink.  Later I came upon it doing the nuthatch thing on a pine tree, poking seeds into cracks then hammering them open.  It is only half the size of a junco.  The moon is at first quarter and well up in the afternoon.