The Milkweed plants have dried and are now releasing their seeds.  Note the little balloon shaped parachutes which will carry each individual seed on the passing winds.

MANY BIRDS VISIT OUR WATERING HOLE DURING DROUGHT

This Yellow-shafted Flicker was caught visiting our birdbath.  Note the yellow feathers on the underside of the tail. 

We have had many Red-breasted Nuthatches coming down from northern Minnesota this fall.  They may or may not stay with us for the winter. 

The White-breasted Nuthatch, a permanent resident in our area, enjoys a drink.

The chickadee is a year-round resident.

The Yellow-rumped warblers are migrating back through our area on their way south.  Strikingly colored in the spring, by fall their markings have faded.  We look forward to their return in the spring.   For more pictures go up and to the right and click on October 2012.

A friend of ours brought this strange looking sphinx moth to our house last week.  There have been many members of the sphinx family around this summer.  This particular species is a Pandorus moth.  It is beautifully and deeply camouflaged.  Thanks, Tim!

We discovered this unusual caterpillar eating a New England Aster.  He was strikingly colored and we had never seen this species before.  Researching it,  we believe it belongs to the owlet family and is perhaps becomes a Black Arches moth.

It is fall and once again the alien Asian beetles are here, but not in the numbers we have seen in the past.  Hopefully their population has peaked and we won't see the huge numbers of these pests again.