All of a Sudden, it’s Fall.

While I’ve been living here in Washington for a year now, I’m still learning the cadence of the season changes. In California, seasons are almost optional, and while there’s some seasonal movement by bird species and there’s always the long-distance migrators that move through, the changes that happen can be rather subtle.

Here? We had had a few weeks of warm-to-hot weather, and then that first fall front moved in and dropped the temperature highs down about ten degrees, and shifted us from bright and sunny skies to gray clouds for a few days.

Both Laurie and I realized that we had almost zero birds at the feeders. Some of that was expected: the Tanagers left a while back, and so did the Grosbeaks. We expected the Goldfinches to move out at some point, so when they did — en-masse — it didn’t surprise me. The Robins left a while back when nesting was done for the year. The swallows and the Swainson’s Thrushes did, too.

What did surprise me was that we’d had a large flock (> 20 birds) of Dark-Eyed Juncos here since we moved in, as well as a healthy population (maybe a dozen) Spotted Towhees. All of a sudden, nobody.

I didn’t expect that, but in retrospect, I should have. If you look at a range map for juncos, here’s what it shows. We live in an area where Juncos are considered year-round residents, but in fact, to the north of us is a lot of area where they’re only there in breeding season. This implies that the Juncos that spend the summer have moved south, and we haven’t yet seen the Juncos that summered up north arrive. The range maps for Spotted Towhee also indicate this short-distance migration pattern.

So basically, the first fall cool front moved in, and all the birds we’ve been sharing this place with for the summer said “Time to go” and left. That makes room for the birds currently heading this way to spend the winter with us, but for now, it’s really quiet on the feeder.

It’s not entirely dead, although I did go a day and a half where I saw nobody visit the feeder while I was watching. The Red-Breasted Nuthatches aren’t going anywhere, and we continue to see them a few times a day. We’ve had a small group of four Mourning Doves move in, and where we had a couple of Stellar’s Jays on and off all summer, once nesting was over, they seemed to have aggregated back into a larger group, and that group seems to visit the feeders a few times a day, especially for the peanuts Laurie puts out.

And if you ever wondered where the idea of the “pecking order” came from, sit and watch (and listen) to a flock of Jays sort out who’s in charge over a week or so after coming together.

The Pileated Woodpeckers — or at least, one of the adults — still visits once a week or so. We have had somewhat regular (but not daily) visits from Hairy woodpeckers and less frequent ones from a Downy, both from what I can tell hatch year birds. And right now, that’s about it. Also we’ve seen the Northern Flickers a bit. And one Band-tailed pigeon, but we don’t see any sign of the flock it should be part of.

Another change that surprises me: all my chickadees are gone. Both the Black-capped and Chestnut-backed haven’t visited the feeders since the front moved in. These aren’t migratory birds, but are known to move downslope as the weather cools off, and we are a bit above sea level here.

So now I get to watch one of the Stellar’s Jay fail miserably trying to land on the Suet feeder, and wait for the winter visitors to arrive. In the last couple of days, we’ve seen two juncos and two towhees visiting sporadically. Of the four birds, one is an adult, three are younger. Are they leftovers of those who took off south? Or newcomers who got here first? I have no idea, and they aren’t saying.

I expect over the next few weeks we’ll start seeing them, and for the winter, we should have Juncos and Towhees again, and as we head deeper into fall and winter, we should get Fox Sparrows and Song Sparrows again, as well as, I hope White-Throated and White-crowned. I expect we’ll see Varied Thrush again, but not until the weather cools off that the insect population stops — and if the Jays stick around, I expect those two species coming together will be… interesting. And loud.

In listening to bird calls via the Merlin app, we’ve had a Barred Owl move into the area and at least one Great Horned Owl continues. The summer birds we were hearing have left, but we’ve been picking up Brown Creeper, and in the last few days, a Hutton’s Vireo. Golden-Crowned Kinglets are being heard, which definitely seems to be a fall/winter bird here, and I just got an ID on a Pacific Wren.

I find it fascinating to track these changes over time, and eventually I hope to sort out just what I should expect to be in this place across the seasons. It’s definitely nice to realize there’s still a lot to learn about the bird populations here…

Well, that Jay just showed up again, and actually was able to land on the suet and feed — on his fourth try. He’s slowly improving.

But overall, right now it’s really quiet on the feeders, and that’s a sign that summer really is over, and fall is here..