I know it’s not quite autumn yet, but up here in Alaska it often looks lately like it is almost winter. The picture below shows part of the Chugach Mountain range as it looked from our living room a few days ago.
But then it was alternating rainy and sunny, and the snow went away, for awhile at least. Although many of my pictures have electrical lines crossing through them, I still think the scenes with yellow birch trees are beautiful.
This morning, however, this is the view we have of the mountains – just low clouds.
At home, the Steller’s Jays have been unusually combative. Either the grown youngsters and their parents are having family squabbles or perhaps a newby has arrived. In any case, every now and then there’s a lot of noise and raised crests, and then all subsides. I haven’t seen any casualties or actual jay injuries. About half of the 5-6 jays that are often around are tame enough to eat from my hand. The picture below was taken from inside the house looking out on our back porch at one of the recent duels. As usual, peanut hulls are everywhere. The jays often hide shelled peanuts under the rug, and others sometimes steal the nuts away (or maybe it’s the same jays coming back for the hidden nuts).
Lynn Barber's Birding Blog 