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The shuddering wind shook my house

Forgetting to whisper in its summer voice
It boisterously shouted
Jesting in its autumnal tones
of summer's end

Although its not yet autumn according to the calendar, there are many signs of seasonal change about and this is the time of year when I begin refilling our bird feeders once again. Also last night we had our first frost warning and I covered my flowers. Bird Alley is the name we have given to the area in our yard where a line of shrubbery and trees create an alley like space adjacent to our house. A bay window looking out onto this area is a perfect place to start each day with a cup of tea while surveying the early morning visitors, and I always make sure my camera is handy nearby. We get many birds each day and the variety changes as the seasons progress.
Presently American Goldfinch are the most numerous species and I was also very pleased to see a couple of Pine Siskin with them as well. Sparrows are represented by several Song Sparrows which love to run and hide under the many hostas there, and I think the other sparrows we have are young, first year Chipping Sparrows. I have also noticed that one Downy Woodpecker has already found the peanut feeders and more Mourning Doves are appearing, their numbers increasing daily. Also Black-capped Chickadees have made a few appearances and one day I had a hoard of Grackles visit, but they perhaps were just passing through for they haven't appeared in such large numbers again. There are always a couple of surprises and so far this week I have seen two! The first was a Red-eyed Vireo! This species I had only seen once before and that was just this summer. I went searching in the warbler section of my bird guide book again, finding nothing; but then when examining the photos closer I found the telltale red eye of this species. The second surprise, and it was a delightful one, was this young male American Redstart. I don't think it fully has its adult colour pattern yet and at first it was a guessing game as to what it was that was flitting about so quickly among the leaves. Only after getting its photo was I able to get a really good look at it. As well as replenishing the bird feeders each day, Bird Alley itself has much food to offer. In this grouping of vegetation we have a couple of tall High Bush Cranberry trees, Lilac seeds, Honeysuckle berries, Ornamental Crab Apples, Rose hips from old, tall Wild Rose bushes, Sumac, Choke Cherry trees, the small berries of Virginia Creeper which cover our pergola at the end of the alley, and the berries of American Bittersweet as well. And just around the corner we have a tall Mountain Ash just covered with beautiful red berries and a Plum tree loaded with fruit. Seen in the picture to the left is a Goldfinch among the Lilac seeds and if you look carefully you can see the circular pattern of a spider web behind it.