Sara, Mason, Ivy, and I took a quick jaunt to Mendon Ponds this weekend. Has fall migration passed me by up here on the icy shores of Lake Ontario? If the kind of common species I’m spotting - Red-tailed Hawk, Turkey Vulture, Black-capped Chickadee, etc. - are any indication, warblers and their ilk are long gone from here. Add to these observations the Winter Wren I spotted the other day on my back doorstep and it seems that winter has come early for our hero. Good thing I’m headed to southern California next week!

While our excursion to Mendon Ponds didn’t turn up much in the way of migratory songbirds, it was pretty and picturesque, as evidenced below: