Saturday morning observations from the deck...

A gorgeous early fall morning, bright sun lightly shrouded in a hint of high wispy haze, breeze whispery in the trees, temperature cool enough to allow long sleeves but warm enough for shorts. Reading the latest New York Times Book Review, substituting opinions for actually reading the books. Sounds of birds and squirrels and chipmunks, and the water fountain barrel splashing in the background.

Most lawns in the neighborhood are still dormant from the August heat. There are no lawnmowers in the background so far, although I'll be breaking that silence later on.

Hummingbirds really do hum. At least they do when their flight attitudes changes. When hovering and flying straight they're pretty quiet. A lot like sport kites, the early ones with the loose trailing wing edges, except those made noise in all cases except hovering. And hummingbirds are pugnacious, too. I saw one chasing a goldfinch all around the yard before it decided it had terrorized the larger bird enough.

One of our feeders is a finch-only thistle tube, the type where the feed holes are located below the perches. The idea is that only goldfinches will eat thistle while hanging upside down. Except for some black-cap chickadees, which Birds & Blooms magazine calls "oportunistic feeders". At least one has learned to eat thistle upside down. An unexpected contrast with the bright and muted yellows of the goldfinch families. I wonder if finches learned to eat upside down by learning to be tolerant of landing on thin-stalked seed flowers such as cosmos - even as small as the birds are, they cause the stalks to bow over, placing themselves in odd attitudes (even upside-down).