Northern Flicker

I'd been debating about pulling the hummingbird feeders.  It was well over a week since I'd seen my last hummer.  Today there were a lot of birds migrating through and one was a hummer.  She was drinking from a feeder so I will wait another two weeks before bringing them in.  Even made some more fluid.  The feeders had a little bit in each one of them but if it's going to sit out for awhile yet, it should be freshened up.  Later Whip and I were almost through with our training session in the stockade when loud screeches came for the plum trees growing in one corner.  Whip couldn't resist so jumped into the little copse to see what was up.  Out flew a little yellow rumped warbler (they are migrating through too) and right behind it a falcon.  Just when the warbler was about to be caught, it did an inverted barrel roll down to the top of the goldenrods returning to the stockade and alit in the mesh of the fence.  The falcon was too big for the mesh but came in to perch on the top of one of the poles.  The warbler flew off across the stockade and the falcon didn't bother to give chase.  The afternoon walk was via Gorgeous Gorge and a flock of young mergansers were taking a break there for awhile.  Sometimes I think of birds just taking off from their breeding grounds and flying straight to their wintering places.  I forget about all of their perils and pleasures along the way.