A few sunny days interrupted my interest in migrants and photography, but when foggy weather returned I returned to the yard on October 6, 2026.

Yellow-rumped warblers continued to visit although the frequency of their visits from several days ago were greatly diminished.

I also had continuing visits from Red crossbills but their visits were also greatly reduced.

Four raccoons passed through the yard while I was photographing birds.

A single Townsend’s chipmunk, which has now been a daily visitor for the past couple of weeks, spent a long time in one of my madrone trees eating berries which are now ripening.

For many years the yard was bereft of Hairy woodpeckers, but for the last year or so they occasionally visit the bird baths, peanut and suet feeders. This is the female… I haven’t seen a male in at least several weeks.

This male Spotted towhee has been a regular visitor to the yard for at least two years. It has a severely malformed (crossed) beak which I assumed would hinder it from eating seeds, but its beak apparently is not a handicap. It can easily break down a peanut kernel into smaller pieces to eat.

And my “Visitor of the Day” was this Red-breasted sapsucker that very briefly passed through the yard. Unfortunately it was chased out of the yard by some other unidentified bird before I could get a good photo. If you can find one of these “working” a tree it’s usually a photographic gold mine. The sapsucker will drill a series of horizontal holes in a tree which over time will secrete sap. The sapsucker will then return repeatedly for the sap and the insects the sap collects, giving a patient photographer time to set up and take multiple photographs.

This photo is what I term a “record” photo. It’s good enough to identify the bird and add it to the photographic record but not good enough for publication.