Early Autumn

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You can tell at night in bed, when you wake up wanting another cover that autumn is sneaking in. You can also tell when you can no longer paddle at sunset between 6 and 7 pm.
The day closes in very quickly here with no daylight savings. Fortunately our early autumn days are still in the 20-28*C range (72-88*F).

Walking this morning I noticed the abundant and varied bird life.

The multicoloured rainbow lorikeets were feasting
on the flowering gum trees.

My rainbow lorikeet is out of focus so
I have borrowed one from Colin Buckmaster at

http://www.freewebs.com/nagleroadaviaries/index.htm

All night long
listening to autumn winds
wandering in the mountains

Kawai Sora

And in particular I saw that one little woody patch
of casurinas, gums, ti trees and the odd cottonwood tree
adjacent to the river bank appeared to be a
favourite haunt of blackbirds and miners.

Without the dog I could get quite close and watch their antics.

The pair of very fat crows at the caravan park, where my walk detoured this morning, would not oblige and pose for me. They jumped about and argued over a remnant of garbage from the rubbish bin. Instead I have a group of crows courtesy of Korin Ogata, 1658-1716

Autumn has come
to the lonely cottage
buried in dense hop vines,
which no one visits

The Monk Eikei

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