1st definite Ruby-crowned, 49

We're still enjoying a stretch of Indian Summer warmth, and that's making for a fine display of fall foliage, with the mild days and cool nights allowing the pigment factories of the leaves that remain on the trees to work overtime. But just as Robert Frost noted that "nothing gold can stay"—OK, he was writing about spring, but the phrase is perfectly appropriate for this stretch of golden weather—there's a change in the underbrush. I'd been looking for the arrival of a pint-sized bundle of hardy energy ever since I started noticing Witch Hazel flowers, and on a walk by a small brook this afternoon, I finally spotted my quarry: a Ruby-crowned Kinglet. This refugee from the Great North Woods of Canada—more properly known as the boreal forests—is perfectly capable of prospering through those epic winters, but at least some of the pint-sized birds migrate south to spend their days in the comparative warmth of our "banana belt" December-through-March weather. When the Ruby-crowneds arrive, I take it as a sign that we've turned a corner and it's time to get serious about getting ready. Indian Summer, however balmy, is just a temporary illusion... a meteorological mirage. So says the little bird with the red crown you only see when he's issuing a warning.