For reasons that have all too much to do with work—both paying work and the house variety—I'm having a lot of trouble getting outside on either the road or the trail. This doesn't make me happy, but, I'm hoping, that I'll be able to eventually strike a balance and get back to my natural history balance. In the meanwhile, I take my observations on the fly, or, in this case, through the kitchen storm-door window. It was cold and rainy today, not exactly conducive for a trek and certainly not a day to bring out the Nikon heavy artillery, but I did manage one nice sighting: the return of the snowbirds, a.k.a. Dark-eyed Juncos, the from-the-north migrants who are, during the past couple of days, settling in the our ridge and beyond. I prefer their old name—Slate-colored Juncos—but whatever you call them, their sudden presence here is a sign that we've turned a seasonal corner and autumn is now firmly in place.