Utah 9.04.12

     Rocky Mountain maples are in full fall color at 5000 - 8000 feet, but their reddish-orange foliage doesn't match the brilliance of Sugar maples or Red maples in Vermont!   Although daytime temperatures are still in mid-to upper eighties, with humidity levels 17 to 20%, temperatures drop quickly when the sun sets. 

      This morning the reservoir was heavy with mist when this American White Pelican was feeding.  Some of these big (L62"; WS108") birds come north to raise young at bodies of fresh water.  This one arrived in the area very recently, but it seems to find the fishing to its liking prior to heading to the Gulf of Mexico for winter.  Wilson's Warblers have been hanging out in willows around this reservoir, too.  I haven't experienced a need for insect repellant, thanks to all the birds that patrol the air nearly constantly.  I rarely look out the window without seeing a few Barn Swallows dipping and cruising; Western kingbirds were still carrying food to begging fledglings last week.  Bearing little resemblance to their Eastern counterparts, their breast feathers are pale yellow; their tail has light-colored feathers at the outside edge much like the dark-eyed junco. There's an American Kestrel that often uses the leader on the blue spruce in the back yard as a lookout.  It's entertaining to watch this feisty falcon with its patchwork of many-colored feathers.