Fall Colors

Two years ago Betsy and I spent a few days at the Sun Mountain Lodge in Winthrop, WA to enjoy the wonderful Fall colors.  We've been seeing similar beautiful colors this year, but still nothing to match that year.  That visit was incredible also because of the six different species of meadowhawks we saw.  Here's our report from October 23 and 24, 2013:

Last week, October 23 and 24, Betsy and I went to the Sun Mountain Lodge in Winthrop, WA to enjoy the Fall colors for a couple days.  It was beautiful there, as you can see in these photos:

Sun Mountain Lodge from our room.

The Fall colors were in full effect.

A Golden-crowned Kinglet gave me an opportunity for a quick snapshot.

We went to the Beaver Pond, of course, but weren't expecting that much dragonfly activity.  We would have been happy to see a few.  As it turned out, the activity was very good, with lots of darners patrolling the shore looking for females, and meadowhawks flying in tandem over the water, dipping and laying eggs.  In some areas, each step would flush several meadowhawks from the ground into the air.  It was delightful.  We had a six meadowhawk day, with the following species:

White-faced Meadowhawk
Striped Meadowhawk
Saffron-winged Meadowhawk
Band-winged Meadowhawk
Black Meadowhawk
Autumn Meadowhawk

A six meadow hawk day would be good in the summer, but was especially pleasant to experience this time of year.  The most common species was the Saffron-winged Meadowhawk.  We saw only one White-faced Meadowhawk, and it set a new record late date by 16 days.  Here are pics of the meadowhawks:

White-faced Meadowhawk.

Striped Meadowhawk.  An older individual with frayed wings and faded stripes.

Saffron-winged Meadowhawk on the left, and Band-winged Meadowhawk on the right.

Black Meadowhawk.  We don't see Black Meadowhawks all that often, so this one was a particular treat.

Autumn Meadowhawk.  One of the "field marks" for Autumn Meadowhawks is that they land on you.

As usual, we had a great time at the Sun Mountain Lodge and the Beaver Pond.

Sun Mountain Lodge

Last week, Betsy and I went for a couple days to Sun Mountain Lodge in Winthrop, WA.  We usually go there in the summer for birding and dragonflying, but had never gone in the Fall.  We're glad we did – the weather was beautiful, and such a nice change from the persistent fog in Puget Sound the last couple of weeks.

Here's the lodge as viewed from out room:

Sun Mountain Lodge from our room.

The Fall colors were more than we had hoped for.  Here are some samples from around the grounds of the Lodge:

Betsy at Sun Mountain Lodge.

Admiring the Fall foliage.

Fall colors everywhere.

Colorful leaves were on the ground and in the trees.

Nice views from the mountains …

… to the Moon.

Here's a view from the Lodge down toward Lake Patterson:

Lake Patterson and the road home.

We also saw some nice birds.  Here are a couple:

A Golden-crowned Kinglet.

A female Hairy Woodpecker.

There were lots of dragonflies, too.  In fact, we saw two different species of darners and six species of meadowhawks.  Here's a photo of two species of meadowhawks sitting side-by-side:

Two male meadowhawks.  On the left a Saffron-winged Meadowhawk, and on the right a Band-winged Meadowhawk.

All in all, a wonderful couple days off to enjoy the Fall.