The robins started it all. I woke to mad fluttering and chirping, wingbeats too fast for my binoculars to find focus. The robins have stopped by on migration to fuel up on arbutus berries, their fat bellies perfectly color-matched to the orange fruits. Juncos and jays and flickers have joined the party. A pileated woodie creeps around the big fir tree. Kingfishers clatter through the air. The squirrels, irked to have pine-nut gathering interrupted, are doing pushups and shrieking hysterically. It is bird mayhem up here.

Photo by Benjamin Madison at http://victoriadailyphoto.blogspot.com/2013/10/arbutus-berries.html