a wind hurricane

We didn't get a late-October Sandy-type hurricane this year but the past few days have been almost as dramatic. After a gorgeous blue-white-and-red sunrise on Saturday (blue water, white puffy clouds, red rising sun), the clouds took over followed by a hurricane-strength windstorm that took down leaves, branches and even tree trunks. This roaring, rainless storm lasted all night and well into Monday. Our electricity went out about midnight but was restored by mid-morning. As a result, I got in a good last walk only this morning (Tuesday) which was cool, cloudless and almost windless. One last 'new' bird for the season: a Marsh Wren in the reeds near the head of the marsh and very curious as to what I was doing there! There were lots of birds on the water: noisy Royal Terns and silent Forster's, Black Duck on the pond and a big silent V flight of Double-crested Cormorants overhead. Also the heron 'greats': Great Blue and Great Egret. Flocks of Red-winged Blackbirds were on their regular southwest-to-northeast trajectory. The storm seems to have reduced the numbers of upland birds although the regulars -- American Goldfinch, Black-capped Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, Blue Jays, American Crow and Carolina Wren were still present in some numbers. Few sparrows although all the regulars -- Song, Chipping, Swamp and White-throated were present. A few Yellow-rumped Warblers and one lone Common Yellowthroat. I'll do one more report summing up the season sometime in the next few days. Eric Salzman