October is the pretties month in Minnesota, everything is incredibly colorful and the weather is perfect. Even the sky seems its brightest blue. This is one of the views from the Summit Overlook at Hawk Ridge. I'll be there Friday night. They’ve added a new public program this year—“Strangers of the Night” is an owl program held on Friday nights now through the end of October. It starts at 9:30pm at the main overlook, and they’ll be bringing up banded owls for adoption—very similar to the hawk adoptions during the daytime. The program is free and registration is not necessary; adoption amounts vary from $30 to $100.

This tree was practically glowing as I walked down my street. Maybe the colors are just more vibrant because I'm happy to be up and moving in a healthy way.

Yellow-rumped warblers are still in big numbers around my apartment building. I keep getting endless joy of pishing them from out my bathroom window. I'm amazed at how close they come. This morning they were in my window boxes and clinging to the screen.

The warblers appear to be after these tiny little flying bugs. There are literally millions of them. They are all over our screens and are so small they can squeeze right in. They don't appear to be interested in what's in our home, just hanging on the screen. Whatever they are, the warblers sure are savoring them.