Greensboro Birds

Yesterday, Josh, my pal Christine, and I got up at the crack of the crack and drove down to Lexington for the annual Hawg Run 5K. It was originally planned as my athletic debut, but it turned out to be my third official 5K since I started trotting back in August. I set a new PR (personal record) of 33:44, shaving about three minutes from the time of my first run in September! Christine crossed the line just behind me, at 33:56; the extra seconds were taken up by her victory dance. Josh kicked the ass of the race, setting a new PR of—hang on—20:33! He took second in his age group and 24th overall. Did I mention that he runs barefoot?

Unfortunately, the Hawg Run is NOT held during the Lexington BBQ festival, which is a crying shame. But we enjoyed insanely good ribs back here in Madison at Mountain Side Restaurant, where I was overjoyed to discover that 11:00 a.m. on Saturday is never too early for a rack of ribs!

Also? We had our first frost this morning. Woe is winter!

This morning heralded my old buddy Sam Peabody (aka white-throated sparrow). He scratched around below the feeder while I fed the chickens at sunup. Just now, the brushy area at the edge of the yard yielded—get this:

• A golden-crowned kinglet,
• Yellow-rumped warblers,
• A pine sisken, and
• Two yellow-bellied sapsucker!

All that’s left are the dark-eyed juncos, ruby-crowned kinglets, and cedar waxwings, although waxwings hung around Farris Park all summer, so they’re probably somewhere out there as well.

We had what I guessed was one last wave of monarchs on Monday the 13th, which was a gloriously warm, sunny day. So many monarchs made their way through that I figured the cold weather to come was pushing the late-departers to Mexico. I also predicted that the winter birds would be arriving with the cooler, drizzly weather that followed Monday’s mini-heatwave. Just call me Jean Dixon.