Juncos!

[tigertoy]

Fall is generally a depressing time, even with the colors, because the turning of the year means no more flowers or butterflies for months, and the rainy days we often have in October foreshadow bleak, gray winter. But this morning, the damp and gray was lightened by magical golden light from the sun poking through a hole in the clouds as I got in my car, and in my front yard I saw one of the really nice things about fall: the first juncos are back.