I stepped out Friday morning to go birding and right outside the door, my camera strap broke and dropped the camera and 100-400mm Canon L lens on my concrete porch floor. There was no way I could have foreseen this accident, but even with a newer strap I will more likely be holding onto the camera body when there is pavement underfoot.

I proceeded to go birding anyway. The camera seems to be fine. But the zoom ring on the lens is stuck somehow making it too tight to turn, so I am sending the lens for repair. I went back to my old lens yesterday, which has a manual push-me pull-you zoom on it – using it was a bit of an adjustment. But luckily I don’t have as many birds tempting me to photograph them as I did back in September, which is when I took the photos in this post. September 30, to be exact, at the Portage.

The lovely lady at the top of the post and in the gallery below is a female Common Yellowthroat.

Kinglets were showing up too. The Ruby-crowned Kinglet below gave me plenty of looks at its crown without the red. Then I had barely one good shot of a Golden-crowned Kinglet, but there were many more in the days that followed.

One bird I felt privileged to see a few times this fall was a Northern Waterthrush.

Not a warbler but a nice-looking Red-bellied Woodpecker…

Below is a Northern Parula.

Black-throated Green Warblers were abundant this fall.

In the I Took Way Too Many Pictures Department, the most cooperative bird of the season had to be Blackpoll Warbler.

Sunshine and greenery at the Portage … before the fall. And a pair of Canada Geese for good measure.

I will be back soon with another post, slipping in and out of real time … it feels almost normal these days anyway, to be slipping in and out of reality.