Googly-eyed squash and a possibly haunted birdfeeder

I was going to carve our jack o’ lantern this year to look like Rudy Giuliani, with the bug eyes and hornrimmed glasses. But Barbara said it would be too scary. So I just did the bug eyes.

AS MAPLE LEAVES DRIFT to the ground like lazy snowflakes in the watery autumn sun, and fewer and fewer of our island neighbors are spending time at their holiday cabins, Center Island is feeling more and more like Sleepy Hollow.

We’re off to my sister-in-law Margaret’s annual costume party in Shoreline. Happy Halloween.

Ghost bird? As I snapped this photo of a chestnut-backed chickadee chowing down at our feeder, another bird flitted by just in synch with my camera shutter, leaving a birdie blur in the center of the photo. Or was it… something else?