Fall Foilage for the Birds

Walking along the beach after the leaves have dropped off the trees and the vegetation has turned brown challenges me to find interesting things to photograph. One of my favorite things is finding a plant with berries on it. Red, yellow or purple berries stand out against the drab brush as the treasure that catches your eye. Here's an example.


Hopefully these berries will be food for some over wintering birds.
I've seen quite a few birds lately including a flock of Robins outside my window at home eating sumac berries in a tree the morning after the shoreline was blanketed in a foot of snow. Along with at least 6 blue jays across the street on my neighbor's lawn yesterday a cardinal and a few black pheobes flew into my yard to search for food in the lawn. The foot of snow was melted overnight in a rain storm that turned the yard from white to green.

The other harbinger of Fall is the appearance of the feathery tops of the phragmites on the tops of their tall stalks. I'd imagine the seeds in these fronds feed the bird species that stay along the shore as well.