There were just a few stray raindrops.

A small storm had just passed and the sun was about to pop through but rain was still tapping on the poplar leaves and sparkling on the alfalfa in the field. The deer, a quartet of mulies, all had wet backs and drops of water beaded on their whiskers.

It was chilly and gorgeous, just like I had hoped my day in the foothills would be.

But then came the wind.

It arrived at roughly the same time as the sunshine and made the poplars shake off their accumulated raindrops like a dog after a swim. It set the deer moving, too, the little buck with his newly bare antlers giving me a look before the family crossed the field to the shelter of a copse of aspens.

In truth, I was kinda hoping the rain might carry on. The forecast for the city called for scattered showers but here, just barely off the southwest corner of town, the sun was peeking through. It looked sunny and bright off to the west, the direction I was heading, too. No rain out that way.

Which would be okay if it weren’t for the wind.

Driving slowly along the Pine Creek valley, I was watching for bits of early fall colour, things like osier dogwood leaves and geraniums that might be in shades of red or clumps of fleabane with their pretty mauve faces.

And I did find some. There were fleabane at a little spring-fed pond, surrounded by yellow-green leaves and duckweed. Sunlight sparkled around a patch of sedge that lay flat on the water like a pale green starburst. On a nearby beaver pond, a momma mallard and her full-grown babies paddled around.

But the wind was blowing hard now. Down here in the valley there was some protection from it but I could see the trees bending on the ridge above and hear the roar of the leaves being smacked together. It was so loud I could barely hear the bluebirds.

In fairness, I gotta say bluebirds don’t have the strongest voices. But as I stopped to take pictures of one perched on a fence post, a bright blue male flew up and landed on the edge of the road right beside me.

It was way too close to focus on with my long lens so I frantically grabbed for my second camera with a shorter lens as it beaked its way through the roadside grass, making soft little chirps and warbles as it went.

And kept making them as I swung the camera out the window and that little piece of sky flew away.

But there were more of them around, a dozen or more. I’m guessing they were massing to get ready for the fall migration, the adults teaching this year’s babies how to forage and put on some weight before beginning their long flight.

Same with the robins. As I was trying to shoot video of the bluebirds and get at least a little bit of their........

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