American redstart, etc.

One bird that even bad birdwatchers like me are seeing in abundance this fall is the American Redstart. It's described by the Cornell Ornithology Lab as declining in a few areas but still abundant. Alexander Wilson painted the bird and Audubon also described it as abundant. Unfortunately, its abundance may be the result of characteristics which would not endear it to conservatives - who are now much enamored of (serially) monogamous penguins. As Cornell reports:

The male American Redstart occasionally is polygynous, having two mates at the same time. Unlike many other polygynous species of birds that have two females nesting in the same territory, the redstart holds two separate territories up to 500 m (1,640 ft) apart. The male starts to attract a second female after the first has completed her clutch and is incubating the eggs.

Polygynous but prudent. Audubon classified the bird as a flycatcher rather than a warbler. Here's bit of what he had to say about this abundant warbler:

This is one of the most lively, as well as one of the handsomest, of our Flycatchers, and ornaments our woods during spring and summer, when it cannot fail to attract the attention of any person who may visit the interior of the shady forests. It is to be met with over the whole of the United States, where it arrives, according to the different localities, between the beginning of March and the 1st of May. It takes its departure, on its way southward, late in September, and in the beginning of October. It keeps in perpetual motion, hunting along the branches sidewise, jumping to either side in search of insects and larvae, opening its beautiful tail at every movement which it makes, then closing it, and flirting it from side to side, just allowing the transparent beauty of the feathers to be seen for a moment. The wings are observed gently drooping during these motions, and its pleasing notes, which resemble the sounds of tetee-whee, tetee-whee, are then emitted. Should it observe an insect on the wing, it immediately flies in pursuit of it, either mounts into the air in its wake, or comes towards the ground spirally and in many zig-zags. The insect secured, the lovely Redstart reascends, perches, and sings a different note, equally clear, and which may be expressed by the syllables wizz, wizz, wizz. While following insects on the wing, it keeps its bill constantly open, snapping as if it procured several of them on the same excursion. It is frequently observed balancing itself in the air, opposite the extremity of a bunch of leaves, and darting into the midst of them after the insects there concealed.

Another frequent - and welcome - sighting this fall has been the monarch butterfly. Last year, numbers of this migrating insect plummeted. But this year, as measured at Cape May, New Jersey, monarch numbers have so far recovered to their highest point since 1997.