Happy Fall!

The start of autumn officially occurred last week with the equinox, but, as I mentioned at the time, that day doesn't really mean much of anything to most people.  Some people say fall started after labor day, or when school started.  Some may have looked for a phenological event like the first red leaves or the goldenrod taking over the prairies... but if you want to judge the start of fall by the weather, it seems like today might be it.

Last night, I walked around my neighborhood in the early evening, it was in the 70's and the whine of cicadas was loud in the background.  At the time, being a follower of weather forecasts, I found myself wondering... will this be the last time the year that I hear them?  (In phenology, "lasts" are so much harder than "firsts."  The first frost is obvious, but the last one... what if I mark it down and then there's more frost tomorrow or the next day?  You have to keep noting the lasts until it really, truly is the last.  Sometimes it doesn't occur to you that it will be the last monarch or the last earthworm until much later, and you have to try and remember what the date actually was.  So we'll see, I guess...)

At any rate, after yesterday evening's warm, summery-sounding and -feeling walk, this morning dawned... not too bad, when I left for the gym at 4:45 am.  It was 65, and if it's 65 degrees at 4:45 am, it'll probably be in the 70's at mid-day, right?  Were the weather forecasts wrong?  (Wait, the internet can't be wrong!)  Did I choose the entirely wrong clothes?  Leaving the gym 2 hours later, if felt considerably cooler.  And it was still nearly dark with clouds, spitting almost-rain, and windy.  In the time I have been writing this post, the temperature has dropped another 3 degrees.  (It says it's 56 now.) The 10-day has highs in the low 60's or upper 50's for its entire duration...

Now I'm wondering if I dressed warmly enough!
Happy autumn.

Trendsetters

In this line of sugar maples, most are still green, but a couple have turned a beautiful orange!

The world is definitely starting to look more autumnal, with bits of color here and there.  At this point, no species seems to be consistently turning colors... but there are early adopters out there (as though ceasing to photosynthesize was like deciding to wear skinny jeans, or jelly shoes...) that are starting to wear their fall hues.  

This is true not just of sugar maples, but other species as well... some locusts are turning yellow.  Some lindens are turning brown/yellow, some birches are turning yellow... but overall, taking the species as a whole, none of them are predominantly changing... yet.  With cool weather starting tomorrow and October around the corner, I'm sure it won't be long!

Snakeroot Update

Snakeroot started going to seed this weekend... 

Super Moon!

So... I will start by saying that iPhone is great in general, but for photos of the moon, more specialized equipment might help. Ah, well...

This is the super moon rising. It really was quite large on the horizon when it was first visible.  Very lovely, though the picture doesn't do it justice.

It took another hour and a half before we could really see it eclipsing. It just started to disappear in shadow, the left side darkening gradually. This picture was taken when it was a little more than half shadowed, though the glare makes it look more there than it was. 

Shortly thereafter, clouds covered the sky so I won't get to see the full eclipse but what I saw was pretty cool. And lucky, I suppose... It was cloudy most of the day!

Prairie Plants

Peak bloom for New England aster, and clouds of bees hovering around it...

Goldenrod actually past peak, some plants are still in full flower but many, like these, aren't as bright yellow, have brown setting in...

Sumac

Many sumacs are starting to turn red in earnest this week... though this is a species with a lot of variation in timing. 

Seed Burst Firsts on a Misty Morning

With the start of autumn, we look to seeds and colors... the things that characterize the end of a life cycle, in as much as a cycle has an end.  These are not the first milkweed seeds I've seen bursting open, but they actually are the first ones that aren't right next to the trail, and I'm always suspicious that maintenance mowers and, in the case of milkweed, hands alter the phenophases.  This morning I started to notice milkweed plants off the trail opening their seedpods, though these are early adopters.  Most are still green with potential for later!

The cattails are also starting to release seeds... The eponymous brown fuzzy hotdogs-on-sticks are packed so tightly with so many seeds for so long... and now they are starting to burst and explode! 

The goose in this photo isn't especially phenologically relevant, really... We have geese year-round now.  In the 40's, Also Leopold poetically described the return of the geese in March as one of his tell-tale signs of spring.  Thanks to office parks with aerated ponds that never freeze, geese never leave (at least not a lot of them) so their presence means not a lot... but the mist on the lake is an interesting phenomena that's been happening these mornings as it's been getting chilly at night.  Since it's still been warm during the day, the water and ground are warmer than the night air, causing these misty fog-clouds each morning.  They're quite lovely.

The morning fog really strange... you can see this layer of fog hanging over some parts of the land and not others.  In places it's not as tall as my head so I walk through with my head above clouds and my body in them.  When you move in and out of the misty areas the temperature drops by what feels like 10 degrees, then rises again just as quickly...

My last sighting of the morning -- this pair of sandhill cranes flew almost right over me.  Thanks to their distinctive call, I knew they were around before I saw them, and was able to get totally prepared to take pictures... but still, the ones where they were right overhead turned out totally blurry.  This was the best of the bunch, though it's still not awesome.  You almost can't see enough leg to know they're not geese, but, trust me, they're cranes!