As I was taking yet another wind-blown lunch walk... side note: pretty much the only day this week that we haven't had crazy, blow-you-off-course winds was Tuesday when it rained. You know how much I love strong gusty winds, so... it's been a great week for me. Yea. Anyhow. I was walking, looking down to avoid having leaves or other detritus blown into my eyes, when I heard the distinctive, primordial call of Sandhill cranes. I looked up to see them, and was immediately blinded by the sun, which didn't bother me because I'm just happy to see the sun. When my retinas healed, I was able to find the flock -- about a hundred birds, flying due south, up so high that they looked like barely more than specks in the sky. Migration!
In the other direction (the one I spent most of my walk looking, ie, down) there are still woolly bears braving the elements. Woolly bear lore says that the wider the orange bands are, the milder the winter will be. This year's crop seem to have pretty wide bands. Although I have heard non-larval predictions for a mild winter this year, I don't know that I put any stock in caterpillar predictions. (Although this is interesting... I've noticed that the woollies this year seem to have one really tiny black side and one larger black side... I've also heard that this winter will start mild but have a brutal end. Can these caterpillars be that specific? If that comes to pass, will it mean the woolly bears really do predict the weather? Hmmm.)
I also saw a grasshopper today, though it was slow and didn't jump very far to get out of my way.
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