Can I call this fall yet?

Beaver Creek

The soupy weather of midsummer is in the process of disappearing today. The humidity is falling down to normal levels and will even be low tomorrow. Nighttime temperatures will be below 60 for the first time since June, and the breeze is from the northwest. It’s too early to call this the start of fall, but I’m certainly tempted to do that anyway.

Summer is certainly on the downside of the season, and the signs are looking good for cooler and less humid weather ahead. As far as I’m concerned, it’s not a moment too soon. This is all a long way of saying that today’s photo may be the last day of “soup” in my photos for some time. I hope so. I hadn’t quite planned on living in a rain forest or a jungle when I moved to Roundtop Mtn. I had in mind crisp breezes, cool summer nights, solitude and the constant sounds of the surrounding forest. I was half right.

And lest you think the second week of August is too soon to be thinking about fall, which officially doesn’t start for another six weeks, let me report that the first of the fall hawkwatches have opened for the season, the chimney swifts are already migrating and the barn swallows are thinking about it. Shorebirds are migrating, too. Just because the sun hasn’t reached the fall equinox yet doesn’t mean the season isn’t on its way.

In fact this might be a very pretty fall locally, given the amount of moisture that fell in the spring and has fallen in the past two weeks or so. That would be a nice switch from the past few years, too, when the fall colors have been spotty at best or drab at worst. We’ll have to see what the next few months bring, but so far, the signs are positive. For today, that's good enough for me!