Thursday, October 08, 2015

Changing


Sunrise at Roundtop.  October 8 2015
It won’t be long, another 7-10 days, and the leaf color at Roundtop will be at or near its peak.  Looking at the trees today, that’s a little hard to believe.  The leaves are changing slowly, with still more green than color.  The morning light is fully that of October’s golden rays, though.

I wouldn’t say the leaf change is late.  Timing seems pretty normal at the moment.  I think it’s more than I’m still in the summer mindset of being used to having greenery around me, and the autumn changes isn’t yet far enough along to jog me into a fall mode. And yet I know the prime color season and the first frost can’t be far away.

Perhaps it’s because I haven’t yet seen a junco or a white-throated sparrow to officially mark a new turning in the year’s spinning.  A friend, further east of here, has already had the little sparrow at his feeders, so I know it won’t be long before the new tribe of sparrows arrives.  Now that summer’s ubiquitous chipping sparrows have left, the mountain is rather free of little birds.  For the moment, the mountain is dominated with medium-sized birds, like bluebirds and blue jays and the larger Canadian robins that arrive after the local ones have headed further south. With the leaf canopy thing, various woodpeckers seem more prevalent, but likely it’s just that I can see them better again.

So I’m waiting to be kicked into fall. I just don’t quite feel it yet. Maybe next week.

2 comments:

Scott said...

I completely concur, Carolyn. The vegetation around here is still mostly green (though there are hints of color), so I'm still in "summer mode," too. the change is going to be a shock.

I was on the campus of Temple University this morning in the middle of super-urbanized North Philadelphia. There was a nice, formal garden outside the room where I was seated, and a warbler appeared and started shuffling through the underbrush. I couldn't identify it, but it was a real surprise given the time of the season and the incongruous location.

Carolyn H said...

Scott: Fall warblers never get easier for me. I keep hoping, but so far no, and I'm starting to think it will never happen.