What are you noticing as you walk out your front or back door lately? Where I live, it is still hot and humid, and though the weather forecast suggests that the heat will subside, temporarily, at least, I cannot yet believe it. Today, it feels as if summer will last forever, in spite of the abundant signs to the contrary.
There were voices missing from my early morning woodland walk this morning, voices I listened for, but did not hear. The wood thrushes who seemed to sing more lazily last week, did not sing at all today and it has been a while since I have heard the ovenbirds or orioles. Red-eyed vireos still questioned, however, and a handful of eastern wood peewees softly sang their musical "pee a wee", as if in greeting as I walked by. Blue jays are abundant, as their migration has begun and northern jays are passing through regularly, if the chorus of their raucous calls is any indication. The yard is full of hummingbirds - males, females and juveniles with fat little tummies, all feeding constantly, in preparation for their long flight south. It seems too soon to think about saying goodbye, and yet I know that in a few weeks other birds will come and settle in for the winter. It won't be long before the predictable arrival of white-throated sparrows and juncos and I know that I will miss them, too, when it is their turn to leave, next spring.
As happens in late summer, spider webs are everywhere these days. Some are strung across trails, as if the spiders know that insects are as appreciative of flying in open space as humans are of walking there. In fact, one can't walk any of the wooded trails this time of year, without repeatedly running into sticky, silken strands. Other webs are large, intricately patterned circular structures that may be spun 15 feet off the ground. When covered with dew, and hit by the first rays of sun in the morning, they look to be made of diamonds, glistening in the trees.
The late summer roadside and meadow flowers are coming into bloom, and all are covered with pollinators of all kinds. Joe-pye weed billows into tall pink clouds and grows lush in the ditches along the roads. Hyssop-leaved and late thoroughwort are becoming a white haze that sets off the bright yellow rough-leaved goldenrod and various beggartick species. White wood aster is blooming in the woodland edges and soon will be joined by blue-stemmed and zigzag goldenrod, followed later by the tiny-flowered white frost asters that are the primary source of pollen and nectar as the growing season winds down.
The trees are also beginning to foretell the coming of autumn, though more subtly than they will a few weeks from now. While black gums and sassafras are the first to boast a few bright red or yellow leaves, black walnut foliage is the first to fall in profusion. Their descent is just beginning, golden leaves fluttering and twirling softly to the ground. The yellow poplars are beginning to color, as well, and here and there is the crimson of solitary red maple leaves, early to turn, for whatever reason.
These are days to savor, despite the heat. It is a time of abundance for all...ripened berries and plenty of insects for the birds, still-green leaves for the many cricket and katydids who are still singing mightily, nectar and pollen for myriad pollinators, acorns and hickory nuts for deer and squirrels. It is a time for gratitude for what the earth can provide, if allowed to and, for me, gratitude to the Giver of all, for allowing me to share in the life of this land and its inhabitants.
