Perhaps Summer and Fall this Year are Too Closely Knit
The scents and spectacular aroma of fall “in the air” are half the joy. The other half is a mix of changing shadows, plants lapsing into dormancy, and the quiet fall of leaves catching the breeze to the ground. The redolence of the autumn season…it’s in a class all its own. There’s the mingling among earthy scents, warm spices, and all things cozy that immediately evokes a desire to settle in and prepare for the colder months ahead. Then, the bluest of blue skies to be periodically one-upped by the full moon of an October evening, give your eyes something new to absorb. As if the spectacle of colored trees in every shade of yellow, orange, crimson and rust wasn’t enough.
Yet this autumn season, as we buckle down for winter, it seems we will need to wait some time before smelling that quintessential wood burning fire escaping into the air, for two reasons. It’s either been too warm, or more recently the current drought situation deemed it an unsafe pastime. The sound of rain is something of weeks’ long past, and it doesn’t seem to be showing any signs of return. The smell of crunching leaves on the other hand is a mixture of compounds breaking down, the lack of sunlight luring them (and our minds) to the notion that winter is approaching. Or so we hope anyway. Sweater weather is really hung up on something in my neck of the woods.
The American Goldfinches in my backyard seem to be living in an endless summer however. They dine on coneflower seedheads and they splash around the bird fountain. They tweet like little Disney® songbirds would in an idyllic woodland scene and I can’t remember a day in the last 14 where I haven’t seen them. While the color of their feathers are molting out the bright yellow for various shades of ecru, they seem to still glow in the warm October sun.
They wait well into the summer months to rear their young (a late summer breeder due to the preferred diet they feed their chicks). And I have read that because of this, can easily suffer from late summer thunderstorms and dare I say, flooding of their delicate nests. If that is true, then it’s been a banner year for them. Late summer here was nearly as dry as it is now. Bone dry.
It is the second week of October as of this writing, and the younger birds are still pestering their parents for food. It is rare for the American Goldfinch to have more than one brood in a season. But still possible. It just seems strange to see a young bird in October begging for food. Seems out of place. The rapid fluttering of the wings like they are trying to fly is actually code for “Feed me, feed me please!!!” Having left the nest, I guess their tight knit social groups just keeps them close. (Though I have yet to witness a closer family dynamic than the Eastern Bluebirds in my yard.) Meanwhile, other birds hatched this summer in my yard have already arrived thousands of miles away in their wintering grounds. While still others like the juncos just showed up from Canada to winter here.
While my cozy sweaters wait their turn, and I wait for the smells and feels of fall, which are not even half way here it seems, I watch for clues from the Goldfinches. People anticipate sweater weather more than the hype of NYE. For when it arrives, change is literally in the air. For now, though, the warm glow that reflects off the Goldfinches reminds me that change will happen when it’s ready and the thread that binds the two will eventually break away.