There are 13 weeks of winter, and 13 color bands on the woolly bear caterpillar. This one looks like the global warming trend is spot on.
The crickets are chirping a little bit slower.
and the leaf peepers arrive. All of these things indicate change.
As the end of September approaches, my pheneology reports are incomplete...not that I haven't noticed.. I just didn't take time to enter the data.
Apparently, others are more dedicated to record weather and track data.
What about you? Do you record data? What kinds of things signify the arrival of autumn in your backyard? I invite you to record your data here - in the comments!
As things are shaping up, it appears that we will escape a first frost in the month of September. Long live the garden!
11 comments:
The things that signal fall to me are: tall blue asters start blooming in the woods; the late afternoon light changes and becomes softer, more pink; and I begin to smell our neighbors' fireplaces.
Looks like we'll have that little cold snap about the time I have poinsettias to deliver. Oh well... time will tell.
Hi Cyndy, When the asters begin to bloom, the leaves begin to turn colors, the Ash Tree starts dropping its seeds, the days get shorter, I find warblers and thrushes in the garden as they migrate through, the air gets chilly,the insects aren't so loud at night, and the spiders spin webs like there is no tomorrow. All wonderful indicators.
Watching the geese fly in their perfect formation and hearing them say "bye for now, see ya' in the spring."
our seasons are probably less pronounced that in the northern hemisphere. I know that certain species of birds (cuckoos) only call during late spring. I plan on taking more notice of the indicators of change though... We only record rainfall at the moment though.
I have calendars with records that my aunt kept. Eventually I would like to organize it all. I keep records of what/where I plant in the spring but then things go crazy! Enjoy autumn.
I used to record rainfall when I had a garden. I always thought I should record more, but somehow never did it.
Clouds of tiny blue "October flies" hang in the air wherever the sun is shining. They're actually dusky winged ash aphids and bike riders hate them.
I've been horrible about recording things this year. Horrible!
Our ash tree on the north has changed and dropped all its leaves in the last week. The plum has started to drop and the ornamental plums and Japanese maple in the front look like its still May. But those are always the last three trees on the block to loose their leaves. One year they hung on until February. It just depends on whether we get any wind storms in the fall or not. The other tip off for us is the overnight lows. We're still reaching into the 80's during the day but we're dipping into the low 40's at night.
I'm using my blogs to record seasonal changes, rather poorly I might add ;-) I used to record the first cherry-plum tree flowerings each year. These days it is interesting to me because I moved from Australia to Colorado then California. Seeing how the seasons are different is fascinating.
The plane trees are first to show changes - they start looking really sick. The birches are next to start and the liquidambars. Same as my home in Melbourne!
Here in Alabama our Sweetgum tree is turning and losing its leaves. It's usually the first in our yard to turn.
When I was young we always used the Woolly Worm to predict our winters.
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