I can't believe it's nearing the end
of October. We're buried in falling leaves, and thinking of winter on
our doorstep. Weren't we just waiting for the arrival of the
hummingbirds, planting our vegetable gardens, and soaking up summer
sunshine? Well, the hummers have come and gone. Marsha, on Covel
Avenue, saw her last one on September twentieth. The males fly south
first, usually in late August. If you had feeders out, you may have
seen a feeding frenzy as they got ready to leave. The females do the
same thing a couple of weeks later. The Monarch butterflies have
headed to Mexico and I can happily say, I saw more of them fly
through this year than last although I didn't see one feeding on my
garden flowers until the first of September. In past seasons,
Monarchs have been regular visitors throughout the summer. Hopefully,
their numbers are higher than last year when the count is done in
Mexico this winter. As the end of October nears, we have yet to get a
frost. Last year, the first frost was on October twenty-ninth. This
season it looks like November first. I have a tomato plant with
blossoms still! Annual and perennial flowers are still looking good.
Petunias, roses, cosmos, asters, begonias, and mums are some of the
flowers still in bloom. This will all change by week's end. It's
predicted to drop below thirty degrees and snow showers may occur.
A pair of Carolina Wrens moved into a
nest box in our yard in August and had a brood of four babies. They
kept us very entertained with nest building, insect hunting and loud
mouth behavior. The male sings an extremely high decibel song which
became our wake-up call early each morning. The pair built a cup
shaped nest in the box together, using dried leaves and grass,
rootlets, and small twigs. They foraged for insects all over the yard
and garden. It looked like crickets were the favorite meal. Once the
babies were born, both parents were in and out of the nest box with
insects and fecal sacs. The sacs are poop which the parents drop away
from the nest so as to not attract predators and to keep the nest
clean. One day I got to see one of the parents fly a sac over to a
neighbor's garbage can lid and dump it! Too bad the can wasn't open.
After just a couple of weeks babies and parents were out of the nest
box and flitting around the apple tree in the yard. Later in the
day-Gone! I saw the family over on Andrews avenue the next day.
Carolina Wrens are year round residents. They will come to feeders to
eat suet, hulled sunflower seeds and dried fruit. They also like
seeds from poison ivy berries.
I believe I saw a Broad-winged Hawk
hanging around the village for a few days back in September. It is
the first sighting I've had for one in town. The hawk was most likely
migrating south and found Round Lake a good spot for a few meals. The
first time I saw it I was at the bottom of the hill by the tennis
courts. It came flying down from Covel Avenue, past Diane Marchand's
house and to the top of the basketball hoop in the McDonough's yard.
It perched there for a bit, looking over its shoulder and peering
around the yard before taking off for a higher perch in a pine tree.
I saw it a couple of days later by Jeff Max's house. It was up at the
top of a tall tree inspecting the landscape. Broad-winged hawks are
small stocky hawks with broad pointed wings and have tails with black
and white bands. They especially like to dine on small rodents,
insects, frogs and toads.
Lastly, if you are at all curious
about how winter weather will be, find a Wooly Bear caterpillar and
examine its segments. These caterpillars are black at each end with
brown for a middle segment. Folklore claims that the wider the brown
band the milder the winter while the narrower the brown band the
harsher the winter. Wooly Bears can be seen on roads, trails, and
sidewalks this time of year on their way to overwinter under rocks
and in logs and leaf litter. Check them out and see what you think
the forecast will be! Happy Halloween Everyone!
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