A Report of Fall

Michigan is on the upside of a warming trend again this week. We've been in the cold and damp for a while, but it's suppose to hit 60 degrees this weekend - woo hoo! It will give me the chance to do some tiding up on my garden which looks very rough right now. The frosts we've had has left so many of the plants dead and brown, or dying.

My sweet autumn clematis will remain until spring as a hiding place and momentary safe haven for the birds from the hawks that haunt our grouping of houses. We have quite a number from this avian family that swoop and dive 'round our feeders throughout the year.

The goldfinches are still visiting the remnants of my sun flowers and cone flowers despite the brown stalks and flower heads. Those finches seem to ride the stems in the wind and they bob and weave through the air on those slender stalks. I've had many varieties of birds at the feeders around the yard, many more than we've had in previous autumns. I've had three kinds of woodpeckers, and a bevy of sparrows!

I had a sad moment yesterday when I lifted the lid to my squirrel feeder and found a dead red squirrel all curled up inside on the hulls of the sunflower seeds. Death is not an unusual thing this time of year, but I am never prepared for it. I still have two tiny reds dipping in and out of the trees so I'm still enjoying those tiny comedians of the squirrel family.

Our flying squirrels visited off and on most of the summer but are now back in force to beef up before the cold hits. I turn off all the lights in the kitchen to be able to catch these little flyers. They're great to watch gliding to the seed or suet during the evenings.

We also have rabbits back under our shed in the back yard, which means I will have to put mothballs under there to shoo them away. There are plenty of other places of hiding places for them to escape to in the neighborhood thank goodness. My dogs go crazy chasing their smells all around the shed and dig like crazy to get at those darn cotton tail critters.

You know, there are many other wild critters that frequent our part of the world here, but as I clean and sweep the yard in preparation for the onslaught of the snows of winter these are the little wild things that I've watched passing through lately - and all are enjoyed, photoed or simply observed as they sail the skies or wander the grasses near our home.

It's finally fall, and I'm getting into the season by enjoying all the things wild here in my world.