Fall Moves into the Mountains

Summer is no more than a glimpse in the rear view mirror of fall now.
The birds continue to gather for migration, leaving backyard feeding stations and trees void of their gregarious chatter and song that was so obvious just three short months ago.
A growing population of Monarch butterflies are moving through the Valley in their fall migration. This is one of the best populations in the past decade. This is the "Methuselah generation." In late summer, aunique generation of Monarch butterflies is hatched. Unlike their parents, grandparents, all of whom had ephemeral lives measured only in weeks, the migratory butterflies survive seven or eight months.
This generation performs the incredible feat of flying from Canada and the United States to the center of Mexico to winter. This same generation will begin the trek north next spring. Once they reach the United States next spring, a kind of relay race begins. Their short-lived offspring lives only four or five
weeks. They continue the trek northward over several generations. Old feathered friends slip away under the cloak of darkness to avoid predators in the daytime sky. Many songbirds migrate at night, landing in early morning to rest and feed before continuing on their southward journey.
On the mountaintop there is a flock of flickers debugging the front yard, and down on McCoy Cove Road, the robins are congregating. Some will move farther south around the Atlanta area, but others will winter in the Valley. Overhead, there are at least a half dozen broadwing hawks riding the warm air currents of the
Valley. All of them are restless with the fall urge to move.
September's chill is beginning to reach over into the daylight hours, quickening the pulse of humans and wild critters alike. There is renewed vigor in the air. For insects the fires are beginning to burn prettylow. The first frost will thin their numbers out tremendously. On a balmy August night the tree crickets
fiddle around 160 notes a minute, and now they are down to about 40. As fall's chill deepens, theslowdown in the insect trickle to a close for another season. A few katydids and crickets will survive the first frosts, and proclaim their good fortune weakly, but by late October they will fall silent.
Then there will come the long, deep annual quiet until another spring breaks the silence that is so intense that one can hear a snow flake falling in the night, and an owl a half mile away proclaiming its territory.
Fall officially arrives on Friday, September 22, with early wintering sparrows landing in the Valley. When the autumnal equinox arrives, the sun crosses the equator and the lengths of day and night are equal.
Fawns have lost their spots, adult white tail bucks are rubbing the velvet off their antlers in anticipation of another rut season, and persimmons are starting to ripen. Acorns are falling like shots from the skyand squirrels are busy bury as many of them as they can. Snakes begin their winter dormancy, and bittersweet starts to ripen. Black gum, bittersweet and dogwood are showing rich fall colors.
May you always hear the whisper of wings.

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Black Mountain, North Carolina, USA 28711
A non-profit 501-3-C organization dedicated to wildlife research and education