As you know, most of the leaves have come down by this time of the year, and there are some holdouts. And the trees that keep their leaves the longest are usually the beech trees or the or the pear trees, but Late Fall brings a lot of other things too.
It's a special time to walk the woods and see what's happening. It may make you a little sad to see the green leaves gone and so forth, but there are a lot of things to notice, especially things like the large Osage fruits that fell during middle fall. They're being chewed up by squirrels or raccoons or possums, I'm not sure quite which, but their slow disappearance in months ahead is a way of telling time. And then there are other nuts too, and if you watch them change, they will also tell you the time of the year. The black walnuts are perhaps the most common, and they fall green and hard in September and October and early in middle fall.
But now, if you step on them, some of them may sort of squash, and that'll tell you, again, the time of year. In fact, if you walk the woods or just walk your dog outside, you'll see signs of change all the time. One of my favorite signs of late fall is the migration of sand hill cranes, if you were lucky enough to live along a path of the sandhill cranes, you'll see them or hear them flying high above you, and they'll look kind of like geese. You won't know for sure until you hear them. The geese, of course, go "honk, honk, honk," and my imitation of sand hill cranes is is hardly authentic, but they have a higher pitched call. It's a sweet, sweet kind of a call. Don't quote me on that, but then as late fall deepens, you'll see more and more signs to watch. The honeysuckle leaves start to come down and the undergrowth opens up. And so you've got a lot to watch.
Bill Felker with Poor Will's Almanack will be back again next week with more notes on Late Fall. In the meantime, do your walks. See what's happening and watch it change.
