Don went for a walk on our property in the late afternoon yesterday. He came back and his overall impression/feeling was “They’ve left.” Not a sound from the birds, bees – nothing. (I assured him the bees were alive and well; he could find them among the asters on the front lawn.)
But I know what he means. It all seems very sudden this year. Most of the birds are gone, though the Carolina wrens are around. They often stay through the winter. I hear the sounds of Canada geese every day now. I don’t see our resident groundhog, probably because he’s preparing his winter hibernation tunnel. I haven’t seen the blackbirds lately, the robins have left town, as have most of the finches.
It’s eerily quiet.
So I took that same walk; through the woods, the back forty, and down the little path to the bench that overlooks our neighbor’s fields.
Blooming in the woods.
Looking up at the sky from my perch on the bench.
The fields.
He was right. It all seems to have happened rather suddenly. It’s still warm outside with temps in the high seventies, low eighties. It seems like they should still be here! But they know what they have to do. Their clocks have told them to move on.
I miss them.
I’m sure I’ll see birds around the birdbath in October, when they stop for a refresher on their way south. But, summer is gone, even though the calendar says we have a few days of it left.
Oh, the gnats are still hanging out here.
Stay safe.
Happy Friday.
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