The Autumn Equinox

Sugar Maple in fall color

Thursday was the official beginning of autumn! It is a time when nature prepares for the long and depending where you live, cold winter ahead. About 3/4 of the birds in North America migrate south to climates that have their needed food sources, and many of them travel hundreds of miles to get to their destination. If you're a birder like me, fall is one of the best times to see lots of bird species as they take a breather in a local park or backyard, fattening up on insects, fruit, and seeds to build up their fat reserves for their long journey ahead.
For insects, they try to live out their final days. Many adults die at the first frost, but some will produce an antifreeze in their body and will hibernate for the winter. Bees, wasps, ants, some butterflies, and other insect species apply this trick in their lives. Most insects are in the form of eggs. Adults lay their final brood so that the nymphs and larvae will hatch in the spring when food is abundant. Some, like many butterflies and moths, go into a pupa stage during the winter. When spring arrives, they will arrive as adults into the world.
Many plants put on a spectacular show in autumn. Cooling air chemically reacts with chlorophyll in the leaves of deciduous trees, and this accounts for their array of colors in the fall. Dropping your leaves is a way to reduce water loss in the winter time, which is hard for broad thin leaves. Plants also produce an abundance of fruit in the fall. Once the seeds are spread, they will remain dormant in the soil until the warmth of spring triggers them to grow.
For us, well, this is when we go outside to enjoy all of the fall events happening! Whether it's fall colors, apple cider, corn mazes (or a corn "maize"), pumpkin patches, fall migration of birds, hunting, football... whatever makes you happy, go out and enjoy it! But please, don't stay curled up on the couch all day because it's only here for a limited time only. Otherwise, you''ll have to wait until next year!
Verse of the day:
"So that people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it." Isaiah 41:20