Autumn means trees and birds change …

It’s Autumn. Our Autumn Flame Maple trees are turning orange and losing their leaves. (that’s with the help of the drought this Summer as well, not entirely due to Autumn). And we are anxiously awaiting our bigger October Glory Maple tree in the front yard to begin turning color. It survived the drought just fine. It’s very full of nice green leaves still. All of these trees were planted early Spring 2002. This will be our first Autumn with nice trees around us. Our lot was vacant, save one big non-descript wild Locust Tree on the border of the property (old pasture land) when this house was built and we moved in.

We have some other trees, and they are in various stages of turning too, but effects of the drought are evident. Cherokee Chief Dogwoods, Yoshino Cherry, and Japanese ‘Bloodgood’ Maple. (The Japansese Beatles rather chewed up many of the leaves on that last listed tree … poor thing.)

I’ve seen some of the Winter birds lately. The butterbutts are back! (Magnolia Warbler, for those of you not familar with “butterbutts”). The Eastern Bluebirds are more active again, with this cooler weather. BlueJays are around more often now too (usually hididng out in the thick trees across the street.) The Hummingbirds have all left as of a week ago. I’ll miss those sweet little birds! Oh, and I’ve caught a glimps of a American Goldfinch here and there too.

The other bird I like alot is the Northern Cardinal, and I’ve seen more at a time lately, so some Norther visitors seem to have arrived for the Winter season.

This Summer was rather sparse, for rain and birds. It’s been nice to see a bit more activity in the yard. Of course that means the Brown Headed Cowbirds and the European Starlings are out and about too. Sigh. Well, we’ve had better rain the last several weeks, so things are looking up for the first time in a long time.

This Winter will be interesting. We are attempting some things to change in the family, in the way of business, job, etc. So, this may be the only Autumn with these trees we see, we just may end up moving. But that’s on to other places with pretty trees, nice birds, and good Autumn weather too. We’ll do what we can to make this property nice for future Autumns and Springs, and Summers and Winters too, as long as we are here: for us, and for future owners. That’s what we hope everyone else does too. Improve your land, take dominion.