Fall Changes

Birds are good indicators of the changing seasons.  California blue jays are year-round residents, but the first stellar jays (technically, it is Steller's jays) just arrived on scene.  They winter over and then leave for wherever they came from in spring.  Flickers don't seem to travel in flocks like crows and robins.  They're really pretty birds with unusual markings of black bibs, spotted bellies, and striped backs.  I only see one or two each fall.  They're in the woodpecker family, but I've never seen them boring holes like their red-headed cousins.  I missed the mass migration of vultures last month, but the maintenance crew still hangs around, I'm happy to see.  Unless they're off on a work detail, they perch in the dead oak over the barn in the morning, flying off with a whump of wings when I approach with banging buckets, returning when I leave.  Every so once in awhile I'll find an interesting lump on the ground under that tree.  Vultures regurgitate a bolus of indigestible bone and hair or fur after a good meal, and I find them dried and solid.

The air definitely has a different feel, lighter somehow.  For me, this is perfect weather, warm enough still for a tank top during the day, with robe or jacket in the morning and evening.  (Linda, from Seattle, is in long sleeves and fleece vest.)  The girls have not yet grown their winter coats, but the chickens are refeathering bare backs.  A strong wind blew through after dark last night, rattling dry leaves in the trees like rain.  It sent me rushing outside to make sure it wasn't rain as I'd not unloaded a couple of bags of feed from the truck.

Only a month or so before Thanksgiving, it is time to get the Kids organized for the holiday.  We celebrate whenever the clan can coordinate days off, so there are times when we're out of sync with the rest of the world.  With two counties not reporting in yet, the majority seems to favor the traditional last Thursday this year.  (With Thanksgiving coming up, can Christmas be far behind?)

Strangely, other than the dry oaks, leaves on trees and grape vines on the surrounding hills have not changed color yet.  While temperatures have dropped, I think nights are not cold enough yet.

At any rate, it appears that fall is here at last.  (And I did get a tarp for the woodpile.)