Dreaming the World

The early morning fog has lifted. Last night’s promised rain failed to arrive, but a cold front came through, pushing the heat and humidity south and bringing what is becoming a fine early autumn day. We remain in dire need of rain.

Over at the fishing harbour there remain a few terns, an osprey or two, and a variety of small shore birds. We are in the migration season and for the next few weeks we will be visited by birds moving south from their summer nesting grounds. Its that time of year when it is almost impossible to know who is a local and who is visiting.

In the garden, the humming birds are tanking up on morning glory nectar and the goldfinches are feasting on the sunflowers. The goldfinches blend into the flower heads, so occasionally we get startled when one suddenly flies out. (By the way, in the photo somewhere there is also a humming bird but I can no longer find it.) There has been an early chick-a-dee or two as well. Jennie has staggered her plantings of sunflowers in the garden which has meant a long show of flowers for us and very happy birds.

In the verges and fields where the Joe Pye Weed is in majestic bloom, we see the occasional monarch, usually alone. A friend from Vermont reports seeing a caterpillar on milkweed, and colleagues from the mid-west have noted seeing more. Jennie has been working on our milkweed patch which, for some reason, remains devoid of common milkweed, so we are not sure whether we are being of any real aid to the monarchs.

There is growing colour in the canopy (trees and bushes are heat and drought stressed) and although most trees won’t turn for at least another month, I am reminded of a story about the annual migration of leaf peepers top Vermont. (A local game used to be to try to find Vermont license plates among the throngs – especially on weekends.)

Some years ago a Vermont state road crew got tired of almost being hit by tourists driving around while looking at the fall colour rather than the road. Now anyone who is being fair will admit that locals get just as distracted by the beauty, although we like to imagine we have the good sense to pull over to stare. Anyway, the crew put up a huge sign which read: “Thanks for Visiting Vermont, Now Go Home.” As one might imagine, they received a lot of applause from harried Vermonters; they also got in trouble. Vermont needs those tourists!

By the way, in my last post I said there was no longer a nature column in the New York Times. I stand corrected. Laurie Graves wrote to inform me that: “In the New York Times, Margaret Renkl writes about nature from her home in Tennessee. She’s very good and worth checking out.” I’m glad to her this and will check out her column.