Letter: Out back, colors are changing, days shortening

Posted 10/29/17

To the editor:

So you have taken down your hummingbird feeders, and washed them thoroughly and stored them so that you can find them next April 15? Good for you. And speaking of hummers, this you …

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Letter: Out back, colors are changing, days shortening

Posted

To the editor:

So you have taken down your hummingbird feeders, and washed them thoroughly and stored them so that you can find them next April 15? Good for you. And speaking of hummers, this you are not going to believe. A faithful reader in Oak Forest bought a swing for her hummers and they use it! I will certainly try one next year.

Strolling through the Back 40 on one of these amazing summery days it is hard to realize that the cocoa brown little mop heads are the once pink Joe Pye weed, and the ghostly gray little spires were once goldenrod.

The only butterfly is small and yellow — the monarchs (and I just learned to identify another traveler, the smaller painted lady) have migrated to Mexico. I also learned that it is the third generation to hatch during our summer that has been imbued with the extra stamina to make the long journey. They can live for nine months and return to their breeding ground.

By now the native brown-skinned grapes have fallen and been eaten by possums? skunks? foxes? but the grape leaves have turned yellow and if you are in the fields you can see how the vines have flung themselves to amazing heights onto the surrounding trees.

There is a little drainage ditch (illegal) with trees on both sides at the far end of the Back 40. I have two chairs there and in the summer I would sit and wait for the inquisitive catbirds to find me. Now that they are gone, I find that if I wait chickadees come to see what I am about.

Just because you don’t see the bright yellow male goldfinches doesn’t mean they too have gone south. It’s just that they don’t need to be attractive anymore and have shed their yellow feathers. They’ll be at your feeder — just look for stripes on the wings. If they have a striped chest you are looking at a house finch, which have all but eliminated our beautiful purple finch. At least I haven’t seen one for years.

Hoping these days last at least another week and that you can be out in the late afternoon before that dreaded time when we go back to Eastern Standard Time and our afternoons turn dark.

Sidney Tynan

Little Compton

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