Fall is only a few days old, but the reminders are already everywhere. The honey locust trees have turned yellow and dropped their tiny golden leaves, and now the birches are starting to turn.
When I walk around the neighborhood I see robins everywhere. They are flocking up for winter. Many of them will stick around here but become less visible during the cold months. Others will travel just a couple hundred miles to the house for a slightly-milder winter experience.
In the afternoons and evenings I hear geese and Sandhill Cranes honking overheard, and I’ve also seen the occasional migrating songbird like this male Rose-breasted Grosbeak who stopped to get a drink at one of my birdbaths.
He and the other spring and fall migrating birds won’t be back again until early next May.