In Missouri, late September is a time of transition. The oppressive summer heat has moved to our south but the deep autumn chill has yet to arrive. Some color dapples the forest but late summer wildflowers still adorn the grasslands and, for the most part, greenery dominates the landscape.
Though a few summer birds have left with the heat, most linger in our woods and winter visitors have yet to leave their Canadian homeland. Frogs, snakes and aquatic turtles still haunt the wetlands, fiddlers still sing through the night and the hoot of the great horned owl is but a distant memory. Here in the Heartland, we are suspended between summer and fall.
But all will change within a few weeks. Autumn splendor will paint the countryside, a hard freeze will silence the insects, waterfowl will reclaim the wetlands and the culling season will begin. Nature may not always obey the human calendar but we can count on her cycle to endure.
