When the milkweed pods come open, then frost season is on the way, and Canadian geese, great-crested flycatchers, blue-gray gnatcatchers, ruby-throated hummingbirds, eastern wood peewees and bank swallows move down their flyways toward the Gulf of Mexico. Buzzards gather at their roosts. Crows are the only birds to call before dawn. Monarch butterflies become more numerous, still visit the late phlox and the zinnias in the afternoon sun; other insects, however, become less common in the field and garden as the number of pollen-bearing flowers dwindles. Spiders understand; they weave fewer webs. Bees compete for the remaining nectar. Winter’s craneflies swarm, a fraction of their December size.
When milkweed pods open, peak leaf coloration starts in northern New England. In the Mid-Atlantic States, fallen leaves begin to cover the undergrowth, and the canopy is visibly thinning. Honey locusts are half yellow, buckeyes in the middle of full leafdrop. Hickories are gold, like the ashes. The first white mulberry, sycamore and cottonwood leaves have come down in the wind.
Barberries are red, and rose hips have turned alongside them. Touch-me-nots are still blooming, but their foliage deteriorates. Late summer’s clearweed has green seeds. Older wingstem and ironweed are done blossoming. Wild lettuce leaves are stained with decay. Queen Anne's lace and bright blue chicory die back suddenly. The first goldenrod is brown. White vervain is gray, streaked with maroon, tattered, laced from insects. Boneset is rusting. Beggarticks are ready to stick to your clothing. Roadside sunflowers and Jerusalem artichokes enter their final week.
This is Bill Felker with Poor Will’s Almanack. I’ll be back again next week with notes for the first week of middle fall. In the meantime, watch for milkweed pods to split and show their silky seeds.
