Encounters …
28 September
A few things we noticed whilst out walking during the last days of September
Mostly pictures this Sunday, not too many words … plus, at the end, a suggestion for a book that you might enjoy reading.
There are changes in the places we go walking as we roll up to the end of September. We are gradually seeing fewer species of birds in the garden and now there are fewer visits by birds migrating south. Some recent delights - not a native plant but we have some pots of Cuphea (Mexican cigar plant flowers) on the deck and one day mid week there were five or six Ruby-throated Hummingbirds refuelling for all they were worth … each one swollen and tennis-ball shaped with fatty fuel for the long journey ahead of them. Since then we have seen none - that’s the last of the Hummers for 2025.
The greatest treat was possibly the return of a Carolina Wren. Not so many years ago these toffee-coloured balls of fluff were rarities hereabouts but recent winters they have been garden residents - last winter visiting almost every day. We have heard them in the area through the summer but not seen them until now. Hopefully he/she is scouting the food possibilities for the cold months to come.
Parent Northern Cardinals and House Finches are still feeding the last clutches of youngsters they have raised. Hopefully they will be independent before long. Then late yesterday afternoon a couple of juvenile (still spotty) juvenile Eastern Bluebirds dropped by for a cooling splash in the waterfall. A Chipping Sparrow looked, waiting for his turn. Then, half an hour later, the first of the “real’” winter birds was seen - Dark-eyed Junco.
And so - an end of the month picture gallery follows:
And insects/spiders too:
And … a Book Suggestion
I was recently reminded, following an exchange I had with a reader, of a book by name of The Fly Trap and written by Fredrik Sjöberg. I had read it a few years ago and thoroughly enjoyed his memoir of years spent on the tiny island of Runmarö in the Stockholm archipelago where he developed a fascination with collecting and studying hoverflies. It is rather funny in parts. Described as a meditation on the unexpected beauty of small things and an exploration of the history of entomology itself.
What drives the obsessive curiosity of collectors to catalog their finds? What is the importance of the hoverfly? As confounded by his unusual vocation as anyone, Sjöberg reflects on a range of ideas—the passage of time, art, lost loves—drawing on sources as disparate as D. H. Lawrence and the fascinating and nearly forgotten naturalist René Edmond Malaise. From the wilderness of Kamchatka to the loneliness of the Swedish isle he calls home, Sjöberg revels in the wonder of the natural world and leaves behind a trail of memorable images and stories.
This time last year …
… I posted this end-of-September round up, which included the world’s first “salad aubergine”. Look back in wonder, follow this link:
Lots of good stuff here. Thanks for sharing them all. At least you get to see your muse. Sweet picture! Mine only comes at night and leaves paw prints in the water bowl. :-)
Great photos and I'm going to order The Fly Trap from a local bookshop.