TRANSITIONS

 

We’re past peak fall color now, but I couldn’t resist one more outside foray to capture the season’s waning beauty.

 

 If you’re lucky, and the sun is shining on a wooded vista, you would hardly notice the difference.

 

 There is still plenty of “yellow wood” in the forests too.

 

 And some variety of trees just hold onto their color longer.

 

 But over the last few days, the colors have begun to dull a shade or two. 

 

 Yellows to golds to browns.

 

 But the changes in nature aren’t happening just to the trees.  The fall bird migration is underway too. Throughout October, cranes have been gathering in small groups to prepare for their trips.  These two families will be taking their juveniles south for the first time.

 

 Until Monday, though, I hadn’t seen evidence that the migration was actually underway.  Then, I saw a large group of Sandhill Cranes late afternoon congregating in a distant field after a day in the air. 

 

 Frustrated that I couldn’t get closer, I pulled Google Earth up on my iPhone to see if there was a way into the habitat, which had ponds and fields of corn dregs.  The closest I could get was the seasonal road running along the bottom of the map. 

Trumpeter Swans were flying in too and I caught this family with a juvenile making its first migration from Alaska and British Columbia to the Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay, and North Carolina.

 

 Wave after wave of geese flew in last, honking loudly as they approached.  It appeared that the habitat was large enough to accommodate all three migrating species in their own areas.

 

 Not being able to catch any close-ups of the birds, I moved on to check on the crane family I’d been following throughout the summer and fall.  They’d been in the same field every time I visited all season, but for the third day in a row, the field was empty.  I think they’ve left and it made me sad.  For me, the seasonal transition from fall to winter is the hardest.