September 1st
The 244th Day of the Year

First September touching
puffballs-in-the-grass
(like moons)
and fondling yellowed sassafras.

Sunrise/set: 7:02/8:07 Day's Length: 13 hours, 5 minutes
Average High/Low: 81/60 Average Temperature: 70
Record High: 97 - 1953 Record Low: 44 - 1967

Weather
Temperatures today are usually in the 80s (a 55 percent chance) or 70s (a 35 percent chance), with only a five percent chance for a hot day in the 90s. There is a 30 percent chance for a thunder shower, 25 percent chance for completely overcast conditions, 50 percent chance for a pleasantly cool night below 60 degrees.

Natural Calendar
On Midwestern farms, the corn harvest is just getting underway. Pickle season is usually over, and peach picking may be done for the year as well. Grapes are coming in. Nearly half of the tobacco is cut, half the commercial tomatoes have been harvested. Early soybeans are turning yellow and a few plants are shedding. Fall apples are coming in, and summer apples are almost gone.

Daybook
1983: Geese fly over to Ellis Pond, 7:30 p.m.

l985: Jacoby East: First small white asters are blooming. July’s avens is yellowing. Cobwebs everywhere. Water cress growing back. Joe Pye still strong. Squirrels have been opening the buckeyes. Flurries of leaves falling through the trees. Some jumpseeds completely done jumping. Waterleaf growing back. Two huge puffball mushrooms found. Brown acorns on the path. Two smaller puffballs seen growing in the shade across the creek, like moons in the dark grass. Some wingstem bowing to set its seeds. Some ironweed done. Agrimony gone. Cicadas loud, insistent. Touch-me-nots still full. One rose pink found in full bloom at Upper Prairie.

1986: Cardinal heard twice today.

1987: Cardinal sings, intermittent.

1988: Stopped between the Covered Bridge and Corry Street: Waterleaf maple has grown a whole new layer of foliage. Most agrimony gone to seed, burs on their stems. Cardinal sings 6:30 a.m., heard off and on before 8:00, then again late afternoon. Yellow elm leaves falling.

1991: Purple loosestrife gone now.

1992: Cherry tree has lost almost all its foliage. Maple leaves falling in front of the house. Mornings heavy with dew, cool in the 50s, smell of autumn, of vegetation past its prime, settling into the earth, bearing fruit. Raspberries continue to come in. I pick them remembering Marshfield, when I filled pans with them, exulting in my picking skills and my mother's admiration.

1993: All the purple loosestrife in the yard has finished blooming, but in the countryside, some plants are still open. What appears to be the final balloon flower opened today. Doves still called before sunrise. More patches of yellow on the poplars and black walnut trees. On the way to Wilberforce, dozens of monarchs seen, most of them flying across the road south. I ran into two or three, many more killed on the highway. All the Japanese beetles have disappeared in the rose garden.

1997: Japanese beetles still present in the yard. Tonight just one firefly, and he was blinking in the grass. Deterioration of the showy coneflowers got underway today.

1998: Sparrows in the pear trees on Xenia Avenue: 6:50 a.m. Crows: 6:37 a.m. Cardinal 6:40. About two dozen yellow coneflowers left in the garden, five golden mums open. The pond is clear in the cool morning. Two water lilies blooming. Hops still flowering along the north hedge. Pokeweed growing back and in bloom.

1999: Doves were calling this morning at 8:00. At 9:30, the sun was well into the southeast, and cirrus clouds north of it glittered with a rainbow sundog, sign of fall. The last arrowhead wilted by sundown.

2000: With Buttercup at the Cascades: robins clucking, asters budding, jumpseeds jumping (had been loose in front of the house three days ago), red Virginia creeper leaves on the path, touch-me-nots popping, zig-zag goldenrod just opening, white snakeroot early. Sprouts of garlic mustard up in a runoff area of one hillside, responding to the increase in moisture there. Along the highway, more and more Judas maples. Soybeans have started to turn. Catalpas and cottonwoods aging to ocher. In town, stonecrop sedum approaching full bloom.

2001: Cardinal at 6:45 a.m., doves, crows and a jay a minute or so later. A brief flurry of song, then quiet again. Fishing all day with John at Caesar Creek. Not even a nibble in eight hours on the water. Many cormorants or darters in the water and roosting in dead trees at sundown. Great blue herons common. Arrowhead: last day of blooming season, the same as in the pond at home. No other flowers seen except some patches of goldenrod along the highway.

2003: Virgin’s bower is in full bloom in the back yard and everywhere in town.

2004: New England aster buds are turning purple by the north trellis. Virgin’s bower is only maybe a fifth in bloom there. Goldenrod has emerged fully here, and a great ragweed plant in the garden is still bright with pollen. One yellow swallowtail in the zinnias this afternoon, no monarchs. Showers of black walnut leaves off and on through the day.

2005: Casey called this morning from the golf course at the edge of town. “Blackbirds are movin’,” he said. “Can you hear them?” And I heard a faint clucking over the phone. He added that a friend had seen a female turkey with seven chicks in a tree near G. Stanley Hall. Some virgin’s bower is in full bloom around town. Ours, however, is still not flowering. The very first goldenrod, however, is coming in along the north garden. Most of the peaches fell from their branches yesterday, only a handful left.

2007: The tall coneflowers in the alley have ended their season now. A few yards away, the thin-leafed coneflowers are still in full bloom. One giant swallowtail visited the zinnias and butterfly bush this morning. A large flock of geese flew over the center of town about 7:00 this morning. In the pond, five or six fingerlings continue to survive, three light, two dark – and maybe three dark (first seen around the first week of July).

2008: The skunk was in the back yard when I got up this morning around 7:00, and it stayed until broad daylight at 7:35. One painted lady in the butterfly bush this noon. Jeanie found a three-inch preying mantis in the hosta and fern bed. A starling came to the suet feeder this morning, the first time I’ve seen one here through late summer.

September 2nd
The 245th Day of the Year

The squills and daffodils
Will give place to pillared roses,
And to asters, and to snow.

Amy Lowell

Sunrise/set: 7:03/8:05 Day's Length: 13 hours 2 minutes
Average High/Low: 81/60 Average Temperature: 70
Record High: 99 - 1953 Record Low: 40 - 1909

Weather
Today is another pivot day in the approach of autumn: for the first time since June 4th, the chances for an afternoon in the 90s fall below five percent. Highs are in the 80s seventy percent of the time, in the 70s twenty-five percent, and in the 60s five percent. Morning lows fall below 60 a third of the years. Skies are partly cloudy ten years out of a dozen; but rain occurs one third of all September 2nds.

Natural Calendar
This is the last week of late summer, and the last tier of wildflowers starts opening. White and violet asters, orange beggarticks, bur marigolds, late field goldenrod, and zigzag goldenrod come into bloom, blending with the last of the purple ironweed, yellow sundrops and wingstem, blue chicory and lobelia, golden touch-me-nots and showy coneflowers.

Daybook
1984: Beggarticks bloom on schedule.

1986: Maples are turning more quickly now in town. Flocks of sparrows noticed along Wilberforce-Clifton. No beggarticks or asters seen in flower yet.

1987: Crows loud this morning, starlings gathering at Wilberforce.

1988: Crows and blue jays wake me up at dawn. A cardinal sings at 8:30, then is silent.

1990: Late summer holds, warm. August-like damp, morning after morning with dew. Cardinals singing, sometimes still like July, doves calling: the days so full of sound, cicadas and katydids and crickets. Color, ripe color, deepening so completely, the complexity of the accumulation, the magnitude of the end of the summer so obvious now.

1991: Phlox still holding on. Yellow coneflowers die back at the south wall. First aster (novii belgii) blooms there too. Mums allowed to come in. Peas have been blooming three or four days. Along the railroad tracks, patches of brown and yellow in the redbuds.

1992: Cardinal sings at 7:55 a.m. Raspberries began their decline this morning, had been getting smaller and fewer, the corner turned when I picked a bowl just after dawn. Strong smell of autumn out in the grass, sky overcast, high humidity, a hint of wood smoke coming through the flower garden. At Wilberforce, my ash tree is three-fourths bare. At South Glen, the wood nettle has all gone to seed, some of its leaves covered with white fungus. Tall bell flowers finally at the end. River high but slow, perfect for fishing. Leaves falling all along the path. Hickory nuts down. Squirrels eating black walnuts. Bright red Jack-in-the-pulpit berry cluster stark in the fading undergrowth. Deep blue cohosh berries not far away. Jumpseed full bloom, still not jumping. Touch-me-nots not jumping. Asters budding. Strong steady song of the crickets.

1997: Some pussy willow leaves have fallen. One ash tree north toward Springfield is half gold. The old maple in front of the house has huge blots of orange.

1999: The ash in front of the house quickly turning pale, and the maple fringed with orange. Most of the phlox have gone, and their leaves are yellowing. All arrowhead in the pond has finished blooming.

2000: Today and yesterday, I found two small toads about an inch and a half long hopping in the grass. On the way to the Glen, three squirrels at different points in the half-mile trip ran in front of the truck. Light yellow caterpillar with a long brown tail and long ears at the hosta fence in the west garden. Birds filling the wires at Dorothy Lane. Showers of apple leaves, locust leaves, black walnut leaves in the sultry 90 degree afternoon.

2001: I’ve been thinking about how there haven’t seen robins around for weeks and weeks, and I haven’t heard robin calls, migration clucking, or summer’s-end valediction songs. When did they disappear, and why? On the Springfield reservoir with John today: found a few catfish, watched Monarchs fly across the lake. One yellow swallowtail came by the boat.

2002: Virgin’s bower full bloom around town, still budding at home. Knotweed full, stonecrop just starting. Still a few sundrops, spiderwort, Heliopsis. Russian sage and catmint still full. Some cottonwoods, locusts, ashes fringed with yellow.

2003: The last chigger bites fade around my ankles. The last chiggers complete their season with the last fireflies.

2005: At South Glen with Mike and the dogs: Goldenrod finally starting to turn, but not flowering yet. Bright yellow wingstem is in full bloom and fills the fields and woods. Some purple ironweed is beginning to go to seed but still complements dominant wingstem. Some ragweed with pollen found. Fruits of the wild cherry have turned. Monarchs seen off and on through an hour’s walk. Crows and geese calling along the way. At home, the first virgin’s bower bud has opened, and half of the stonecrop is in bloom. Overnight, a large camel-back cricket got stuck in the bathtub.

September 3rd
The 246th Day of the Year

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run.

John Keats

Sunrise/set: 7:04/8:04 Day's Length: 13 hours
Average High/Low: 81/59 Average Temperature: 70
Record High: 97 - 1913 Record Low: 42 - 1908

Weather
Between today and the 6th there is an increased chance for an afternoon in the 90s (about a 15 percent chance). On the other hand, 40 percent of the afternoons are in the 80s, 40 percent are in the 70s, and five percent are in the 60s. Skies are clear to partly cloudy 80 percent of the time. Chances for rain: 30 percent. Lows in the 50s come a fourth of the early mornings, with 40s coming about once in a decade.

Natural Calendar
At bedtime, Perseus rises out of the northeast. The Great Square lies due east. Cygnus the Swan is overhead; Hercules and the corona borealis are in the west, and the Big Dipper is low in the northwest. Taurus and the Pleiades are up by midnight, and they stay in the dark sky until middle spring when their disappearance coincides with the birds' return.

Daybook
1982: The fall raspberry crop in the back yard has declined to about two pints a week.

1983: Starlings gathering in the locust trees behind the house. Thoreau remarks in his journal (September 30, 1858) that they arrive in the fall from their northern breeding areas.

1984: Joe Pye weed brown at Wilberforce. Field thistles still full bloom. Geese fly over the house 4:14 p.m.

1986: One goose over the yard at 3:30 p.m. A flock flew over at 4:14 in 1984, also in l980 and 1981. Beggarticks still not blooming. Cardinals not singing. Goldfinch at the feeder, still gold. Raspberries declining quickly. First small white asters bloom in the back yard.

1987: Sycamore hole: One carp brought in at 5:45 p.m. after an hour with few bites but bait continually stolen. Strange fishing the last few times out, as if a major change was taking place in the habitat, the fish moving to an autumn location.

1989: Strong cool front dominates the morning. Blue, clear skies. Silent geese going south, high. Bees, cold, clumsy in the zinnias.

1990: One goose heard in the distance, 8:00 p.m.

1991: At the Charleston Falls Preserve: first small white asters seen, some ironweed done, tulip trees with patches of gold, cottonwoods fading, many on the path, soybeans throughout the county turned, brightening the patchwork landscape. Woods very dry, creeks very low.

1992: White cosmos, seven feet tall, facing south, bright against the predawn clouds. No cardinals this morning. Blue jay at 9:25, then crows passing through. Rose of Sharon continues strong, raspberries failing, a few strawberries still ripen. Bittersweet autumn smell of the days grows stronger. The ash outside my Wilberforce window is three-fourths gone, falling quickly.

1993: First beggarticks opened today.

1998: First New England aster in the south garden opened today, and the small white asters are just unraveling. End of the red cannas in town.

2001: Doves still calling in the morning, jays and crows too. One cardinal heard yesterday. None today. No fish caught at the reservoir today, although white bass were biting in the morning. Wind came up strong in the afternoon, and the sky sent mixed signals, storm clouds then sun.

2003: Japanese knotweed, full bloom by the street for the past week or so, is starting to decline. More jumpseeds jumping by the sidewalk. The morning is wet and quiet, no birds heard. No Monarch seen yesterday, the sky gray, rain intermittent, but this afternoon when I went out to the garden, there were two Monarchs in the zinnias. And Diana called from the Children’s center at about 4:00 p.m. She and the children had found several “Hickory Horned Devil” caterpillars (caterpillar of the Royal Walnut Moth, citheronia regalis). I went over to see; the caterpillar that had survived the children was fat and huge, maybe six or seven inches long, shiny green, horned, magnificent. Diana and Melody let it crawl on their bare hands while the children screamed.

2004: To Columbus: The tree line shows orange and yellow and red patches throughout the countryside, the leafturn continuing its early pace.

2005: Along the roads, white boneset is prominent, goldenrod brightening. When we got home from shopping this afternoon, we found three monarchs in the pink sedum. In the park across from church, the black walnut trees are almost bare. The peach tree along the north border continues to drop its sweet peaches.

2006: Screech owl at 5:00 a.m. (EST) and then again at about 8:30 this evening. In the yard, the Japanese knotweed is in full bloom, and the very first buds of our virgin’s bower are opening. The peaches have been dropping for several days, just before they really become ripe enough to eat.

First Spring, then Summer that away doth chase,
And must it self give place
To Apple-bearing Autumne….

Horace (Fanshawe)

September 4th
The 247th Day of the Year

I shall perform upon myself the sort of operation that physicists conduct upon the air in order to discover its daily fluctuations. I shall take the barometer readings of my soul, and by doing this accurately and repeatedly I could perhaps obtain results as reliable as theirs.

Jean Jacques Rousseau

Sunrise/set: 7:05/8:02 Day's Length: 12 hours 57 minutes
Average High/Low: 80/59 Average Temperature: 70
Record High: 96 - 1897 Record Low: 45 - 1974

Weather
Today carries a 25 percent chance for highs in the 90s, thirty percent for 80s, forty percent for 70s. And from today through the 13th, for the first time since the middle of June, there is between a five and ten percent chance for highs only in the 60s. Clear to partly cloudy occur nine days in a dozen; rain falls one year in four. Cool nights below 60 degrees occur four nights in ten.

Natural Calendar
Squirrels are shredding Osage fruits in the woods. The six-week period of blackbird abundance begins: they are here for harvest. Rose of Sharon, which was bright from here to the ocean a few weeks ago, has suddenly lost most of its flowers. Japanese knotweed petals darken and fall. White boneset begins to lose its brightness along the freeways. Ironweed is now deteriorating quickly, wingstem in its last week.

Daybook
1984: Knotweed along Corry Street is past its prime. Raspberries begin their decline.

1985: First new garlic mustard (which will bloom 18 months from now) sprouted today on the Covered Bridge hillside. My ash tree at Wilberforce is turning now.

1986: My ash tree a third yellow, leaves holding.

1987: Hummingbird in the zinnias.

1988: Woolly bear caterpillars were out today, three seen. Late honeysuckle berries just turning red. Japanese beetles still mating by the river. Blue vervain at the end of its stalks. Lobelia and monkey flowers, white snakeroot, jewel weed, boneset, horehound still full. Ragweed gone to seed, burdock brown. About a third of the wild cherries left. A few mulberries still purple. Three-seeded mercury flushed pink now. Carpetweed, mollugo verticillata, and heart- leaved umbrellawort, mirabilis nyctaginea, identified at the Jacoby tracks.

1990: Blue jays and crows at 7:00 a.m., no cardinals until 7:15. One robin heard, making migration clucking sounds.

1992: Cardinal sings at 7:00 a.m., then silent. At South Glen, the first white asters are open. Up into Near Prairie: Wingstem is full bloom in the shade, but losing petals in the open sun; ironweed at its height or just turning to seed. The first few zig-zag goldenrod plants are coming in, patches of Judas color here and there, bees, and butterflies. Along Grinnell, more yellow cabbage moths than usual. Some Monarchs too. Field goldenrod still not completely open throughout. Still not much decay on the coneflowers near Far Hole, but at the South Garden, I cut away the first cones, scattered them to set seed.
I compare the exhilaration of this time with the anticipation in March and April, the piercing glory of May, full tide of the year in June, golden July, humid, frantic August, sear, crisp winter. Which time is sweeter? Which colors are more extravagant, which events move me more in this kaleidoscopic cycle?

1993: No katydids heard last night. Doves calling at 6:45 a.m. No cardinals. Three goldfinches came to the feeder today.

1997: Starlings in flocks along Wilberforce-Clifton Road this morning and yesterday.

1999: Sitting in the greenhouse before dawn: Orion and the moon moving in from the east, Jupiter over my head, the broad star cycle, the lunar and the planetary. I could stay here and watch and watch the cycles wash over me. This afternoon I found the very first small white asters and the first New England aster in the South Garden. Then saw the green frog sitting on the bench near the pond. Later, near supper time, I almost stepped on a medium-sized leopard frog along the south wall.

2000: Thunderstorm at 4:00 a.m. this morning, heavy rain brought down yellow locust, black walnut, and box elder leaves: the first autumn rain. Half the rudbeckia gone. Late white and violet hostas remain strong.

2001: The yellow jackets are finally here. They came first to the catfish carcasses on the 2nd, then to the apples this afternoon. Lots of brown Asian ladybugs on the lake today. A skunk dug up the back yard last night looking for grubs. John said he thinks skunks did the same thing to his yard last fall. Rose of Sharon down to a small fraction of its late July bloom. Silvia brought a large puffball mushroom over last night, stolen, she said, from her neighbor’s porch.

2003: Fog this morning after the passage of a cool front. No birds heard in the dark, just a whistling cricket; then one wren chattered at 7:00, no cardinals or doves. Late afternoon: three Monarchs seen in the zinnias when I went out for a few minutes.

2005: Bumblebees sleeping in the stonecrop. Serviceberry leaves yellowing and falling along Dayton Street.

September 5th
The 248th Day of the Year

One could give his life to watching the weather, and sky, stars, wind, just what can be seen by our eyes.

Harlan Hubbard

Sunrise/set: 7:07/8:01 Day's Length: 12 hours 54 minutes
Average High/Low: 80/59 Average Temperature: 70
Record High: 102 - 1899 Record Low: 41 - 1902

Weather
The second cool front of the month has often passed through by now, and sun ordinarily dominates the days through the 11th.
Today, 90 degree temperatures come only 20 percent of the time, 80 degrees 40 percent, 70 degrees 30 percent, 60 degrees ten percent. Lows are in the 50s forty percent of the mornings, in the 40s ten percent, and a dip to the 30s is possible (a five percent chance of that). A shower passes through just one day in four.

Natural Calendar
As the sun moves to within a few degrees of equinox, sycamores, tulip trees, poplars, locusts, elms, box elders, buckeyes, dogwoods, chinquapin oaks, lindens, and redbuds begin to show their autumn colors. Leaves gather in the backwaters and on sidewalks and paths. Bright patches of scarlet sumac and Virginia creeper mark the fence rows. Some ash, black walnuts and cottonwoods are almost bare. Streaks of gold have appeared on the silver olives.

Daybook
1983: Washington, D.C. to Yellow Springs: Vetch, asters, wingstem, ironweed, sunflowers, horseweed, green amaranth, Queen Anne’s lace, varieties of goldenrod, sundrops, chicory, sow thistles all in bloom. Brown dead teasel prominent throughout the drive. Joe Pye losing its violet blush. The dogwood which was in full flower at the rest stop in West Virginia the third week of August has some green berries, some white berries.

1986: No cardinals singing. Blackbirds cluck in the Wilberforce trees. Orange beggarticks just opening, locusts yellowing, zig-zag budding, a few small white asters now. Cicadas quiet.

1987: First small white asters bloomed in the yard today. At Far Hole, no bites, fishing at sunset. Sycamore leaves drifting down the low river. Tree line weathering. Zigzag goldenrod is budding along the upper trails. Cicadas quieter than a week ago. Wind seems to be picking up as early fall comes closer.

1989: South Glen: mist heavy over the open fields tonight. Amber wingstem half gone. Most ironweed has faded. Dogbane yellowing. Goldenrod is just showing color. The very first asters are open.

1992: First small white asters bloom against the south wall. Mums coming in now slowly. Tall blanket flowers are in, started from seed. Zinnias, cosmos holding well. Ranunculus surging, taking over the mallow bed, stronger the last few weeks than even in the spring. Dry south wind today, temperature rising toward the 80s, the garden glowing with the change of season, deepening, darker gold, a more intense and more final green.

1993: The September 5th cool front comes through on schedule, lows in the 50s this morning, clear, with fog in the field along King Street. Mother cardinal feeding her baby at the gazebo feeder before dawn. Rudbeckia is three-fourths gone, the south garden tangled by Friday's rain. Geese flew over the west end of town at 8:15 this morning. A hummingbird came to the zinnias at noon.
Then to South Glen with Buttercup: Most ironweed and wingstem gone. Bur cucumbers have fully developed fruits. Rudbeckia still late full here, and sunflowers, white snakeroot, oxeye. A few touch-me-nots. Jumpseeds jumping now. Scattered old mint still in bloom. Trees still solid except the tulip poplars, which are patchy with gold.

1998: Peak of Jerusalem artichokes, goldenrod, wingstem, white boneset. Last purple loosestrife and ironweed. Still chicory. Queen Anne’s lace aging, most gone. Through southwestern Ohio, landscape still forest green. A few asters seen. Sycamores and tulip trees turning and falling. Countryside dry but holding. Greene County corn all brown and brittle.

1999: The green frog was sitting on the bench again today. Neysa sat down beside it.

2001: Cottonwoods and sycamores turning more, an ochre color, worn. More yellow jackets on the apples. Another skunk struck on the road again last night. Chicory and Queen Anne’s lace still strong. Goldenrod coming in more. More soybeans turning, corn withering.

2002: Butterflies today: one monarch, one spicebush swallowtail, several cabbage moths, spotted skippers, and blues.

2003: South Glen: The river high again after inches of rain from Hurricane Grace. Under the canopy, tattered bellflowers, wood nettle leaves breaking down, more jumpseed seeds gone, white snakeroot early. Out in the field, goldenrod is just starting to come in as the purple ironweed decays quickly. Wingstem holds at full. Small white aster (very close to aster vimineus) common. Wood thrush heard and seen. Lots of monarchs in the garden and crossing roads today.

2004: One monarch and a yellow swallowtail in the zinnias today. The first New England asters opened in the north garden. Stonecrop remains at full bloom, pink and red.

2005: Late peaches still coming in along the north garden.

2007: Monarchs and painted ladies in the stonecrop throughout the day, cabbage butterflies swarming. Moderate activity at the bird feeders. The first virgin’s bower opened overnight, the New England asters showing some purple in their buds. Jerusalem artichokes still not budding. Along the freeway, cottonwoods are getting paler.

September 6th
The 249th Day of the Year

Like the trees, we had to let each new year shape, teach, and renew us until our unconscious habits fell like autumn leaves to the forest floor, and new, more conscious ways of doing things sprouted in their place.

Ken Carey

Sunrise/set: 7:07/7:59 Day's Length: 12 hours 52 min
Average High/Low: 80/59 Average Temperature: 69
Record High: 101 - 1954 Record Low: 41 - 1962

Weather
Statistically, this is one of the three driest days of September, with only a five to ten percent chance for rain (the 10th and the 28th are the other two days). Highs are in the 90s fifteen percent of the time, in the 80s on 45 percent, 70s twenty-five percent, 60s fifteen percent. Today is the first day of the season on which there is five percent chance of light frost. And, for the first time since June 11th, the likelihood of early morning temperatures below 60 degrees rises above 55 percent.

Natural Calendar
Bees are awkward and stiff in the cool mornings. Sometimes on sunny days, woolly bear caterpillars swarm across the roads. Kingbirds, finches, ruddy ducks, herring gulls, and yellow-bellied sapsuckers move south. The last young grackles and hummingbirds leave their nests. Cedar waxwings fly south down the Little Miami. Bobolinks and woodcocks follow. Flocks of geese sometimes land to feed on the college green.

Daybook
1984: To the Vale: Goldenrod early full, some still not blooming. Great blue lobelia full, full white snakeroot. Some spotted touch-me-nots are fading. Purple-leafed willow herb discovered, heal-all gone to seed. A few fleabane noticed, a few last wild lettuce. Thin-leafed coneflower holds, and a few soapwort. First white asters are in bloom, aster pilosus. Tall bellflower falling apart. Field thistle declining. Boneset hanging on. Giant yellow hyssop done. Bees stiff this cool morning.

1987: Two carp caught, one at 9:30, another 15 minutes later after an hour and a half of no activity. Through the village, tree colors shifting steadily. The ash by my Wilberforce window suddenly has a large patch of yellow. Three pale orange woolly bear caterpillars were crawling across Grinnell Road when I drove through at 11:30 a.m. Only one katydid heard last night.

1989: Woolly bears suddenly become come common. Most of them are dark this year. Low purple aster, novi-belgii, blooms in the garden.

1990: Heavy fog, then a high in the 90s. Seems like the hottest day of the summer. No woolly bears so far this year.

1992: Clear decline in the coreopsis now, and a quick decay in the rudbeckia along the south wall. The purple coneflowers are already way past their prime. Cicadas louder than I've heard them for a while, and the crickets and katydids after dark are shrill.

1993: One more balloon flower blooms. Stonecrop past its prime. Only Evadine has a September garden in town now, with her tall Jerusalem artichokes.

1995: At the triangle park, the box elder leaves have rusted steadily for a few weeks. Now the summer’s breakdown is more obvious than just a few days ago. Every few feet of foliage has a small patch of brown. Today, the biggest change, the first couple of red maple leaves turned overnight.

1997: In the south garden, a third of the showy coneflowers withered. Ruby Nicholson called, told me that a nest of hummingbirds had two babies in it, ready to fly away.

1999: Showy coneflowers are almost gone, the last holding on with the tattered white phlox and a few petunias and Heliopsis. Crows at 6:50 a.m.

2000: The prairie dock at the corner of High and South College streets has only a few flowers left. First daddy longlegs in the bathroom, even though the weather has been summer-like.

2002: Doves and jays at 7:30 this morning, cardinals at 7:45 – sleeping late as is their fall custom. Spicebush swallowtails, sulphurs, monarchs in the zinnias today.

2003: Cardinal, wren and robin this morning a little after 7:00. Blue jay calling while we were eating breakfast about 8:30.

2004: Crows at 6:50 this morning, doves about a half hour later. No other birds heard. Warm and clear all day, the sky extraordinarily blue. One monarch came to the yard off and on throughout the afternoon, ignored the zinnias, fawned on the dahlias. Two bright chartreuse Osage fruits fell by the shed last night. Squirrels continue to chatter throughout the day, a common sound of late summer and early fall.

2005: Crows calling at Antioch about 7:30 a.m.

2007: A cardinal sang at 6:51 a.m. (EDT) and continued for several minutes. No other early birdsong. Pollen remains on the goldenrod in the alley. One black walnut tree near the church is almost completely bare. Acorns are down all around one red oak tree. Mateo’s Jerusalem artichokes have small buds, buds on mine too. One New England aster opening along the north garden wall.

 

September 7th
The 250th Day of the Year

Out of the west the wind comes over,
over the yellow goldenrod,
over the drying rattle-box pod,
comes heady with corn and apple smell now.

August Derleth

Sunrise/set: 7:08/7:57 Day's Length: 12 hours 49 minutes
Average High/Low: 80/58 Average Temperature: 69
Record High: 99 - 1899 Record Low: 42 - 1962

Weather
Today is usually sunny or partly cloudy with little chance of frost. Totally overcast conditions occur only once or twice every two decades, and rain comes just 25 percent of all the years. Highs are in the 70s on 40 percent of the afternoons, in the 80s on 50 percent; there's just a five percent chance for an afternoon above 90 or below 70. Lows remain in the 60s four nights out of ten.

Natural Calendar
Berries are red on the silver olives, orange on the American mountain ash, purple on the pokeweed. Wild cherries have disappeared from their branches. Squirrels scatter buckeye hulls along the trails; locust pods fall beside them. The rich scent of late summer pollen is almost gone by end of the week, replaced by the pungent odor of fallen apples and leaves.
The sweet potato harvest has begun in North Carolina, the potato harvest in Wisconsin, the peanut and sorghum harvest in South Carolina. Farmers are cutting corn for silage all across the nation’s midsection, cutting spring oats and wheat in Wyoming, cutting spring barley in California, cutting hay in Alaska, bringing in tobacco throughout the Border States.

Daybook
1983: Mill Habitat: One tall bellflower holds, and some purple-flowered wild lettuce. Spider webs everywhere, the river low and collecting leaves and scum. New wood mint grows back around the tall stems of its July flowers. Dead grass droops over the henbit. Wingstem is strong throughout, clustered snakeroot turning yellow, boneset past its prime, agrimony gone to seed. Touch-me-nots burst when lightly squeezed. Blue jays loud, common.

1985: Wild cherries purple and falling at Clifton.

1986: Robin calls increasing, migratory staccato. Cardinals quiet. Crickets still very loud at night.

1987: Crows in the back trees this morning. Robins give their
clicking, migration song.

1988: First small white asters found at South Glen. Wingstem past its prime, ironweed, oxeye, showy coneflowers still all right.

1989: First beggarticks bloom in the yard; a few last raspberries against the rose of Sharon.

1990: This week the asters have bloomed in the garden, the small
wild ones and the low purple, novi-belgii. The fleabane is lush among the mums. The showy coneflowers are two-thirds gone, the mallow ninety percent. Spiderwort continues. Poppy leaves have been growing back since August. Most yarrow heads are black. No cardinals sang this morning or afternoon. One black woolly bear seen today.

1991: Squirrels and blue jays loud this afternoon.

1992: Crows passed through, stayed in the back locusts for half an hour in the late morning, left for the afternoon; then a flock of about twenty flew over just after eight o'clock this evening. Even more rapid decline now of the coneflowers at the south wall, hardly any left. The very last purple loosestrife today.

1993: At Wilberforce, my ash tree is completely green, having lost its yellow patches! I've never seen it so resilient.

1995: A shower of black walnut leaves this morning brought me a
sequence of impressions that occupied my mind for most of the day. The images included the elm trees outside the window of my boyhood room, my father working in the yard, my mother in the kitchen, the smell of bread baking, the currents of forced air heat, walks to school in the cold, hunting squirrels, feelings of comfort and regret, nostalgia, sadness, contentment. I saw my autobiography in falling leaves: courtships, incidents with friends and lovers, flashes of success and failure, twinges of old restlessness, old longing.

1997: Some of the Queen Anne’s lace leaves have turned dusky red. The achillea of the north garden has died completely back, only a few in bloom, but foliage is returning. Showy coneflowers in the south garden now half gone. Pond plants are deteriorating, and the purple loosestrife is done for the year; the water lettuce has shrunk to maybe a fourth of its summer size, as have the hyacinths. The pickerel plant stopped blooming a month ago; its seeds have fallen into the water, and only half its long stems and leaves remain. The green frog croaked once yesterday or the day before. Now silence.

2000: Screech owl heard in the back woods at 8:17 p.m.

2001: The pieces of autumn continue to fit into place, the growing robin migration, the occasional showers of leaves becoming more frequent, the end of goldenrod season beginning, the particles of second spring (the resurgence of April wildflower foliage) increasing. Each fragment is an increment on the gauge of the year, measuring the relationship of the earth to the sun, and my relationship to the place in which I live. None of the notes or observations is irrelevant; each moment of awareness, like each physical particle observed, is a seasonal cell, similar to a holographic segment, containing the psychic and cosmic whole.

2002: The warm and humid morning silent until 6:48. Then, a blue jay, two minutes later a cardinal.

2003: Monarchs, skippers, and a new generation of cabbage butterflies all day in the garden, but swallowtails have diminished. Goldfinches came to the nodding sunflowers late in the morning, the second day I’ve seen them. Did they come for the sunflowers, or are they on their way south? Three forsythia flowers seen in the front east garden.

2004: One pale goldfinch in the zinnias today.

2005: North on the bike path: Spots of yellow on honeysuckles, black walnut trees and locusts, fallen leaves scattered on the path, powdered by the tires of the bikers. Only a few flowers: a few tall goldenrod, great blue lobelia, orange touch-me-not, white snakeroot. One soybean field completely turned a rich burnt sienna, another field mostly green and gold. Cabbage butterflies throughout the ride, one dark swallowtail, one painted lady. A groundhog was about to cross the way, saw me and retreated. Throughout town, late hostas hold their flowers, white and violet. The cut-back pink spirea continues to bloom in the south garden. The New England aster buds are showing color but are not opening yet.

2006: To Kidron in northeast Ohio today. Goldenrod steadily coming in, and the soybean fields, still so solid green a week or so ago, are starting to turn. Very few Judas maples or other trees changing.

But on the hill the golden-rod, and the aster in the wood,
And the yellow sunflower by the brook in autumn beauty stood…

William Cullen Bryant

September 8th
The 251st Day of the Year

Just think of the illimitable abundance and the marvelous loveliness of light, or of the beauty of the sun and moon and stars.

St. Augustine

Sunrise/set: 7:09/7:56 Day's Length: 12 hours 47 minutes
Average High/Low: 79/58 Average Temperature: 69
Record High: 98 - 1900 Record Low: 42 - 1898

Weather
September 8th is typically a sunny day with only a five to ten percent chance for completely cloudy conditions. Thundershowers, however, occur 30 percent of the time. Today's highs: five percent chance for 90s, forty percent for 80s, fifty percent for 70s, and five percent for 60s. Evening are pleasant, with lows in the 50s half the time, in the 60s the other half.

The Week Ahead
Early fall arrives in Yellow Springs the second week of September. Temperatures, which began to cool at the pivot time of August l0th, decline more noticeably. Average highs fall below 80, and normal nighttime lows move below 60 until the second week of June. Chances for highs in the 90s hold at less than ten percent each day this week, the first time that has happened since the end of May. Highs in the cold 60s occur another ten percent of the time (with the possibility of 50s for the first time since June 4th), with 70s and 80s sharing the remaining 80 percent. The rainiest days this week are historically the 9th and the 12th, each having a 40 percent chance of showers. The other days of the period carry about half those odds. Frost is rare at this stage of September, but chances for a light freeze increase to ten percent on the 13th and 14th as the third high pressure system of the month comes through.

Natural Calendar
Cobwebs are everywhere in the woods, and the number of butterflies swells in the garden: coppers, blues, Monarchs, swallowtails. When the days are cool, the cicadas are quiet. On the colder nights, the katydids refuse to chant and the frogs are silent.

Daybook
1985. Covered Bridge: Monarchs common, grackles in the trees, and crows along the river, cicadas constant. Steady trickle of leaves, some gathering in the backwaters of the quiet river. Most of the sycamore bark has fallen; the trunks are white and slick, ready for winter. Red Virginia creeper outlines some of the trees. Sassafras is weathering to a pale green-gold. Some boneset leaves are brown, willow herb almost gone. First blooms on the swamp beggarticks and zigzag goldenrod. Cobwebs everywhere. Second spring's catchweed blooming. Four huge puffballs found along the hillside on the way to Far Prairie, where the trillium and bluebells were strongest in April. Next year's purple deadnettle is sprouting just off the path. At Wilberforce, leaves are falling from my ash.

1986: Cold morning. Rich late summer scent is gone, replaced by the crisp scent of fall. Robins calling steadily outside the back door.

1987: Box elders browning. Maples deepening. Fogs increasing. Heavy odor of fall, of fallen apples and leaves. Cicadas seem to be gone.

1989: Knotweed done along the roadsides. Goldenrod still early full.

1991: Bittersweet on sale at the nursery; and I cut some orange berry clusters from a vine along Jacoby Road. Twelve sparrows at the bird bath all at once today. Three robins later in the evening. Geese fly over at 7:31 p.m.

1993: No robins these quiet mornings. The drought has sent them away. Finally the last balloon flower wilts, its season of one or two blooms ending after weeks of fragile survival. Mimosa tree done blooming at Wilberforce, probably complete near the end of August. Autumn crocus noticed full bloom in front of the brown house across the street.

1996: This is the second week of early fall. There is no longer any question late summer is gone. The number of trees turning and the number of colors in the canopy have increased day by day since the end of August, the steady accumulation of change actually countable.
On August 27th, I went out into back yard and saw one large yellow mulberry leaf on the grass, the first of the season. The next day, there were two, the next day none, the next day three, and now there are new mulberry leaves every morning, so many I have stopped counting.

1997: The first New England aster opened today along the south border.

1999: On the way to the back shed, I walked through my first flurry of box elder leaves this morning.

2000: Autumn crocus full bloom across the street. Another spider in the bathroom.

2001: Katydids chanting until about 5:30 (EDT) this morning. Cardinal sang briefly at 6:57. Almost all the coneflowers – purple cones and summer Susans – gone. A little more yellow seen in the cottonwoods along the way to Columbus.

2002: Cardinal at 6:55 a.m., blue jay at 7:15. Stillness and heat. Whenever there was a slight breeze: showers of locust leaves. Another perfect butterfly day: dozens of skippers, cabbage moths, several Monarchs, four spicebush swallowtails, one tiger swallowtail. Virgin’s bower started to blossom (its first year) on the trellis. The violet aster hybridium reached early bloom, as did the New England asters.

2003: Monarchs and cabbage butterflies common today. Finches came to the sunflowers again.

2004: Hurricane Frances brought light rain all day, its giant anticyclone spinning lazily up the Appalachians.

2005: Tropical storm Ophelia threatens the east coast of Florida today. Last of the peaches brought in at home.

2006: Crickets and katydids were singing at 2:00 a.m. (EST). Screech owl woke me up at 4:30. In the woods with Bella this morning: the wingstem was maybe a third completed, and many plants in the shade were falling over into the path, too stalky perhaps from the canopy. No robin calls. At home, sitting on the porch, I heard cicadas and saw one monarch on the ironweed (monarchs have been abundant so far this fall), but the small fold-wing butterflies no longer play in the sun. Ironweed is beginning to go to seed along the north wall. In the pond, one arrowhead flower remains. Only a few Shasta daisies and black-eyed Susans are left, but the Royal Standard hostas are still in full bloom. All the peaches are down.

2007: Three New England asters now open along the garden wall, the virgin’s bower reaching early full flower. Three of Mateo’s small white asters have blossomed overnight. Tall goldenrod is in full bloom. Great ragweed lost its pollen in the rain last night. Thin-leafed coneflowers are making a swift decline. A squirrel chattered in the trees late this morning as we sat out with our tea. Tropical storm Gabrielle moves toward the Outer Banks. This afternoon, riding to Springfield, I noticed how much ochre had appeared in the box elders and the cottonwoods. A few maples had turned, and one cottonwood was almost bare.

The humming bee fans off a shower of gold
From the mullein’s long rod as it sways,
and dry grow the leaves which protecting infold
the ears of the well-ripened maize.

William W. Fosdick